Letters to Francesco Datini (Volume 16) (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series)

The letters of Margherita Datini (1360-1423) to her husband Francesco, here translated in English for the first time, provide a wealth of information about the societies of Prato and Florence, between which the Datinis divided their time. Even more remarkably, the letters tell us a great deal about Margherita herself. In them, she reveals her political views and the influence she could exert within Florentine patronage networks by virtue of her aristocratic connections. She also comments in detail on her household, the tasks her husband delegated to her, and the activities and personalities of the relatives and friends with whom she socialized. The complex portrait of everyday life and social relationships in the urban environments of late-medieval Tuscany that emerges from Margherita’s letters is dramatically different from the static, limited view of women’s lives presented in the prescriptive texts of her period.