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Slick World History Topics I T H E WA Y T H E Y L I V E D T H E N

Coffrets and the Marriage Market in Quattrocento Florence

Zara Hoffman March 14, 2012

A jewelry box is a container for precious items and, in many cases, is valuable in and of itself. Now imagine the worth of a jewelry box replacing yours and being given the power to determine how desirable you are. In 15th Century Italy (the Quattrocento), that is exactly how the marriage market functioned, except the jewelry box was part of a larger monetary sum called a dowry. During the Quattrocento in Florence, Italy, the marriage market and dowries were two of the most powerful institutions that affected demographics, economics, social and gender status. In 1425, a year after an outbreak of plague, Florentine legislatures formed the Monte delle Doti (a.k.a the Monte Commune or the Monte) in order to stimulate the marriage market, repopulate Florence, and pay off debts. The foremost goal was to replenish the city's numbers by creating more couples and potential parents. In addition, Florence needed money to pay its debts and its troops, who were at war with Milan during the Monte's creation. A significant amount of the money that was deposited in the Monte went toward paying many legislative expenses: Created during Florence's war with Milan, when the regime was sorely in need of funds with which to pay its mercenary troops, the new dowry fund was only one of the numerous measures (tariffs, stabilization of currency, the castato, solicitation of loans from foreign lords) intended to control the budding fiscal crisis.1 There were two rigid terms stipulated by the legislation, for which a father could choose to invest 100: 7 years, which would yield to 250, or 15 years, producing a total of 500 which was

1 Julius Krishner and Anthony Molho, "The Dowry Fund and the Marriage Market in Early Quattrocento Florence," The Journal of Modern History 50, no. 3(The University of Chicago Press, 1978), 404.

considered a respectable dowry. The dowry was only received on the expiration date, if the girl for whom the deposit was made had consummated a marriage. The dowry was paid to the girl's husband "or to a representative designated by him."2 At first, the Monte fell short of expectation because not many fathers invested in the Fund, mistrusting the government to handle their affairs responsibly and fearing they would lose their deposit. This lead to an amendment to the Monte delle Doti in December 1428. This new revision lowered the minimum deposit to 75, broadening the scope of people who could invest. It also raised the interest rates for the 7 and 15 year terms, inspiring a few more fathers to invest; however, still not as many as the legislatures had hoped for. Government amended the Monte delle Doti again in April 1433. In this final version, they lowered the investment to 60 and introduced a 5 year term as well as an 11 year term. The most important change in this edition was that if the girl died before the expiration date, the original deposit was returned to her father 1 year and 1 day after the girl's death, or brothers if the father died during that interval. The commune would only retain the money if the brothers and father of the girl were deceased. A boom of investments started flowing in once these new terms were established. As society began to realize the personal and economic benefits associated with the Monte, fathers flocked to register their daughters for dowries in hopes of increasing their daughters' appeal. Families' keen marital ambitions lead to a new competitive Marriage Market.3 "Monte delle Doti" translates into "the upstream of the qualities" or in another translation "upstream of the dowries." The fact that "qualities" and "dowries" are interchangeable makes it clear that a girl
2 Julius Krishner and Anthony Molho, 406. 3 Christiane Klapisch-Zuber and Lydia G. Cochrane. "The Griselda Complex: Dowry and Marriage Gifts in the Quattrocento." In Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. (Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1985), 218.

was merely a purchasable ornament that men could buy for their own personal gain. Even though The coffret's inscription, "Onnesst Fa Bella Donna" means "virtue makes a woman beautiful," the reality was that her dowry, including the coffret, determined a woman's value and status in the marriage market. The Monte not only served the government's finances, it also increased individual family fortunes and established new political alliances that lead to seemingly mutual symbiotic relationships. The couple's fathers, or their lawyers, negotiated the sum of the dowry and other marital details, such as when the wedding and the required festivities would take place. These negotiations contributed to dowry inflation which drove many parents to take their girls to convents to become "brides of Christ."4 In such cases, parents could give them a smaller dowry than if their daughter traditionally married. Half of the dowry was given in cash and the payments were generally made in increments. The other half consisted of many gifts including a trousseau with linens, valuables, and a coffret for the wife; these were delivered to the husband's home the morning after the wedding, signifying the consummation of the marriage.5 In return, a husband was obligated to "put on the back" of his bride clothes and jewelry whose sum is equivalent to half of the dowry; a counterdowry, if you will. These gifts, however were not permanent, as were her gifts to him. The dressing of the bride is a rite of passage, more precisely, a right of integration. A little-noticed fact, but an important one, clearly demonstrates the function assigned to this finery: in Florence the husband's gifts were temporary. Once they had played their role [in integrating the bride into his family], the husband could repossess them.6

4 Guinn, Michael. "'He Who Marries is Looking for Cash': The Dowry and the Marketplace of Marriage in the Italian Renaissance. " Kyushu University Institution Repository. https://qir.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2324/18366/1/p141.pdf, 2. (accessed March 11, 2012). 5 Christiane Klapisch-Zuber and Lydia G. Cochrane, 225. 6 Ibid. 242.

This is an example of the inequalities between the genders as the men received permanent gifts while the women only had temporary ones. After the marriage ceremony, there were two more ceremonies held that further bound the two families together: one was the Gift Ceremony, where the husband gave the bride's father, brother, and mother gifts (this was repeated when the bride gave gifts to her new father-in-law, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law); and the other was the Ring Ceremony. These ceremonies became prominent after legislatures put a cap on how much could be spent on celebrating.7 The limitation law, however, allowed widows and women who were older than twenty-four to "offer amounts above the established ceiling"8 among other exceptions; in subsequent years, Florentine legislation also exempted all women who were "injured by nature but adorned by fortune," 9 such as those crippled or blind. The Ring Ceremony was one of the most complex institutions of the Marriage Market in the Quattrocento: it took place exclusively within the husband's family and on this occasion, the married women of the husband's family presented the new bride with rings, many of which they had received when they were first inducted into the family.10 Whenever a milestone (a wedding or a birth) took place, the couples in the family would give gifts they had previously received from the same ceremony. This created a cycle of re-gifting, controlled by the men of the family. These ceremonies were customary and not a reflection of generosity; their primary function was to solidly establish the alliance between families immediately after the wedding and were used later to reestablish the connection between the families in the years after
7 Christiane Klapisch-Zuber and Lydia G. Cochrane, 233. 8 Guinn, Michael, 4. 9 Ibid. 4. 10 Christiane Klapisch-Zuber and Lydia G. Cochrane, 236.

the marriage. Like most institutions during the Renaissance, male authority ruled the Marriage Market and women were subjugated, "sold," and held as trophy wives. One of the reasons that the Monte delle Doti was so universally popular was because parents were almost guaranteed a good marriage for their daughters, bachelors could easily find wives,11 and the brides' brothers were allowed to completely exclude their sisters from the family inheritance. This is the polar opposite from "150 years earlier... [when] women were not excluded from the paternal estate, which could fall to their lot as well as to their brothers."12 Even on the rare occasion that there were no brothers or nephews, a girl could only inherit up to of the father's estate while the rest would go to other male relatives. This scenario existed within the girl's own family prior to marriage. Once she became a wife, [She entered] into the more uncertain world of married women...a world dominated by a hierarchy of [male] authorities: that of her husband, her father-inlaw, her brother-in-law, and the men of the husband's lineage who take part in important decisions.13 She went from being cheated of of her families inheritance to being entitled to nothing and having her fate decided by this triumvirate and other male relatives-by-marriage. Then, if her husband predeceased her, she lost all of her possessions unless he explicitly stated in his will that she could keep them.14 Otherwise, it became part of his estate, which included her dowry and trousseau (assuming they hadn't already been sold), and went directly to his descendants, who were entitled to turn her out of the house if they wished.

11 Krishner, Julius, and Anthony Molho, 403-404. 12 Christiane Klapisch-Zuber and Lydia G. Cochrane, 215. 13 Ibid. 222-223. 14 Ibid. 225

Monte delle Doti permeated all aspects of society: population growth, public reputation, financial concerns, family dynamics, and most profoundly, the status of women in the Quattrocento. The Monte delle Doti was originally intended to simply pay off debts and to repopulate Florence,15 but society changed the meaning and function of the Monte making it a much more intricate and complex web of interactions leading to monetary and social gain16. The Monte also became one of the most stifling institutions of the time, in that it kept women's status below that of men's and prolonged gender inequalities as women were traded as ornaments in the Quattrocento's Marriage Market.

15 Krishner, Julius, and Anthony Molho, 404. 16 Christiane Klapisch-Zuber and Lydia G. Cochrane, 213-214.

WORKS CITED Guinn, Michael. "'He Who Marries is Looking for Cash': The Dowry and the Marketplace of Marriage in the Italian Renaissance." Kyushu University Institution Repository. https:// qir.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2324/18366/1/p141.pdf (accessed March 11, 2012). Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane, and Lydia G. Cochrane. "The Griselda Complex: Dowry and Marriage Gifts in the Quattrocento." In Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1985. 213-246. Krishner, Julius, and Anthony Molho. "The Dowry Fund and the Marriage Market in Early Quattrocento Florence." The Journal of Modern History 50, no. 3 (1978): 403-438.