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Tuscan Names, 1200-1530

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

David Herlihy
David Herlihy*
Affiliation:
Brown University
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Extract

“A name,” Bernardine of Siena declares, “is a famosa notitia,“ a public statement.’ In this paper I review the stock of personal names, and, implicitly, the public statements, associated with the men of women of Florence and of Tuscany, between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The justifications for this enterprise are two. The surviving sources give overwhelming attention to the rich and powerful; they pay little heed to the poor and lowly. Inevitably, they yield an unbalanced view of Tuscan society. But if in most respects the humble are voiceless, they do bear personal names; they do make, in Bernardine's phrase, public statements.

Moreover, as Bernardine implies, a name is far more than a bland identifier. It is rather a pointer, that directs our gaze in three directions. Its principal and unvarying function is to identify a particular man or woman. It bestows individuality; it ensouls. But names may also recall the past; often, they convert living persons into memorials to the dead.

Type
From the National Conference of 1988
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , Winter 1988 , pp. 561 - 582
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1988

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References

1 “Per nomen famosa notitia designator.” S. Bernardini senensis ordinisfratrum minorum Opera omnia, 4 (Florence, 1956): 514.

2 The oath, dated June 1-4 and now preserved at Bologna, was published in The liber censuum comunis Pistorii, ed. Quinto Santoli, Fonti storiche pistoiesi, 1 (Pistoia, 1915) 509-27.

3 Liber focorum districtus Pistorii (a. 1226). Liber finium districtus Pistorii a. 1255), ed. Quinto Santoli, Fonti per la storia d'ltalia, 91 (Rome, 1955). The date of 1226 which Santoli applied to the survey is surely wrong. For the date of 1244, see Herlihy, David, Medieval and Renaissance Pistoia (New Haven, Conn.-London, 1968) 61–62 Google Scholar.

4 Studi diantroponomiafiorentina: II Libro di Montaperti (an. mcclx) (Göteburg, 1953) and Nuovi studi di antroponima florentina: i nomi menofrequenti del libro di Montaperti (an. mcclx), Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 61 (Stockholm, 1955). The Libro di Montaperti includes besides the muster of the army many administrative directives, grain requisitions, and the like. Bratto collected names from all these and other records, to arrive at a total of 6,203. The soldiers mustered seem to be only 1954. This latter set of names, drawn out of the same example, I use here to determine frequencies.

5 Herlihy, David and Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane, Tuscans and Their Families: A Study of the Florentine Catasto of 1427 (New Haven, Conn., 1985).Google Scholar

6 I would like to thank my son Gregory P. Herlihy, who analyzed the data through a data management system called The Fourth Dimension.

7 For example, should the one citizen called Cuidetto be Guidetto?

8 The males taking the oath in 1219 are 3,190, the male household heads in 1427, 918.

9 Liber focorum 71, Bernardus quondam Nome.

10 Summa theologica, III. 37.2. Opera omnia, 11 (Rome, 1903): 377: “Respondeo dicendum quod nomina debent proprietatibus rerum respondere. Et hoc patet in nominibus generum et speciarum.“

11 Opera omnia, 4: 496: “Hoc siqudem solummodo vere nominatur cuius natura vere per nomen exprimitur; unde, Gen. 2,20, Adam omnes res nominavit, quia omnium rerum naturas novit.“

12 “Nomina enim imponuntur rebus secundum proprietatem earum.” Summa theologica, III.37.2. Opera omnia, 11 (Rome, 1903): 377.

13 Ibid. “Nomina autem singularium hominum semper inponantur ab aliqua proprietate eius cui nomen imponitur.“

14 Ibid. “Vel a tempore, sicut imponuntur nomina aliquorum Sanctorum his qui in eorum festis nascuntur.“

15 The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine, trans. Williamson, G. A. (Baltimore, 1965) 311 Google Scholar.

16 Salimbene, , Cronica, ed. Bernini, Ferdinando (2 vols.; Bari, 1942) 1: 344Google Scholar.

17 They are Adamo, Alissandro, Ambrogio, Anastasio, Andrea, Anselmo, Antone, Bartolomeo, Benedetto, Bernardo, Bonifazio, Cristofano, Dainisio, Dainele, Domenico, Filippo, Galgano, Giovanni, Giuliano, Gregorio, Isaac, Lazaro, Leonardo, Leone, Marco, Marsilio, Matteo, Michele, Miniato, Niccolaio, Paolo, Piero, Salamone, Salvestro, Simone, Stefano, Tommaso, Vincenzo and Vittorio.

18 Pisano (2), Bologno (1), Modenese (1), Parmisano (1), Milano (5), Milanese (4), Pavese (3), Genovese (3), Veronese (3), Trivisano (1) and Veneto (2).

19 Liberjocorum 183.

20 Ibid. 238.

21 Ibid. 189.

22 Summa theologica (Verona, 1740), III, col. 1587,”… quiainmajorivenerationeest corpus ejus quam alicuius apostoli.“

23 See Herlihy, Pistoia 254.

24 Liber focorum 187, Roncivallis de Campillio.

25 “Once each in 1219. Liber focorum 47, Spagna, and 134, Spagnus.

26 The names and appearances are Iacopo (163), Guido (70), and Giovanni (61).

27 'Summa theologica, III. 37.2; Opera omnia, 11 (Rome, 1903): 377: “Veletiamexaliqua qualitate eius cui nomen imponitur.“

28 Ibid. “Vel a cognatione: sicut cum filio imponitur nomen patris vel alicuis de cognatione ejus.“

29 See the comments on “remaking” a name by Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, “The Name ‘Remade': The Transmission of Given Name in Florence in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,” in the collection of essays by the same author, Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, trans. Cochrane, Lydia G. (Chicago and London, 1985) 283–309 Google Scholar. See also idem, “Constitution et variations temporelles des stocks de prénoms,” Le prénoms: Mode et histoire. Entretiens de Malher, 1980, ed. Jacques Dupâquier, Alain Bideau, and Marie-Elizabeth Ducreux (Paris, 1984) 37-47; “Compérage et clientélisme à Florence (1360-1520),” Ricerche Storiche 15 (1985): 51-76.

30 Liber Gomorrhianus. Book of Gomorrah. An Eleventh Century Treatise against Clerical Homosexual Practices, trans. Payer, Pierre J. (Waterloo, Ontario, 1982) 84–85.Google Scholar

31 Words of Bernardo Lanciani in 1469-1470, cited in Klapisch-Zuber, “The Name ‘Remade’ “ 300 n. 40. But was the hope to remake (rifare) the name or, somehow, the person?

32 Cited in Gérard Delille, Famille et proprie'te'dans le Royaume de Naples (XVe-XIXe siècle), Bibliothéque des Ecoles Francaises d'Athénes et de Rome, 259 (Rome-Paris, 1985) 309-10.

33 Cronica, ed. Bernini, Ferdinando (2 vols; Bari, 1942) 1: 53.Google Scholar

34 Vita Fr. Raimundo Capuano, Acta Sanctorum, III Aprilis, 869: “Ego autem puto, quod infans haec in suis locutionibus infantilibus utebatur quandoque quibusdam vocabulis, quae appropinquabant vel concordabant cum hoc vocabulo Euphrosyna, et idcirco quasi eius verbula repetentes, ipsam sic nominabant.“

35 The estimate comes from Brattö, Nuovi studi 7; names with five or more appearances represent by his count 17.9 percent of all names.

36 The rank and appearances are as follows: Antonio (4767), Giovanni (3144), Piero (2711), Nanni (2352), Domenico (2081), Iacopo (1707), Francesco (1442), Bartolomeo (1374), Michele (1241), Andrea (1223), Matteo (1146), Cecco (1034), Niccolo (933), Meo (913), and Agnolo (883), adding up to 50.51 percent of the Catasto's male household heads.

37 They are Caterina (537), Antonia (396), Giovanna (366), Margherita (350), Francesca (226), Piera (226), Bartolomea (187), Agnolo(i79), Cecca(i69), Nanna(i46), Lucia (143), Mattea (126), Iacopa (122), Niccolosa (122), Mea (112), Maddalena (101) and Lisa (96), adding up to 51.06 percent of the women household heads.

38 On male and female names in the baptismal registrations, see Christiane Klapisch- Zuber, “Patroni celesti e rapporti di sesso dei battezzati fiorentini (secc. XIV-XV),” to appear in La ragnatela dei rapporti: “Patronage” e reti di relazione nella storia delle donne.

39 Bergin, Thomas G., Boccaccio (New York, 1981) 29 Google Scholar.

40 For the rich the names and appearances are Caterina (17), Nanna (11), Bartolomea (9), Lisa (9), Lena (8), Niccolosa (7), Gostanza (6), Margherita (6), Piera (5), Sandra (5); for the lower three quartiles they are: Caterina (131), Antonia (73), Margherita (57), Piera (48), Giovanna (38), Nanna (38), Bartolomea (37), Cecca (36), Lisa (36), and Francesca (33).

41 They are Antonio (32), Giovanni (32), Iacopo (24), Nanni (24), Domenico (22), Piero (20), Bartolomeo (15), Menico (15), Cecco (14), and Michele (11).

42 Statuti di Bologna dell'anno 1288, ed. Gina Fasoli and Pietro Sella, Studi e Testi, 85 (Vatican City, 1939) 1:214: “De pena eius qui mutaverit sibi nomen … Et si interrogatus fuerit dicere debeat suum nomen et cognomen quo publice denominatur.“

43 Statuti dell Apennino Tosco-Modenese, Secoli XIII- XIV, ed. Santoli, Quinto, Sorbelli, Albano and Jacoli, Ferdinando (Rome, 1913) 226 Google Scholar. I owe this reference to Dr. Jane Fair Bestor.

44 Summa theologica (Verona, 1740), II, col. 645: “Ad hoc tamen debet attendi, ut imponitur nomen alicujus sancti vel sanctae non nomina paganorum, ut Pyramides, vel Palamides, Lancelottus et hujusmodi, vel nomina diminuta, ut Nanni, Meo, Thoma, Maso, Pippo, vel nomina nil significantia, ut Blando, Lapo, Ginevra et hujusmodi.“

45 ASS, I Februarii, 937. Life of Angelus a Furcio.

46 Opera omnia (Florence, 1959) 6: 82. “Nam quibusdam Sanctis divinitus datus est in aliquibus causis praecipue patrocinari, sicut sancto Antonio de Padua ordinis Minorum quotidie eius patrociniis gratias et miracula impetrare.“

47 Jean Gerson, Oeuvres complètes, ed. Msgr. Glorieux, 5 (Paris, 1963): 320-24, on the services rendered by angels; Antoninus, Summa theologica 4: 1158, “De Angelis.“

48 I processi inediti per Francesca Bussa Ponziani (Santa Francesca Romana), ed. Placido Tommaso Lugano O. S. B., Studi e Testi, 120 (Vatican City, 1945) 98.

49 ASS, III Aprilis, 891.

50 On Rocco, see Bratto, , Nuovi studi 189 Google Scholar.

51 ASS, III Aprilis, 864.