Category: findings
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Since mid-2025, the Art&Inequality project has expanded its research eastward to the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik). The extensive collection of the State Archives, housed in the Sponza Palace, contains over 7,000 testaments that are being studied for the project. One testament from the mid-15th century is especially interesting because of an enigma: it contains a typically vague bequest…
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The quantitative context: I have just finished coding the photographs of parchment testaments from the Archivio di Stato, Firenze [hereafter ASF] Diplomatico of the famous Florentine Dominican friary, Santa Maria Novella [hereafter SMN]. Their documents reach back to the late 11th century but, as with every collection within the ASF’s online Diplomatico, end abruptly in 1398.1 Compared with my previously…
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This New Year’s post begins with a homicide. In March 1389, early in the morning, the notary Giovanni Gini and the second-hand dealer (rigattiere) Romolo Bartolini were sent by the Florentine hospital of Santa Maria Nuova to the house of Gemina, located opposite the residence of the noble Agnoli family. Gemina was the third wife and…
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I have just returned from a short stint in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASF), 18 September to 2 October. It may be my last archival collecting of testaments for the project, at least in the ASF. The purpose was to increase the sample size of my last quartile of Pisan testaments,1501-25. These records within…
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Expats have loosen roots and look for peers to reconstruct a sense of community and navigate everyday life together. Here is Augustinus’ story… from 1450s. Augustinus de Lovana was a 15th c. baker from today’s Flemish Brabant, in Flanders. This area has long been a crossroads of cultures, languages, and travellers. In the Middle Ages, artisans, merchants, and workers frequently…
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Medieval wills are precious mines of information for historians, art historians, scholars of fashion and material culture, but also for sociologists, anthropologists, economists.Behind the dryness of notarial formulas lie glimpses of real life—human relationships, emotions, hopes for life after death, and for the lives of those who would remain on Earth. Journeys and ventures of various…
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All the documents our project looks at have one thing in common – they were drawn up by a notary. In medieval Italy, notaries played a crucial role in the personal, commercial and civic lives of every individual. They were responsible for drafting, authenticating, and preserving official documents such as contracts of all kinds, deeds,…
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Waste and reuse are key topics in modern consumer society, but in the Middle Ages, there was no discussion around them. Considering the high cost of producing new objects, everything had to be reused, recycled, or transformed down to the very last bit. Parchments were made from animal skins (sheep, goat, or calf) and were…
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Have you ever walked through the cloister of Vic Cathedral and noticed a group of three slender Gothic columns marked at their base with a small coat of arms depicting a castle? These aren’t just decorative elements. They are the material legacy of a fourteenth-century canon who ensured his memory would be carved into the…