Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 38597
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): [no author]
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: La Prammatica sulle vesti delle donne fiorentine (Firenze 1343-1345)
  • Source: Draghi rossi e querce azzurre: elenchi descrittivi di abiti di lusso (Firenze 1343-1345).  Edited by Laurence Gérard-Marchant.  SISMEL, 2013.  Pages 1 - 516.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Edition
  • Subject (See Also): Clothing Fashion Florence Luxury Trade Notaries Sumptuary Laws
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 14
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  • Abstract: [For the book] In 1343 the City of Florence produced a document, the so-called Prammatica delle vesti delle donne fiorentine, which sharpened the laws against luxury. Consequently, wealthy women were forced to send personal garments that fell within the prohibited types to four municipal committees charged with making detailed descriptions of each garment for the purposes of inventory. Three of these registries have come down to us and make up the Prammatica, edited here after exhaustive work on a manuscript rendered almost illegible by its various misadventures through the centuries and of which all trace had been lost until recently. Through this document, we now have access to the wardrobes of approximately 2,400 Florentine women (married and single) with over 6,000 dresses carefully described by type, fabric, colour, and design: a fantastical and multi-coloured world opens up before the reader’s eyes, a world enriched by hints of far-away places. Further a long list of women's jewels has been inventoried, along with important examples of male extravagance, also included in the 1343 legislation. The volume includes a number of introductory essays which place the 1343 regulations within the context of Florentine sumptuary legislation and examine both the inventory methods as well as the archival fortunes of the manuscript. An exhaustive Glossary, with detailed Indices of Terms and Persons, makes this extraordinary medieval document available to a variety of research and inquiry.
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  • Year of Publication: 2013.
  • Language: Latin
  • ISSN/ISBN: 9788884505095