What Clarice Wore at her Wedding . . .

Of course, the young woman in the portrait is not Clarice, but it is likely the fabric shown on the sleeve of Pollaiolo's "Portrait of a Lady" (c. 1475, currently in the Uffizi) was similar to the fabric used for Clarice's gown.

From a letter written by Piero di Marco Parenti  to (most likely) Filippo di Mateo Strozzi , published in Lives of the early Medici as told in their correspondence:

“On Tuesday the bride left (a tournament was held first), and returned to the house of the Alessandri in the same dress in which she came to be married.  This was a robe of white and gold brocade and a magnificent hood on her head, as is used here.  She rode the same horse and was accompanied b the same youths, whose rich dresses of silver brocade embroidered with large pearls and jewels baffle description.  From what they tell of courts of great princes nothing was ever seen like it save certain jewels of great value worn by some great Lords.  Of the women I say nothing!  Such jackets and robes of silk, all of them embroidered with pearls."

The Costa Concordia

I saw the shipwrecked Costa Concordia on a recent visit to the island of Giglio, off the coast of southwest Tuscany.  An American company has been awarded the contract for the demolition, which is set to begin soon.  Most likely the Heils, the American couple who perished here, were distant relatives of our family, as the Heil name was common only in one small village near Darmstadt, Germany.  What a tragedy, and an avoidable tragedy at that.

What Clarice would have seen . . .

in the Medici Palazzo courtyard was this stunning sculpture of Donatello's David.  This David (circa 1440s) is famous as the first unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity. It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his foot on Goliath's severed head just after defeating the giant.  Today it stands in the Bargello, the National Sculpture Museum, and having recently undergone a restoration, stands in all its gleaming glory.  I wonder what Clarice thought when she first encountered this David?

More about Florins and the Wealth of the Medici

According to Hibbert's The House of Medici:  It's Rise and Fall, Lorenzo came across an account book covering the thirty-eight years 1434 to 1471 (so spending by Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo himself), a total of 663,755 florins were spent on "buildings, charities, and taxes."  In the middle of the quattrocento the Palazzo Medici was said to be worth about 5000 florins.  The Medici contributed significantly to rebuilding their neighborhood church, San Lorenzo, shown in my own photo above.  Other buildings included the Duomo, San Marco, and the Ospedale degli Innocenti.  The Archbishop of Florence was a good friend of Cosimo's, and so it was said, they talked often of usury and how that "besetting sin of a banker life might be expiated."   Fortunately for us, most of the buildings the Medici built or restored are still in use today.  But one has to wonder if that's the amount they spent on building, charities and taxes,"  what was the profit of the Medici bank and their investments over that time?

But there was another woman . . .

Like every year at carneval time, in 1469 the Guelph Party organized the traditional joust in Piazza Santa Croce, appropriately decorated and enclosed. The participants in the event were young nobles from the leading Florentine families, as well as famous condottieri and foreign knights.  The joust of 7 February 1469 is documented by contemporary sources that describe it in detail, in particular, La giostra by Luigi Pulci and the anonymous Ricordo, transcribed by Pietro Fanfani.

In the “mostra” or parade that preceded the equestrian contest, the mounted participants with their respective corteges made up of damsels, grooms and trumpeters, flaunted apparel, harness, standards, arms and other objects of the most superb quality and precious workmanship.

The star of the joust was the young Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici who dedicated his victory to Lucrezia Donati, to whom the female figure portrayed on his standard may allude.  (from the archives at the Medici-Riccardi Palazzo).


Quite the bachelor party!  And just to put that dowry in perspective, the accoutrements of Lorenzo and his ‘brigade’ or retinue, were valued at 10,000 florins!

And this dedication to Lucrezia Donati is not the last we hear of her . . .

More on the florin . . .

The Italian florin was a coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard.  The "fiorino d'oro" of the Republic of Florence was the first European gold coin struck in sufficient quantities to play a significant commercial role since the seventh century. As many Florentine banks were international supercompanies with branches across Europe, the florin quickly became the dominant trade coin of Western Europe for large scale transactions.

The design of the original Florentine florin was the distinctive Florentine lily, the badge of the city on the front side (see post of Mar 5) and on the other a standing facing figure of St. John the Baptist wearing a hair shirt.  St John was the patron saint of the city, taking the place of Mars, the Roman god of war and the previous protector of the city.  Nowadays the Patron Saint is celebrated with the feasting and fireworks that are set off at Piazzale Michelangelo on the evening of June 24th.

The Dowry of Clarice Orsini . . .

. . . was 6000 florins.  When we ask how much money that is in today's world, we could either calculate using the value of gold (one florin had 54 grains of nominally pure ('fine') gold (3.5g, 0.1125 troy ounce-- check my math, but I think one florin is around $200 US), perhaps $1,200,000.  Not a paltry sum, but let's consider what florins would buy at the time Clarice married Lorenzo:

Using an income calculation and consulting Frick in her book (now available on Kindle), Dressing Renaissance Florence, a family of four could live at a basic level on 56 to 70 florins a year, and Brunelleschi as foreman for the Duomo, made 100 florins a year. A famous university professor and a successful lawyer each made 200-500 florins a year.  So let us add three 000's to that 6000 florins, and now we see that the Orsini contribution was perhaps closer to six million dollars.

Going forward, we'll be looking at what six million dollars would buy in Renaissance Florence.  A 15 acre vineyard was valued at 120 florins; a middle class artisan could rent housing in the Olt'arno for 10 florins a year.  A wedding feast cost 67 lire (about 10 florins), and included 52 brace of capons, 530 loaves of white bread, 140 eggs and half a barrel of red wine. 

Of course, barter and trade, as well as an extensive system of credit and lending, favors and obligations,  further complicate the issue of comparing the lives of Renaissance women to that of our own.