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The parish and the poor in Florence at the time of the Black Death: the case of S. Frediano

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

ENDNOTES

1 Some of the best and more recent studies on these charitable institutions include: Pullan, B., Rich and poor in Renaissance Venice. The social institutions of a Catholic State to 1620 (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar; Mackenney, R., Tradesmen and traders: the world of the guilds in Venice and Europe, c. 1250–c. 1650 (London and Sydney, 1987)Google Scholar; de La Roncière, C. M., ‘Pauvres et pauvreté à Florence aux XIVe siècle’, in Mollat, M., ed., Etudes sur l'histoire de la pauvreté 2 vols. (Paris, 1974) 661745Google Scholar; Fiorani, L., ed., Le confraternite romane: esperienza religiosa, società, committenza artistica. Ricerche per la storia religiosa di Roma, 5 (1984)Google Scholar; Marz, L., Poverty and welfare in Habsburg Spain. The example of Toledo (Cambridge, 1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar On the Low Countries see the general introduction by Lis, C. and Soly, H., Poverty and capitalism in pre-industrial Europe, 1350–1850 (Sussex, 1979 ed.)Google Scholar, and Bonenfant, P., ‘Les origines et la charactère de la reforme de la bienfaisance publique aux Pays-Bas sous le règne de Charles-Quint, in Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 6 (1927), 208–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Tits-Dieuaide, M.-J., ‘Les tables des pauvres dans les anciennes principautés belges au moyen-âge’, in Tijdschrift voor Geschiendenis 88 (1975), 562–83.Google Scholar There have been a large number of French students of charity, many of whom are represented in the collection of essays: Mollat, ed., Etudes. See also Gonthier, N., Lyon et ses pauvres au moyen-âge (1350–1500) (Lyon, 1978)Google Scholar; Gutton, J.-P., La société et les pauvres: l'example de la géneralité de Lyon, 1534–1789 (Paris, 1971)Google Scholar; Davis, N. Z., Society and culture in early modern France (London, 1975), ch. 2Google Scholar, and Segalen, M., Les confrèries dans la France contemporaine. Les Charités (Paris, 1975).Google Scholar On the company of Orsanmichele see de La Roncière, ‘Pauvres et pauvreté’, 717, 679, 691 n. 55.

2 Recent studies of Italian neighbourhoods include: on Florence: Cohn, S. K., The laboring classes of renaissance Florence (New York, London, 1980)Google Scholar; D. V., and Kent, F. W., Neighbours and neighbourhood in renaissance Florence: the district of the Red Lion in the fifteenth century (New York, 1982)Google Scholar; Klapisch-Zuber, C., ‘Kins, friends and neighbors: the urban territory of a merchant family in 1400’, in Women, family and ritual in renaissance Italy (Chicago, 1985), 6893Google Scholar; on Hughes, Genoa D. O., ‘Kinsmen and Neighbors’ in Miskimin, H. A., Herlihy, D., Udovitch, A. L., eds., The medieval city. Essays in honor of Robert S. Lopez (New Haven, London, 1977), 95112Google Scholar; and on Venice Romano, D., ‘Charity and community in early renaissance VeniceJournal of Urban History 11 (1984), 6381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 In general on the church in late-medieval Italy see Miccoli, G., ‘La storia religiosa’ in Storia d'Italia dalla caduta dell'Impero romano al secolo XVIII (Turin, 1974) 2 4311079Google Scholar, and Hay, D., The Church in Italy in the fifteenth century (Cambridge, 1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar The few studies of the Italian parish are summarised in Coste, J., ‘L'institution paroissiale à la fin du moyen-âge. Approche bibliographique en vue d'enquêtes possibles’, Mélanges de l'école française de Rome, moyen-âge temps modernes 96 (1984) 295326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For Tuscany see Nanni, L.. La parrocchia studiata nei documenti Lucchese dei secoli VIII–XIII, in Analecta Gregoriana 47 (Rome, 1948)Google Scholar, and de La Roncière, C. M., ‘Les communautés chrétiennes et leurs curés’, in Delumeau, J. ed., Histoire vécue du peuple chrétien 2 vols., (Toulouse, 1979) 1 281314Google Scholar, and Ronzani, M.,‘L'organizzazione della cura d'anime nella città di Pisa (secoli XII-XIII), in Whickham, C., Ronzani, M., Milo, Y., Spicciani, A. eds., Istituzioni ecclesiastiche della Toscana medioevale (Pisa, 1980) 3585.Google Scholar

4 Tierney, B., Medieval Poor Law. A sketch of canonical theory and its application in England (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1959) 6770, in practice this later became a third: 73.Google Scholar

5 Tierney, , Medieval Poor Law, 71–3, 84–5.Google Scholar

6 Tierney, , Medieval Poor Law, 97.Google Scholar See also Rubin, M., Charity and community in medieval Cambridge (Cambridge, 1987), 237–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Brucker, G. A., ‘Urban parishes and their clergy in Quattrocento Florence: a preliminary sondage’, in Renaissance studies in honor of Craig Hugh Smyth (Florence, 1985) 18.Google Scholar

8 D. V., and Kent, F. W., Neighbours and neighbourhood, 135.Google Scholar On the duties of the parish priest see Trexler, R. C., Synodal law in Florence and Fiesole, 1306–1518 (Città del Vaticano, 1971) 4858Google Scholar, and in general Fliche, A., Martin, V., Histoire de l'église depuis les origines jusqu' à nos jours (Paris, 1964) 12, 406–07.Google Scholar

9 Kents, , Neighbours and neighbourhood, 132.Google Scholar

10 Davidsohn, R., Storia di Firenze, trans. Dupré-Theseider, E. (Florence, 1977 ed.) 5 228–29, 276302, 306Google Scholar; for a similar role of the Venetian and Milanese parishes see Romano, , ‘Charity and community‘, 64, and Storia di Milano (Milan, 1961) 9, 668–69.Google Scholar

11 Bossy, J., Christianity in the West, 1400–1700 (Oxford, 1985) 63.Google Scholar

12 Adam, P., La vie paroissiale en France au XIVe siècle (Paris, 1964) 15, 6773Google Scholar; Galpern, N., The religion of the people in sixteenth-century Champagne (Cambridge, Mass., London, 1976)Google Scholar; Barren, C. M., ‘The parish fraternities of medieval London’, Barron, C. M., Harper-Bill, C., ed., Essays in honour of F. R. H. Du Boulay (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1985) 1337, esp. 13–14Google Scholar; Rubin, M., Charity and community, 250–59.Google Scholar

13 Owen, D. M., Church and society in medieval Lincolnshire (Lincoln, 1971) 127Google Scholar; Roncière, C. de La, ‘La place des confrèries dans l'encadrement religieux du contado florentin: L'example de la Val d'Elsa’, M.E.F.R.M. 85 (1973), 55.Google Scholar See in general for relations between confraternities and the Florentine Church: Henderson, J., ‘Confraternities and the Church in late-medieval Florence’ in Studies in Church History 23 (1986) 6983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 See Adam, P.. La vie paroissiale, 68–9Google Scholar; Galpern, , The religion 52–9.Google Scholar

15 Weissman, R. F. W., Ritual brotherhood in renaissance Florence (New York, London, 1983) 6674Google Scholar; R. Mackenney, Tradesmen and traders. In order to avoid confusion I have used the term ‘fraternity’ throughout this paper. It should be noted, however, that Italian historians tend to use the word ‘confraternity’ more frequently than their English colleagues. This may stem from the fact that in England fewer of these associations met on the premises of Mendicant churches, where they could be seen as being in a relationship of ‘confraternity’ with their host friars.

16 Roncière, De La, ‘La place des confrèries’, 52–5.Google Scholar

17 On which see Henderson, J., ‘Charity in late medieval Florence: the role of the religious confraternities’, in Florence-Milan. Comparisons and Contrasts 2 (Florence, 1988).Google Scholar

18 The most important fraternities in these churches in the first half of the fourteenth century were the compagnia di S. Maria delle laude di S. Maria del Carmine detta di S. Agnese and the compagnia di S. Maria delle laude e S. Spirito detta del Piccione. On the first see Schiaffini, A., ‘Libro degli ordinamenti della compagnia di S. Maria del Carmine’, Testi fiorentini del duecento e dei primi del trecento (Florence, 1926) ch. LXXIII, 70Google Scholar, and the records in Compagnie Religiose Soppresse (hereafter CRS), Compagnia di S.Maria delle laude detta di S. Agnese; on the second see the records in CRS, Compagnia di S. Maria delle laude e S. Spirito.

19 On the church of S. Frediano see , W. and Paatz, E., Die Kirchen von Florenz (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1955) 2 138–44.Google Scholar This custom dated from the testament of Frate Giovanni Lozzi who left to the company a bequest of Lire 2 a year with the obligation that ‘La prima domenica dopo el di di S. Friano far cantare le laude nella chiesa di S. Friano con una vigilia per l'anima di Giovanni. Essi di poi aggiunto per consuetudine di detta di dare le bruciate’: Acquisti e Doni, Acquisto 41, fo 3r.

20 In 1343 the Florentine régime changed the main administrative divisions from sixths (sesti) to quarters: Cronica di Giovanni Villani a miglior lezione ridotta (Florence, 1823) 12, 18Google Scholar, and Repetti, E., Compendio storico della città di Firenze (Florence, 1849), xiii.Google Scholar On the role of the Gonfalone or ward see Kents, , Neighbours and neighbourhoods, 1347Google Scholar, and on the number of parishes in the fourteenth century see both Davidsohn, , Storia 5, 279Google Scholar, and Cohn, S. K., The laboring classes, 30Google Scholar; also Brucker, , ‘Urban Parishes’, 17.Google Scholar The approximate boundaries of the parish of S. Frediano are indicated in the fraternity's 1324 statutes: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (hereafter BNF), Palatine 154, fo 4v on the election of officials: ‘De quali ne sono tre del tertiere del Fondaccio, et tre di quelli della Cochula et tre di quelli di Borgo…’. See also the Stradario storico e amministrativo della città del comune di Firenze (Florence, 1913), which gives parochial jurisdictions for each street in the city.Google Scholar

21 Sznura, F., L'espansione urbana di Firenze nel dugento (Florence, 1975) 120–30.Google Scholar

22 Cohn, The laboring classes, ch. 4.

23 Roncière, De La, ‘Pauvres et pauvreté’, 666–69Google Scholar on immigration to Florence from the contado.

24 Herlihy, D., Klapisch-Zuber, C., Les toscans et leurs familles. Une étude du catasto florentin de 1427 (Paris, 1978) 123: Table 7, 183: Table 16, 176–77.Google Scholar

25 Sznura, , L'espansione urbana, 121Google Scholar: ‘homines de Sancto Fridiano’.

26 Paatz, , Die Kirchen von Florenz, 2, 139.Google Scholar

27 As in their 1324 statutes, fo 1r: ‘Questi sono statuti e capitoli della compagnia di Messer Santo Fridiano di Firenze, facti e ordinati…a onore e riverenzia del nostro padre spirituale Messer lo Vescovo di Firenze e del suo capitolo, et a mantenimento della chiesa di Santo Fridiano, e di Messer lo Priore di San Friano e del suo capitolo…’

28 BNF Palatino 154, fos 7r-v: ‘e cosi approvati electi furono nella decta chiesa nel corpo della compagnia, presente Messer Ghino de' Visdomini Priore della decta chiesa di S. Friano, del suo capitolo, e degli uomini e donne del popolo di S. Friano, i quali erano ivi presente alla messa, ciò fue il die dela Pasqua di Natale [alla] messa maggiore nel decto anno decto milletrecentoventitre, per lo decto Priore e suo capitolo e uomini tucti e donne ivi presenti approvati e confermati’.

29 Pinto, G.. Il libra del biadaiolo. Carestie e annona a Firenze dalla metà del '200 al 1348 (Florence, 1978) 90, 120Google Scholar; Roncière, C. de La, Florence, centre économique regional au XIVe siècle (Aix-en-Provence, 1976) 4, 201.Google Scholar

30 CRS, compagnia di S. Frediano delta la Bruciata 28, fo 1r: ‘poveri e morti del detto popolo’.

31 BNF Palatino 154, fo 6v.

32 Ibid., ch. v, vi: fos 2r-v; Roncière, de La, Florence, centre economique 4, 244–45.Google Scholar

33 Henderson, J., ‘Religious confraternities and death in early renaissance Florence’, paper delivered at the 22nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, 1987, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo (forthcoming, 1988).Google Scholar

34 Marchione di Coppo Stefani, Cronica fiorentina, Rodolico, N., ed., (Città di Castello, 1903) Rerum Italicarum Scriptores n.s. 30 (1) 634.Google Scholar

35 Simonini, R., ‘II codice di Mariano di Ser Jacopo sopra “rimedi abili nel tempo di pestilenza”’, Bollettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano dell' Arte Sanitaria 9 (1929), 165.Google Scholar

36 BNF Palatino 154, ch. v, fo 2r: ‘E intendasi di fare la detta ispesa a tucti i poveri che morissono nel popolo di San Fridiano….’

37 The company's burial register is in CRS, Compagnia di S. Frediano 125, although see also the contemporary account book: CRS, S. Frediano 29, fos 57v, 67v, 76r-v, 81r-82r for payments to the grave-diggers between 1340 and 1348.

38 In general, see Corradi, A., Annali delle epidemie occorse in Italia dalle prime memoire fino al 1850 (Bologna, 18651894) 4, 473–95.Google Scholar

39 CRS, Compagnia di S. Frediano 29, fo 81ar: ‘Francescho bechamorto de avere a di XXVII d'aprile [1348] per XII morti grandi e V picchioli L.I 17s 6d picchioli’; fo 82r: ‘Domenicho Lapi bechamorto de avere a di XVIII di maggio [1348] per XXXVIII morti grandi e VII picholi L.5 picchioli’.

40 Cronica di Giovanni Villani, 11, 144Google Scholar and for outside Florence see Corradi, A., Annali 1 474–76.Google Scholar

41 Calculated from ‘Nomi di Uomini e di Donne seppelliti in S. Maria Novella’, in I. di Luigi, San, Delizie degli eruditi toscani (Florence, 1777) 9 123203.Google Scholar The only other Florentine mortality data for this period is the burial register of the friars of Novella, S. Maria in Orlandi, S., Necrologio di S. Maria Novella (Florence, 1955), 2 volsGoogle Scholar. For comparative data on the Dominicans in Siena see Panta, L. del, Le epidemie nella storia demografica italiana (secoli XIV-XIX) (Turin, 1980) 106, 109.Google Scholar

42 L'Anonimo fiorentino in Corradi, , Annali, 1, 474–75.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., 474.

44 Cronica di Giovanni Villani, 11, 114Google Scholar, Cf. Klapisch, Herlihy, Les toscans, 173–74.Google Scholar

45 Brunetti, M., ‘Venezia durante la peste del 1348’, in L' Ateneo Veneto, 32 (1909) 1Google Scholar, fasc. 3, 291–92, n. 2.

46 Chiappelli, A., ‘Gli ordinamenti sanitari del comune di Pistoia contro la pestilenza del 1348’, in Archivio storico italiano, 20 (1887), 21.Google Scholar

47 On the Misericordia see Torricelli, C., Pegna, M. Lopes, Danti, M., Checcucci, O., eds, La Misericordia di Firenze attraverso i secoli. Note storiche, (Florence, 1975), 30–1Google Scholar; on the important role of the Misericordia during the epidemics of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries see Henderson, J. ‘Epidemie nella Firenze del rinascimento: teoria sanitaria e provvedimenti governativi.’ in Pastore, A., Sorcinelli, P., eds, Sanità e società. Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Marche, Umbria, Lazio: Secoli XVI–XX (Udine, 1987) 3964.Google Scholar

48 Klapisch, Herlihy, Les toscans, 449.Google Scholar See below for an example: n. 71.

49 Roncière, De La, ‘Pauvres et pauvreté’, 669–71, 691.Google Scholar

50 On the ‘Books of the Dead’ see Klapisch, Herlihy, Les toscans, 446–53Google Scholar, and Carmichael, A. G., Plague and the poor in renaissance Florence (Cambridge, 1986) 2735.Google Scholar

51 CRS, Compagnia di S. Frediano 125, fo 2v: ‘uno fanciullo povero da Chamaldoli mori a dì i di gennaio [1340], fornillo la compagnia per amore di Dio’; fo 8v: ‘uno uomo vecchio atratto nele chase di preti, mori adi xxvi di marzo [1341], sotterrollo la conpangnia per amore di Dio’.

52 Cronica di Giovanni Villani, 12, 73.Google Scholar On the famine see also Pinto, G., ‘Firenze e la carestia del 1346–47. Aspetti e problemi delle crisi annonarie alla metà del '300’, Archivio storico italiano 130 (1972) 384Google Scholar, and on Orsanmichele's role in 1347: Henderson, J. S., ‘Piety and charity in late-medieval Florence. Religious confraternities from the middle of the thirteenth century to the late fifteenth century’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1983), 168–73.Google Scholar

53 Orlandi, Necrologio 1, only two friars died during the first six months of 1347 when the famine was at its worst.

54 Cronica di Giovanni Villani 12, 84.Google Scholar

55 Carmichael, , Plague and the poor, 46–9.Google Scholar

56 CRS, S. Frediano 29, fos 81r–82r.

57 Carmichael, , Plague and the poor, 73–7. I am grateful to Franek Sznura for helping me to identify the possible location of Via S. Stefano.Google Scholar

58 CRS, Compagnia di S. Frediano 125, fo. 4r: ‘Uno homo povero mori i[n] su ponte a di viii d'aprile [1340] fornilo la chonpagnia…per amore di Dio’.

59 Ibid. fo. 13r: ‘Uno fanciullo mori dirinpetto al orto di S. Spirito, sotterò la compagnia per l'amore di Dio’; fo. 14r: ‘Uno fanciullo mori ale fornaci del Carmine adi xxiii di maggio [1347], sotterollo la conpagnia per amore di Dio’.

60 In 1347 Orsanmichele helped abandoned children. See, for example, CRS, Capitani di Orsanmichele 245 under 9 June: ‘Al ospedale dela Schala per ricevere un fanciullo gittato, soldi 5’. See Klapisch, Herlihy, Les toscans, 160, 331, 338–40Google Scholar, and Trexler, R. C., ‘The Foundings of Florence, 1395–1455’, History of Childhood Quarterly. The Journal of Psychohistory, 1 (19731974), 259–84.Google Scholar

61 CRS Compagnia di S. Frediano, fo 127r: ‘a fanciulli che rimassono di Bartollommeo bottaio soldi V’.

62 CRS Compagnia di S. Frediano 30.

63 BNF Palatino 154, fo 8v; cf. CRS Compagnia di S. Frediano 30, fos 81r-v, for January to June 1362.

64 BNF Palatino 154, fo 8v: ‘Anche che tucti huomini del Ghonfalone del Dragho Verde quartiere di Santo Spirito, cioè del popolo di Santo Friano e di Santa Maria a Verzaia che stieno dentro ale mura, e quali sieno scricti nella nostra compagnia possino essere capitani della nostra compania e a ogni altro uficio… e altrimenti non possino avere uficio.’

65 See Henderson, ,‘Piety and charity’, 206–13, 221–26 on charity to women after the Black Death.Google Scholar The problems over restitution of dowries are discussed by: C. Klapisch-Zuber, Women, family and ritual, ch. 10, and Kuehn, T., ‘Some ambiguities of female inheritance ideology in the Renaissance’, Continuity and Change 1 (1987) 1136CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the article by I. Chabot in this volume.

66 For salaries see Roncière, C. de La, Florence centre économique regional au XIVe siècle. Le marché des denrées de première necessité à Florence et dans sa campagne et les conditions de vie des salariés (1320–1380) (Aix-en-Provence, 1976) 1 295, 344–45, 371.Google Scholar

67 On subsequent epidemics see Klapisch, Herlihy, Les toscans, 191.Google Scholar

68 Stefani, , Cronica, 643Google Scholar:‘Moltissimi morieno senza esser veduti, che stavano in sullo letto tanto che puzzavano. E la vicinanza, se v'era, sentito lo puzzo, mettevono per borsa, e lo mandavano a seppellire’.

69 Brunetti, , ‘Venezia durante la peste’, 292–93Google Scholar; Albini, G., Guerra, fame, peste. Crisi di mortalità e sistema sanitario nella Lombardia tardomedioevale (Bologna, 1982) 84–5.Google Scholar

70 Kents, , Neighbours and neighbourhood, 139 n. 40Google Scholar: ‘perché sono nuovi qui’.

71 See, for example, Grascia, Libro de' Morti 2, fo 3r: ‘Albanetto Biffolo del popolo di Sam Piero Magiore del Quartieri di Sam Zohanni morio a dì iiii di marzo [1408]. E riponsi ala detta chiesa di Sam Piero a hore xxiii adì v. Denunciato et interrato per Tomaso di Raimondo Bechamorto’.

72 Trexler, , Synodal law, 71–2.Google Scholar

73 Davidsohn, , Storia, 7 707–08Google Scholar, and for Milan see Storia di Milano (Milan, 1961) 9 668.Google Scholar

74 ‘II Decameron’ in Boccaccio, Giovanni, Tutte le opere, ed. Branca, V. (Brescia, 1969), 79.Google Scholar See the 1375 reforms to the statutes of the Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries in which the consuls seek to control the ‘immeasurable extortions which are continuously made by the gravediggers’: Ciasca, R., ed., Statuti dell'arte de'medici e speziali (Florence, 1922), 286.Google Scholar

75 Ciasca, , ed., Statuti, 292.Google Scholar

76 Grascia, , ‘Libro de' Morti’ 2Google Scholar: ‘Decessit Mona Lecta quondam domina Salvecti, popoli Sancti Jacobi inter Foucas, quartiere Sancte Crucis, sepulta fuit ad Sancta Crucem pro dominum Fortini; est pauper’. Cf. Carmichael, , Plague and the poor, 2830.Google Scholar

77 Except for the article mentioned above: Romano, ‘Charity and Community’.

78 See Prete, L. da, ed., Capitoli della Compagnia della Madonna d'Orsanmichele del secoli XIII e XIV (Lucca, 1859), 27Google Scholar: ch. XXIII of the 1333 statutes:‘Una volta I'anno si faccia limosina generale…La quale si parta per sesti e per popoli’.

79 CRS, Capitani di Orsanmichele 244.

80 Ibid., fos 1r–7r.

81 Cited by Battaglia, S. in Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana (Turin, 1984) 12 241–43 in his discussion of the term oste.Google Scholar

82 CRS, Capitani di Orsanmichele 244, fo 3r: ‘A Monna Giovanna oste [di] Monna Gemma di Borgho San Friano soldi iiii’: 6 March 1347.

83 Cf. Roncière, de La, ‘Pauvres et pauvreté’, 692–95.Google Scholar

84 CRS, Capitani di Orsanmichele 245, fo 3v: 2 June 1347: ‘A Monna Giovanna, oste [di] Frate Piero in decta via [Via S. Giovanni in S. Pier Gattolino] in parto soldi V; ‘A Monna Bicie oste decto soldi V’. See Chabot, ‘Poverty and Widowhood’ (in this volume).

85 Orsanmichele's register for March 1347 lists a large number of people receiving aid who had come into the city from the countryside: OSM 244.

86 Klapisch, Herlihy, Les toscans, 262.Google Scholar

87 Klapisch, ‘Kin, friends and neighbours’.

88 On Orsanmichele see Henderson, ‘Piety and charity’, ch. 6; on the Orbatello: Passerini, L., Storia, 639–48Google Scholar, Trexler, R. C., ‘A widow's asylum of the Renaissance: the Orbatello of Florence’ in Stearns, P. N., ed., Old age in pre-industrial society (New York, 1982), 119–49Google Scholar; on the Dowry Fund see the series of articles by Kirschner, J. and Molho, A., but especially ‘The dowry fund and the marriage market in early Quattrocento Florence’, in Journal of Modern History 50 (1978) 403–38Google Scholar; and on the Innocenti, Trexler, ‘The foundings of Florence’.

89 Outlined in the company's 1584 statutes in Acquisti e Doni, Acquisto 44, fos 37r, 41v–42r.

90 Acquisti e Doni, Acquisto 45, fos 1r–2v.

91 Ibid., fos 26r, 37r–43r; true also of the poor who received alms at Christmas and Easter: fos 40r–41r.

92 1488 statutes of the company of CRS Compagnia di S. Frediano 1, fos 8v–9r: ch. xv.

93 See Cohn, The laboring classes; Romano, , ‘Charity and community’, 70–1Google Scholar; and McIntosh in this volume.

94 Henderson, , ‘Piety and charity’, 5865.Google Scholar Their account books between 1365 and 1478 indicate that expenditure declined from L. 52 to L. 39 between 1365 and 1427, but rose to L. 300 in 1478.

95 Henderson, , ‘Piety and charity’, 128.Google Scholar

96 On parish fraternities in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Florence see Weissman, , Ritual brotherhood, 66–7, 205–20.Google Scholar

97 On Potenze see Trexler, R. C., Public life in renaissance Florence (New York, London, 1980) 400–17, 510–15.Google Scholar