Society: Identities
Florence and Venice in the Renaissance
2
What factors influence a person’s
identity and sense of place in society?
How far are they determined by the
state, the law, cultural and social
norms?
Marin Sanudo on Venetian Society (late 15th century):
“There are three orders of inhabitants: the
patricians who govern the city and the
Republic ..., the citizens, and artisans, or the
lower class”
c. 4% of population,
defined by the Serrata
equality or oligarchy?
competition from
below
1506 Libro d’oro
Patricians
5-8% of population
Cittadini originarii
3 generations
resident, no manual
trade
Libro d’argento
de intus (15 years); de
intus et extra (25
years)Tintoretto, Andrea
Frizier, Grand Chancellor of Venice (C16th)
c. 90% of
population
Many foreign born
Belonged to
guilds,
confraternities,
parishes
8
Florence
core of elite families
popolo (grasso)
popolo minuto
increasing stratification
9
Gender influence of the Church
reinforced by law
patriarchal structure of
household and state
Joan Kelley: “Women did
not have a Renaissance, at
least, not in the
Renaissance”
Elite Women
preserving lineage
married young
economic
transaction
chastity
11
Dianne Owen Hughes: “The conduct of wives
and daughters was not a private matter. Men
supervised it closely precisely because a
woman’s private shame, which might make her
a public woman, could destroy a man’s public
honour.”
12
Andrea del Verrocchio, The Death of Francesca Pitti Tornabuoni after Childbirth,
C15th
13
1416 Francesco Barbaro: “what is the
use of bringing home great wealth
unless the wife will work at
preserving, maintaining and utilizing
it ... [she should] imitate the leaders
of bees, who supervise, receive and
preserve whatever comes into their
hives, to the end that, unless
necessity dictates otherwise, they
remain in their honeycombs, where
they develop and mature beautifully.”
14
Widows
Caught between natal
and marital families
financial power?
testamentary
bequests
informal sottogoverno
Alessandra Strozzi
15
State intervention
private affairs =
public importance
problem of rising
dowries
Florentine monte
delle doti 1425
16
Nuns
� Forced monacation
� Restrictions or opportunities?
Francesco Guardi, The Convent of San Zaccharia, 1745
17
Arcangela Tarabotti (1604-52), author of Paternal Tyranny
Lower Class Women
freer to move, marry,
work
role in the bottega
low-level professions
vulnerability
19
The ospedale degli innocenti in Florence
Masculine Identity
21
Foreigners
� Expanding population
� Openness to foreigners
� Economic
considerations
� Times of crisis
� 1516 creation of Ghetto
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