The livery of a Florentine employee in the fteenth century: the rewards of a

lifetime of service

Alessia Meneghin

The clothing of the workforce is a neglected aspect of the otherwise rich historiography of theFlorentine Renaissance. This study focuses on the livery of minor ofcers of the FlorentineCommune in the fteenth century. It sheds light on the clothing of the lower social orders,and especially that of the household staff of the Parte Guelfa, the political faction that haddefeated its rivals, the Ghibellines, in the second half of the thirteenth century, and hadbecome a powerful institution in Florence, with vast real estate, nancial assets andexecutive bodies. Liveries functioned as an immediately readable signal of the wearersrank, social identity and even political allegiance. The article shows how the livery, whichexercised a direct visual impact, was used by the Parte as a political means to project apowerful impression of itself, as well as to display honour and wealth. However, the Partesattendants, who received not only a regular salary but also a series of bonuses, includingclothing, occasionally made dishonest use of the livery given to them in order to acquireadditional and secure revenue by resorting to illegal practices, such as embezzlement.

Recent scholarship has broadened our understanding of the lifestyles of the late medieval and earlymodern workforce, yet insufcient attention has been paid to dress, and specically to its differentfunctions and purposes.1 While economic and material culture historians have contributed to thesubject by studying aspects related to the demand and consumption of goods and clothing,2

costume historians have mainly dealt with how sumptuary legislation disciplined luxury.3

2015 Taylor & Francis

Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DT,UK, Email: am2253@cam.ac.uk

1Marcello Fantoni, Labito, le regole e la trasgressione. Usi e simbologie delle livree alla corte medicea, inLe trame della moda, ed. Anna G. Cavagna and Grazietta Butazzi (Rome: Bulzoni, 1995), 95107; and JaneBridgeman, Aspects of Dress and Ceremony in Quattrocento Florence (PhD diss., Courtauld Institute ofArt, London, 1986). Bridgeman, however, mainly considered high-ranking ofcers.2Richard A. Goldthwaite,Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UniversityPress, 1995); Franco Franceschi and Luca Mol, Leconomia del Rinascimento: dalle teorie della crisi allapreistoria del consumismo, in Il Rinascimento italiano e lEuropa, Storia e storiograa, I, ed. MarcelloFantoni (Vicenza: Angelo Colla Editore, 2005), 185200; and Bruno Blond, Retail Growth and ConsumerChanges in a Declining Urban Economy: Antwerp (16501750), Economic History Review 63, no. 3(2010): 63863.3Diane Owen Hughes, Sumptuary Law and Social Relations in Renaissance Italy, in Disputes and Settle-ments. Law and Human Relations in the West, ed. John Bossy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,1983), 6699; Catherine Kovesi Killerby, Sumptuary Law in Italy 12001500 (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2002); Maria G. Muzzarelli and Antonella Campanini, eds., Disciplinare il lusso. La legislazione

History of Retailing and Consumption, 2015Vol. 1, No. 1, 4762, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2373518X.2015.1015820

Since the 1980s the history of clothing has consistently developed and has expanded consider-ably.4 However, the scholarship of occupational dress has changed little.5 Most studies focusingupon the late medieval and early modern period have concentrated on the clothing of the upperranks of society albeit with a few exceptions providing scant information about the types ofclothing and accessories distributed further down the social scale.6 For example, little is knownabout the clothing of the various types of domestic servants.7Although several contributions haveanalysed the role of those employed in the service of governmental institutions, little informationhas been uncovered about the clothing of this personnel before the advent of the modern age.8

Greater consideration has been given to the clothes of the salaried servants and the employeesof the courts, thus deepening our understanding of how wardrobes varied according to rank, pos-ition occupied and even the political season.9

In the fteenth century, people understood that clothing was a signicant aspect of daily life;clothes functioned as monetary investments and were often associated with specic socialoccasions. According to one of the prevailing patterns of interpretation that has emerged in thelast 30 years, early modern dress was considered a manifestation of language and a symbolic

suntuaria in Italia e in Europa tra Medioevo ed Et moderna (Rome: Carocci Editore, 2003); and AnnMatchette, To Have and Have Not: The Disposal of Household Furnishings in Florence, RenaissanceStudies 20, no. 5 (2006): 70116.4Negley B. Harte and Kenneth G. Ponting, eds., Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays inMemory of Professor Eleanora Mary Carus-Wilson (London: Heinemann, 1983); Maria G. Muzzarelli,Guardaroba medievale. Vesti e societ dal XIII al XVI secolo (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1999); CaroleCollier Frick, Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families, Fortunes, and Fine Clothing (Baltimore andLondon: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002); Evelyn Welch, Shopping in the Renaissance: ConsumerCultures in Italy 14001600 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005); and Robin Nether-ton and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, eds., Medieval Clothing and Textiles (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer,20052014).5Diana de Marly, Working Dress: History of Occupational Clothing (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1987);and Jayne Shrimpton, British Working Dress: Occupational Clothing 17501950 (Oxford and LongIsland City, NY: Shire Publications, 2012).6The mandatory reference is to John Styles, The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007). Also of use is Paula Hohti, Con-spicuous Consumption and Popular Consumers: Material Culture and Social Status in Sixteenth-CenturySiena, Renaissance Studies 24, no. 5 (2010): 65470.7See John Styles, Clothes and the Non-elite Consumer in the North of England, 16601800, inchanges et Cultures Textiles dans lEurope Pr-Industrielle, Actes du colloque de Rouen, 1719 mai1993, ed. Jacques Bottin and Nicole Pellegrin (Lille: Universit Charles-de-Gaulle, 1996), 295308;and John Styles, Involuntary Consumers? The Eighteenth-Century Servant and Her Clothes, TextileHistory 33, no. 1 (2002): 921.8Gene Brucker, Bureaucracy and Social Welfare in the Renaissance: A Florentine Case Study, The Journalof Modern History 55, no. 1 (1983): 121; see also Alessia Meneghin, The Unglamorous Side of Shoppingin Late Medieval Prato and Florence. The Ricordanze of Taddeo di Chello (13411408), and Piero Puro diFrancesco da Vicchio (13971465) (PhD diss., University of St Andrews, 2011), 16570.9Lina Montalto, La corte di Alfonso dAragona, vesti e gale (Naples: Ricciardi, 1932), 45; Lewis Lockwood,Music in Renaissance Ferrara. 14001505: The Creation of a Musical Centre in the Fifteenth Century(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), 137, 177; Cesare Mozzarelli, ed., Familia del Principe e famigliaaristocratica (Rome: Bulzoni, 1988); Peter Partner, The Popes Men. The Papal Civil Service in the Renais-sance (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990); Grazietta Butazzi, La magnicentia della corte. Per una storia dellamoda nella Ferrara estense prima del governo di Ercole I, in Le muse e il principe. Arte di corte nel Rinasci-mento padano, ed. Mauro Natale and Alessandra Mottola Molno (Modena: Panini, 1991), II, 11932;Gregory Lubkin, A Renaissance Court: Milan under Galeazzo Maria Sforza (Berkeley, Los Angeles and -London: University of California Press, 1994); and Maria A. Visceglia, Denominare e classicare: familiae familiari del papa nella lunga durata dellet moderna, in Ofces et papaut (xive-xviie sicle). Charges,hommes, destins, ed. Armand Jamme and Olivier Poncet (Rome: cole franaise de Rome, 2005), 15995.

48 A. Meneghin

representation of social identity.10 Much recent research into early modern fashion has beeninspired by the idea that dress constituted an expressive material language, capable of beingmanipulated and therefore read by its wearers and those around them.11 In other words, clothingserved as a primer that facilitated communication among individuals and social groups, since itslanguage was universally understood by all social classes.

This article analyses a particular case of social identity not investigated before: how an attend-ant identied with the symbolic codes and rituals of a powerful and inuential institution in f-teenth-century Florence, the Parte Guelfa (Guelph Party). The Parte Guelfa (henceforthabbreviated as Parte) was the faction that had defeated its great rivals the Ghibellines in Florencein the second half of the thirteenth century. It developed into an institution with vast real estate,nancial assets and executive governing bodies.12 In the fteenth century the executive bodies ofthe Parte Guelfa were composed of nine captains, two advisory colleges of 15 Priori di Pecunia(responsible for nance), 20 Secretari della Credenza (privy council) and two legislative councils,the Cento and Sessanta. With terms lasting for two months, the captains acted as the guardians ofthe civic orthodoxy. They exercised ceremonial functions in the state; these included visiting thePodest (executive ofcer), the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia (Standardbearer of Justice, the Priorwho was the titular head of government) and the Priori (the members of the Signoria, Florenceshighest executive council).13 The captains responsibilities included organising charitable activi-ties and making offerings on special feast days on behalf of the Parte. In the 1420s the Parte wasstill rich and relatively powerful,14 but by the early 1440s it had entered into a state of irreversibledecline.15

While this article deals with one of the most intensively researched European cities, in itsmost studied century, and with one of the most researched institutions, it considers aspectsthat have so far been neglected, specically the dress of the lower social orders and the pol-itical use of clothing by institutions. In addition to exploring servants clothing, this studyalso investigates the theme of embezzlement by workers, which will be analysed withrespect to the monetary rewards obtained through the pawning and selling of clothesbelonging to the Parte Guelfa by one of its servants. In fact, we shall see that, whilePiero di Francesco, the protagonist of this article, subsisted on a combination of wagesand clothes received from his employer, the Parte, he also illegally traded and pawned theclothes he was given.

A nal point, which will be also discussed, is the way Piero used clothing in the form ofliveries in his determination to engage in patterns of emulation. Although it must be said that

10On social identity, see Patricia Allerston, Clothing and Early Modern Venetian Society, in The FashionHistory Reader, ed. Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2010), 93110;Ann Rosalind and Peter Stallybrass, Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press, 2000); and Marta Ajmar-Woolheim and Flora Dennis, eds., At Home in Renais-sance Italy (London: V&A Publications, 2006), especially the article by Elizabeth Currie, Diversity andDesign in the Florentine Tailoring Trade, 15501620, 15473.11Ulinka Rublack, Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press,2010).12See Alison Brown, The Guelf Party in 15th-Century Florence: The Transition from Communal to Med-icean State, Rinascimento 20 (1980): 4186; and Vieri Mazzoni, Accusare e proscrivere il nemico politico.Legislazione antighibellina e persecuzione giudiziaria a Firenze (13471378) (Pisa: Pacini, 2010).13Brown, The Guelf Party, 53.14Ibid., 4654; for the political background see Nicolai Rubinstein, The Government of Florence under theMedici (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), 88135.15Diane Finiello Zervas, The Parte Guelfa, Brunelleschi & Donatello (Locust Valley, NY: J.J. Augustin,1987), 536.

History of Retailing and Consumption 49

Pieros choices may also be indicative of the social pervasiveness of certain modes and styles, thisemulative attitude is particularly evident in the specic requests he made to shoemakers andtailors, and in his desire to exercise a certain sartorial freedom.

The Parte Guelfa and the clothing allowance of the donzelli

In order to discuss the livery of Piero di Francesco, it is necessary to consider the nature of hisofce. More specically, the duties of a donzello (attendant) of the Parte Guelfa in the fteenthcentury, and the role a donzello played during the numerous public ceremonies performed by theParte, must be taken into account.

Piero di Francesco, a native of Vicchio in the Mugello, some 15 miles north-east of Florence,became a lifetime donzello of the Parte in 1430 and held this role until his death in 1465. His mainduty, like that of the other donzelli, was primarily to guard the entrance to the palace of the Parte,which was never to be left unattended.16 The donzelli were also required to attend to the needs ofthe captains of the Parte and to serve at their table. Finally, the donzellis duties includedaccompanying the captains to the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia or to the Palace of the Priori asrequired, as well as during all processions.17 In addition to these tasks, the donzelli were alsoexpected to distribute alms to the poor every Saturday, and deliver offerings of candles tovarious churches in Florence.18 Serving as a donzello of the Parte required the attendant touphold the good name and dignity of the faction, and therefore strict control was placed overthe behaviour of those who wore its livery. The donzelliwere banned from frequenting dishonestestablishments, taking part in prohibited games or eating with people who were indebted to anyindividual or to the Commune; they were especially forbidden from consorting with these peopleat night.19

All told, it was a comfortable, well-paid and secure job in fteenth-century Florence, for italso included a number of additional benets, such as an annual bonus for the payment of rentand two additional bonuses a year for clothing, the so-called stanziamento per i panni.20 Infact, it seems that the position of donzello was among the best-paid occupations during thesedecades for employees in the lower ranks of society, as illustrated both by the data from therecords of the rosters of the Commune21 and by those supplied by Piero.

The earliest extant statutes of the Parte can be dated to 1335. They mention the wages of themessengers (messi or nuntii) and the domicelli or donzelli, which amounted to 5 lire per month,and also an allocation for their clothes, the panni.22 It is stated that every one of the 12 members

16Brown, The Guelf Party, 4950. The palace of the Guelph Party, or Palagio di Parte Guelfa, was locatedin Via delle Terme, where it still stands today. It was comfortable and well furnished, provided with chamberswhere councils would be held, meals served and banquets kept. It was also the place where nances wereadministered and books preserved, and served as the residence of the captains when in ofce.17The Palace of the Priori (also known as Palazzo della Signoria) was the seat of government and residenceof the committee of nine Priors, or Signoria, when in ofce.18. State Archive in Florence (henceforward ASF), Capitani di Parte Guelfa (henceforward CPG), NumeriRossi, 4, Statuti del 1420, fols. 19r-v, 20r, 42r-v, 52r.19Ibid., fol. 19v.20Dennis Romano, Housecraft and Statecraft: Domestic Service in Renaissance Venice, 14001600 (Balti-more, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 139. Monetary wages constituted only one part of ser-vants compensation (and not necessarily the most important part).21ASF,Massai di Camera, Creditori e Debitori (henceforward MCCD), 2 (143048), fols. 64r, 102r-v, 103r-v, 105r, 106r-v, 107r-v, 108r; Ibid., 3 (143048), fols. 65r, 67r, 68r-v, 93r, 104v; CPG, Numeri Rossi, 4, fols.70r-v; MCCD, Uscita di Camera Generale, 3, fols. 63r, 66r, 67v, 69r-v.22CPG, Numeri Rossi, 2, Statuto volgarizzato del 1335, fol. 14r.

50 A. Meneghin

of the familia (composed of nine donzelli and three messi) should receive two garments each year(due vestiti lanno), in summer and in winter, worth 10 orins each. When necessity arose and oldclothes needed to be replaced, the captains ordered the Partes treasurer to oversee the commissionof new garments for the donzelli, so that this will prove the honour and glory of the Parte.23

The next statutes, from 1420, state that the nine donzelli [had to be] dressed in identical gar-ments ( e [debbano essere] vestiti pe medesimi vestimenti).24 Their wages amounted to 12 lire permonth (144 lire per year),25 to which additional bonuses for rent and the stanziamento of their clothingwere added, the latter accounting for 24 gold orins a year (88 lire). Twenty-two orins representedabout seven months of Pieros salary.26 These bonuses were to be distributed on 24 June (the day ofSt. John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence)27 and on 25 December (Christmas Day).28

For the rst time precise rules appeared in the statutes to regulate the distribution of clothes. Thedonzelli, as it was established, must always be dressed in the latest new clothes, which they willhave received from the Parte (dovranno sempre essere vestiti degli ultimi nuovi vestiti e qualidala parte predetta aranno riceuti). The use of the terms latest and new possibly meant thatthe clothes worn always had to be the newest available. This regulation might have been intendedto ensure that employees did not immediately sell the newest clothes while continuing to wear oldergarments in order to make a prot. The donzelli were not permitted to wear mantelli: according tothe statutes, they must not the aforesaid donzelli in any time wear cloaks without permission bythe aforementioned captains (non possino e donzelli predetti per alcuno tempo vestire mantellosanza licenza de detti signori capitani).29 Given the function of cloaks in essence, to cover thewearer the Parte seemingly sought to prevent the clothes of the donzelli from being hidden.Their liveries also had to be visible to the public, for they were regarded as the Partes insignia.Even the clothes appearance was specied: the panni had to bear distinctive features, such as man-icottoli (sleeves, dangling down ones sides and usually lined, that served ornamental purposes),30

and had to follow the manner, form and colour determined by the captains. That the statutes aresuggestive of the existence of a livery, even if the word livrea is never explicitly specied, isclear; in fact, they state that the donzelli [must be] all dressed in identical garments, and thus itis assumed of the same colour(s). By dressing in such a style they all conveyed a singlemessage, which immediately distinguished the wearer and indicated his membership of a particularinstitution (the Parte) and his place in the category of the donzelli.

23ASF, CPG, Numeri Rossi, 1, Statuti della Parte Guelfa 1335, L, De salarius et vestibus nuntiorum. Ad hocut ipsa partis guelforum demonstraret magnica et honorica sicut decet. Along with the donzelli anothercategory of salaried employees of the Parte, the messi or messengers, were also given clothes, but they wereentitled only to one garment per year, of 7 orins each.24ASF, CPG, Numeri Rossi, 4, Statuto del 1420, fol. 19r.25Richard A. Goldthwaite, The Building of Renaissance Florence (Baltimore and London: Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 1990), 438, Table A.1, 5978; Richard A. Goldthwaite and Giulio Mandich, Studi sullamoneta orentina (secoli XIIIXVI) (Florence: Olschki, 1994), 910. In the system known as lira di piccioli,1 lira was exchanged at 20 soldi = 240 denari. In 1456 the wages of a skilled labourer in Florence werearound 15 soldi a day, or about 37 orins a year.26Goldthwaite, The Building, 348. Out of an approximate annual income of 37 orins a skilled labourermight spend about 40 lire or 7 and a half orins to clothe only himself; Goldthwaite and Mandich, Studisulla moneta orentina, 623; and Goldthwaite, The Building, Appendix I, 42930. The orino di quatrolire (sic) to which Piero referred in his journals, with which he was presumably paid, is also likely tohave been most commonly used by him for his expenses.27Collier Frick,Dressing Renaissance Florence, 81. This was also the date of the celebration of the victory ofthe Commune at Campaldino in 1298 against the Ghibellines.28CPG, Numeri Rossi, 4, Statuto del 1420, fol. 19r.29Ibid., fol. 21r.30Rosita Levi Pisetzky, Storia del Costume in Italia (Milan: Istituto Editoriale Italiano, 1964), II, 3634.

History of Retailing and Consumption 51

A donzello was not allowed to sell or pledge any of the clothes given to him during theyear. After some time, however, evidence demonstrates that many of the clothes were actuallytraded.31 It is not known whether the Parte decided to take action against this (mis)use.Remarkably, it appears that Parte liveries were still being employed in this manner in the1450s, as conrmed by several pieces of evidence found in Pieros books. Indeed, it is apparentfrom the description of the expensive items he illegally traded over the years that Piero wascommitted to taking regular advantage of the privilege of wearing valuable clothing by trans-forming what was severely prohibited by the statutes into a lucrative nancial advantage.Although the clothes that Piero pawned and sold were readily identiable, and so potentiallydifcult to pawn/sell, Piero managed it all the same. In fact, trimmings and other distinctivedecorations could be easily stripped from clothing, which could be rapidly altered into othersorts of items. Piero often pledged his clothing with Isacco di Borghese and a certain Vitale,both Jewish moneylenders. Francesco Del Nero and Antonio, two dealers of used garments(rigattieri) who had their shops between the Santa Trinita Bridge and the Old Market, oftenalso engaged in business with him.32 Thus, a green overgown lined with grey cloth withsleeves a ghiozzi (una cioppa verde foderata di panno bigio a ghiozzi) and trimmed withbacks of greater squirrel (vair), which was sold in August 1453 to Giovanni di Francesco, fam-iglio (servant) of the Signori, yielded nearly 7 orins for Piero (equivalent to almost 28 lire).33

Another overgown, made of green fustian, lined with squirrel haunches and trimmed with silk(ormesino) strips (una cioppa di guarnello verde foderata con zampe di vaio e orlata di lettidi ormesino),34 was rst pawned for 2 orins in 1450, and after some time redeemed;35 thenin 1455, when Piero sold it to Malandrino di Vanni, yet another member of the Signoriasfamilia, it brought him almost the same amount as the other overgown (6 orins).36

These two examples indicate that embezzlement might have taken place at some point.37

Comparable evidence exists of similar occurrences elsewhere in the fteenth and early sixteenth

31Bridgeman, Aspects of Dress and Ceremony, 139. Bridgeman suggested that lesser functionaries wereoften lax in their observance of protocol, and were not strangers to the occasional practice of pawningor even selling the clothing.32On rigattieri and pledges, see Bernardo Machiavelli, Libro di Ricordi, ed. Cesare Olschki (Florence:Olschki, 2007), 467.33. Archive of the Hospital of the Innocenti (henceforward AOIF), 12618, fols. 24v, 26v. See also CarloMerkel, I beni della famiglia di Puccio Pucci. Inventario del sec. XV illustrato (Trento: MiscellaneaNuziale Rossi-Theiis, 1897), 50; Anthony Molho and Franek Sznura, eds., Brighe, affanni, volgimenti distato. Le Ricordanze quattrocentesche di Luca di Matteo di Messer Luca dei Firidol da Panzano (Flor-ence: Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2010), 272; and Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi, Lettere di una gentildonna or-entina del secolo XVai gliuoli esuli, ed. Cesare Guasti (Florence: Sansoni, 1877), 15. When translated intoEnglish a ghiozzi describes bag sleeves. The sleeves were baggy from the shoulders to the elbow, tight inthe lower arm with narrow cuffs around the wrists. Gowns a ghiozzi often appear in contemporary inven-tories and trousseaux.34Ormesino or ermesino was a light silk fabric originally from Ormuz but soon produced in Venice, and incertain amounts imported from Naples and Florence. Doretta Davanzo Poli and Silvia Lunardon, Merletti.Esposizione di una selezione di antichi merletti veneziani dalle collezioni Ire. Catalogo della mostra(Venice: Ire, 2001), 191206.35Guarnello means fustian, a textile woven with a linen warp and cotton weft. It was fairly robust and notvery expensive.36AOIF, 12618, fols. 3r, 42v.37For instances of clothes perquisites and embezzlement in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centu-ries, see James E. Shaw, The Justice of Venice. Authorities and Liberties in the Urban Economy, 15501700(New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 1701; and Robert C. Davis, Shipbuilders of theVenetian Arsenal: Workers and Workplace in the Preindustrial City (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univer-sity Press, 1991).

52 A. Meneghin

century, for instance at the court of the Duke of Urbino.38 Members of the Florentine Signorialikely behaved in the same fashion. In 1466, 19 members of the familia were dismissed and stric-ter regulations enacted, regarding among other things prohibitions against the wearing of liveries,presumably to eradicate fraud at its roots.39

The statutes of the Parte contained other prohibitions that were continuously disregarded. Itwas forbidden, for example, to put money directly into the hands of a donzello (as was the customin the fourteenth century) in exchange for clothes or for the donzelli to receive money to buyclothes themselves. Anyone tailor, doublet maker or furrier who had received money froma donzello in payment for work was required to return the money to the Parte immediately.40

Nevertheless, the records entered by Piero reveal once again that he often anticipated theamounts necessary to pay off his accounts with the tailor, the furrier and the doublet maker,only to be refunded by the Parte later on. The statutes contained laws prohibiting the indiscrimi-nate use of clothes as if they were the property of the donzelli; that these laws endeavoured to limitthe direct action of the latter on their liveries is clear, yet it is equally clear that in reality these lawswent unheeded.

By 1335 the statute read that one roba honorica had to be made for the messengers and theattendants in summer and another made for winter. However, in reality it is apparent that thesingle item of clothing referred to the roba actually consisted of a number of differentitems of clothing that made up an ensemble, whose total value was equivalent to that of asingle roba.41 This assumption is supported by the fact that the statutes of the captains of 1420talk of panni and vestimenti plural but never of individual robes. Besides, if expenses forthe clothing of the donzelli in theory amounted to 88 lire (22 orins) per year for each ofthem, in reality individual necessities made these payments extremely variable: expenses werelower when only new hose, shoes and shirts (probably purchased on a regular basis, unlike doub-lets and cloaks) were needed, while costs peaked when it was necessary to completely renew thewardrobe. In the case of Piero, for all but two years his wardrobe costs were well below the guresideally allocated by the Parte for such expenses. The two years with signicantly greater fundsdisbursed for clothing 1462, with over 44 orins spent, and 1463, with roughly 29 orins were almost certainly due to the need to replace his entire wardrobe, made up of different gar-ments. Conversely, the expenses of the other years were probably lower due to the reducedneeds of the same wardrobe (see Table 1).

If the Signoria was prepared to face signicant expenditure to cover the clothing expenses ofits household staff,42 the Parte was willing to dole out even greater amounts. The expenditure ofthe Camera del Comune and that of the Camerari della Parte for the years 14301448 show a

38Ordine et ofcij de casa de lo illustrissimo signor Duca de Urbino, ed. Sabine Eiche (Urbino: AccademiaRaffaello, 1999, reprint), 38. Also of relevance is Marco Folin, Roma e Urbino: due corti rinascimentali aconfronto, in Atlante della Letteratura Italiana, I, ed. Amedeo De Vincentiis (Turin: Einaudi, 2010), 75773, 757.39Per rimediare ai molti inconvenienti che in tal tempo si trovarono in ciascuno membro della famiglia dellasignoria et [ai] molti danni di comune che seguirono per la inoservantia degli ordini [venne stabilito] ildivieto di portare divise (To remedy to the many inconveniences that in that time were found in eachmember of the Signorias family, and [to the] much prevalent damage that resulted for not followingorders [it was decreed] the ban on wearing uniforms), ASF, Signori e Collegi, Deliberazioni OrdinariaAutorit (henceforward DSCOA), 34, fol. 164r.40ASF, CPG, Numeri Rossi, 4, Statuto del 1420, fol. 20v.41Statuta populi et communis Florentiae collecta (Freiburg: Kluch, 17781783), II, v, Rub. xvi, 230. Unaroba comprised a set of garments. It was dened in the statutes of 1415: una roba nigra, scilicettunica, guarnacca et mantello et una capellina (here in reference to mourning garments for a widow).42No clothes were provided for the nine-man executive group.

History of Retailing and Consumption 53

series of payments for the distribution of clothing given to their respective staff.43 Records illus-trate that, while the Signoria gave additional bonuses for clothing to the town-criers (approva-tori), the bell-ringers (campanai), the knights (cavalieri) and the cook (cuoco), it did not giveanyone in these categories as much as the Parte gave to its donzelli. In the mid-fteenthcentury, the donzelli of the Signoria received 12 orins for clothing each,44 while those of theParte received 22 orins.45

Pieros livery

As the statutes established, the liveries had to keep upwith the current style. This suggests that therewas a certain uniformity of design that went somewhat beyond the boundaries of class and position.It must be said, however, that the liveries primary role had little to do with style; rather, they ful-lled a political function and divided the wearers into conventional categories of recognisability.

Table 1. Pieros clothing allowance in lire (14441465).

Year Amount

1444 44.001450 19.241451 13.241452 26.241453 52.681454 52.601455 33.041456 44.041457 31.841458 64.841459 32.761460 40.161461 35.961462 173.241463 118.361464 23.601465 23.60

Note: The values for the clothing are shown here in lire for the readersconvenience, even if they were given in orins of account.

43The Camera del Comune and the Camerari della Parte were in charge respectively of the nance admin-istration of the city of Florence and of the Parte Guelfa. ASF, MCCD, 2 (143048), fols. 64r, 102r-v, 103r-v,105r, 106r-v, 107r-v, 108r; Ibid., 3 (143048), fols. 65r, 67r, 68r-v, 93r, 104v.; CPG, Numeri Rossi, 4, fols.70r-v; MCCD, Uscita di Camera Generale, 3, fols. 63r, 66r, 67v, 69r-v.44ASF, Provvisioni Registri (henceforward PR), 133, fol. 128r. In 1442 the total wages paid to the Signoriasfamilia amounted to 5160 gold orins. Further, 1400 orins, a 27% addition to the salary, was disbursed forthe livery of its many employees. Descriptions of these ofces can be found in Guidobaldo Guidi, II governodella citt-repubblica di Firenze del primo quattrocento (Florence: Olschki, 1981), 2, 389; ASF, DSCOA,97, fols. 124v-125r. Here there is a complete roster of the familia for the year 1495.45Ordinary knights received no more than 16 orins altogether for their clothesASF, MCCD, 2 (143048),fols. 64r, 102r-v, 103r-v, 105r, 106r-v, 107r-v, 108r; Ibid., 3 (143048), fols. 65r, 67r, 68r-v, 93r, 104v; CPG,Numeri Rossi, 4, fols. 70r-v; MCCD, Uscita di Camera Generale, 3, fols. 63r, 66r, 67v, 69r-v; and Statutapopuli et communis Florentiae collecta, II, 514. The only exception was a knight of the court (miles curialis),syndic, and referendary of the Commune of Florence, who in addition to his salary of 10 lire per month, wasto receive a robe worth 25 orins every six months from the podest of the city of Florence.

54 A. Meneghin

The choice of light and deep blue (azzurro) and green (verde) was predominant (as shown inTables 2 and 3). Blue was in fact one of the distinctive colours of the Parte, as it represented theunion with the house of Anjou.46 Similarly, green was another important colour for Florence (theParte identied itself with the city).47 However, accessories (hose, hats, gloves, sleeves) wereoften comprised of different shades of red such as carmine, or pagonazzo,48 or even pink (seeTables 2 and 3).

However, the materials used in these garments differed substantially: high quality and likelyprecious embellishments for the captains; mostly wool and cheap, durable cloth for the servants.This is reected in the prevalence among Pieros records of good but rough fabrics, such as thefustian generally used to make modest clothing and the simple grey cloth (panno bigio) mostoften employed for cheap dresses or for childrens petticoats. Some cases, however, testify to pur-chases of far more costly materials in order to make Pieros livery, including boccaccino (a necloth of cotton or linen) and the woollen cloth of San Martino, an expensive textile woven from

Table 2. Clothes bought by Piero for his livery (14441463).

Date Craftsmana Item of clothing ColourPrice in lireand soldi Occasionb

22 June 1444 Barberino 1 velvet doublet black 5 SJ24 December1452

Giovanni dAntonio 1 cloak deepblue

1 6s C

5 June 1453 Sassolino dArrigoSassolini

1 pair of cloth gloves 0 9s SJ

3 July 1453 Terozzo di Nerozzo 1 pair of suede gloves red 10 SJ27 June 1454 Maso Ricucci haunches of vair for a

cloakc14 6s SJ

1 June 1459 Simone di Dino several pairs of gloves 2 19s P22 June 1459 Antonio di maestro

Benedetto1 luccod green 2 4s SJ

23 June 1463 Antonio di Giovanni haunches and llets oformesino for a lucco

green 14 5s SJ

24 December1463

Antonio di maestroBenedetto

1 fustian lucco lightblue

2 4s C

Source: AOIF, 12618, fols. 21v, 26v, 28r, 33v, 64v, 77v, 84v, 88r. The monetary value is given in lire.Notes:(a) Most of the craftsmen who worked on Pieros clothing were tailors (sarti), like Barberino, Giovanni dAntonio, Terozzodi Nerozzo, Antonio di maestro Benedetto and Antonio di Giovanni, but also furriers (vaiai) like Maso Ricucci, and somedoublet-makers ( farsettai) like Simone di Dino.(b) SJ = Saint John the Baptist (per San Giovanni); P = Popes arrival (per la venuta del Papa); C = Christmas (perNatale).(c) A lining of squirrel haunch fur was the cheapest squirrel fur.(d) For the lucco, Benedetto Varchi, Storia Fiorentina, con aggiunte e correzioni, ed. Lelio Arbib (Florence: Soc. Ed.Opere di Nardi e Varchi, 18381841), II, Libro IX (1529), 113. The Florentine lucco did not have sleeves, but lateralslits for the passage of arms. Carlo Merkel, I beni della famiglia di Puccio Pucci. Inventario del sec. XV illustrato(Trento: Miscellanea Nuziale Rossi-Theiis, 1897), 42. Lucchi appear regularly on the inventories of the family ofPuccio Pucci.

46On blue and light blue, see Salvatore Tramontana, Vestirsi e travestirsi in Sicilia: abbigliamento, feste espettacoli nel Medioevo (Palermo: Sellerio, 1993), 10810.47Bridgeman, Aspects of Dress and Ceremony, 142. Bridgeman argued that the soldiers of the Signoriamay have worn green liveries.48Collier Frick, Dressing Renaissance Florence, 314. Pagonazzo or paonazzo is a peacock colour, a deeprich blue-violet hue, which was very popular for both genders in the Quattrocento.

History of Retailing and Consumption 55

Table 3. Clothes sold or pawned by Piero (14441463).

Item No. Item Lining Trimmings Colour Value in lire and soldia

1 1 fustian cioppab haunches/heads of vair ormesino green 322 1 cloak light blue 83 1 lucco green 104 1 fustian cioppa grey cloth backs of vair deep blue 345 1 cioppac red boccaccinod cloth green/red 206 1 cioppa green 67 1 cioppa deep blue 68 2 berrettini di sciamitoe granaf 19 1 luccog paonazzo/black cloth green/paonazzo/black 1010 1 lucco green11 1 berretta12 1 pair of new calze 313 1 fustian cioppa unbleached fustiani otter green 1014 1 silk cappuccioh pagonazzo15 1 pair of calzej grana 316 1 pair of calze grana 1 10s17 1 fustian cioppa lamb otter deep blue 718 1 cioppa of San Martino fustian ormesino green 2419 1 lucco grey cloth 5 25s20 1 fustian giubbarellok deep blue

(Continued )

56A.Meneghin

Table 3. Continued.

Item No. Item Lining Trimmings Colour Value in lire and soldia

21 1 pair of calze green 422 28 silver buttonsl

23 1 fustian lucco green 20

Source: AOIF, 12617, fol. 33v; 12618, fols. 3v, 6v, 18v, 24v, 26r-v, 27v, 28v, 44r, 47v, 55v, 56v, 58v, 59vNotes:(a) The values of the data n. 1, 4, 5, 18, 23 (32, 34, 20, 24, 20) are given by the sale price of individual items of clothing. All other data are estimates derived from the amountsobtained by Piero by pledging the garments, and therefore underestimate the real value, at times consistently.(b) Con manicottoli di drappo rosso = with sleeves of red cloth.(c) Una cioppa verde foderata di bochacino (sic) rosso. For the kind of red dye no other indication is given by Piero. Lisa Monnas, Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics inItalian and Northern Paintings, 13001550 (New Haven, and London: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 301.(d) The boccaccino or boccasino was a robust cotton fabric.(e) Monnas, Merchants, Princes and Painters, Appendix I, 2978. Silk headgear, literally skullcaps of red samite. Samite was a silk twill weave.(f) John H. Munro, The Medieval Scarlet and the Economics of Sartorial Splendour, in Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor Eleanora Mary Carus-Wilson, ed. Negley B. Harte and Kenneth G. Ponting (London: Heinemann, 1983), 1370. The carmine red obtained by grana was inferior in cost to the chermisi or chermes that was thehighest quality and most intense dyestuff for red silk. Dominique Cardon, Natural Dyes: Sources, Tradition, Technology & Science, trans. Caroline Higgitt (London: Archetype Books,2007); and Lisa Monnas, Some Medieval Colour Terms for Textiles, Medieval Clothing & Textiles 10 (2014): 2557, 46.(g) Un lucco di panno verde, doppiato di paghonazzo (sic) e nero.(h) On the cappuccio, Baldesar Castiglione, Il Libro del Cortegiano, ed. Walter Barberis (Turin: Einaudi, 1998), Libro II, XXVII, 159. Rolled hood (chaperon in England and France). Thecappuccio was considered typically Florentine, as noted in Castigliones Cortegiano in 1516; Benedetto Varchi, Storia Fiorentina, 1145; and Jane Bridgeman, Aspects of Dress andCeremony in Quattrocento Florence (PhD diss., Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 1986), 958.(i) con manicottoli di drappo = with sleeves of cloth.(j) con peduli = with rope-soled shoes.(k) Doublet, con manichini rosati = with little pink sleeves.(l) Although these were sold, no value was ascribed to them.

History

ofRetailing

andConsum

ption57

the best quality English wool.49 The use of canvas, cotton, linen and wool in turn suggests that acustom existed of using lighter or heavier fabrics for the liveries depending on the season in whichthey were worn.

It seems that the clothes of both categories were made by the same tailor. This might be a resultof the need for specic skills, styles and patterns involved in making these clothes, which werewithin the remit of specialised tailors. This is also reected in Pieros attitude, as he commissionedwork mainly from a certain Giovanni dAntonio, nicknamed Tesoro (Treasure), who was appar-ently the tailor of almost all of the Partes members. When he died, his two sons, Antonio andVittorio, succeeded him in his role and once again Piero primarily utilised them to make hislivery. However, he also made occasional use of other tailors, including Piero di Domenico, Gir-olamo di Stefano, Antonio di Jacopo, Antonio Miche (nicknamed Barberino), and especially Gio-vanni di Cecco da Montelupo, who, in addition to cutting and sewing clothes was also a donzelloof the Parte, like Piero.50 The fact that the captains and the donzelli resorted to the same tailor alsosuggests that the cost of manufacture was the same for both groups. This is another indicator ofhowmuch importance was attached to the livery as a vehicle for communicating the prestige of theParte. Further proof of this can be seen in the other works that were entrusted to the same crafts-men. With regard to shoes, for example, we have data conrming that both the high authorities ofthe Parte and the donzelli made their purchases from the same shoemakers. Indeed, Piero wasserved by the same Simone, Guglielmo and Leonardo who made shoes and boots for the captains,and similarly used the same hosiers (calzaioli). On 18 November 1457, for example, Piero paid thesum of 2 lire 2 soldi for a pair of slippers and a pair of calcagnini (clogs that were worn over theslippers/shoes to protect them against the dirt in the streets) to Simone di Morello (il Morellino), ashoemaker who regularly supplied the captains as well.51 Guglielmo, the calzaiolo, and hisbrother Leonardo worked for other ofcers of the Parte, in particular Salvestro Spini treasurerin November 1457 and his family. The two brothers rented a shop from the Parte, probablylocated in the maze of streets around the old market. Piero visited their shop on more than oneoccasion from November to May 1457 to buy various things, including: a pair of soled hosemade of red perpignano (a generally expensive woollen jersey cloth used to make calze),valued at 4 lire;52 another pair of expensive red hose with peduli (rustic rope-soled shoes) for 3lire; and two pairs of much cheaper white calcetti (12 soldi).53 The shoes of the Signori andthe captains (who were almost always on horseback) lasted much longer than those of the servants,which had to be refurbished, along with calcetti, almost annually. The records of Piero oftencontain accounts with the shoemakers or hosiers to whom he would mostly resort for resolingshoes, probably worn out by lots of walking. To Andrea di Papi Macchietto, for example, he

49John Munro, I panni di lana, in Il Rinascimento Italiano e lEuropa, Commercio e cultura mercantile, IV,ed. Franco Franceschi, Richard A. Goldthwaite, and Reinhold C. Mueller (Treviso: Angelo Colla Editore,2007), 10541, 1225. The panni di San Martino earned their name from the tenth-century convent ofSan Martino del Vescovo in Florence, where they were manufactured.50ASF, Catasto, 64 (1427), 65 (1427), 80 (1457), 795 (1457), fols. 357, 276, 383, 264. All tailors mentionedlived and worked in Oltrarno, the city district with the highest concentration of tailors in the fteenth century,with the exception of Girolamo di Stefano, who lived in the neighborhood of San Giovanni. See also Nicho-las A. Eckstein, The District of the Green Dragon: Neighbourhood Life and Social Change in RenaissanceFlorence (Florence: Olschki, 1995), 1940.51AOIF, 12618, fol. 56v.52Levi Pisetzky, Storia del costume, II, 27. The hose were mostly solate, provided with a leather sole, so thatone would not have to wear shoes.53AOIF, 12618, fols. 54r, 56v. See also Levi Pisetzky, Storia del costume, II, 23. The calcetti, pieces thatwere worn under the hose and covered only the foot, were often made of simple fabric but could also bemade of linen thread.

58 A. Meneghin

paid 1 lira for the soling of two pairs of hose between 29 April and 8 July 1458.54 Another entryrecords 1 lira 18 soldi disbursed for the soling of two pairs of boots, for which he gave preciseindications (they have to be made like those of the captains), while an extra 2 lire 2 soldiwent to make sure that another new pair of boots without soles would look exactly like thoseof the captains. This indiscriminate employment of the artisans who worked on the clothesand shoes of both the Signori and captains and those of domestic staff is documented elsewhere.The customers of some shoemakers at Galeazzo Maria Sforzas court, for example, included notonly members of the dukes intimate circles but also a soldier and a member of the kitchen staff.55

In Florence, more conspicuous displays were possible during the festive spring season, whichbegan with May Day and culminated with the feast of St. John the Baptist on 24 June. Most of theexpenses for Pieros clothes occurred near the time of the feast of St. John (an event that coincidedwith one of the two annual distributions of clothes, as mentioned above). Payments made to thetailors Barberino, Terozzo di Nerozzo and Antonio di maestro Benedetto are all for substantialamounts, and invariably fall just before (22 June), the same day (24 June) or soon after (27June) the feast of San Giovanni.56

Although it is true that Piero left no inventory, which makes it difcult to distinguish the cloth-ing in his livery from that which he wore when he was not in service, data from the Memorialehave made it possible to reconstruct some of the elements of his livery. Indeed, he registeredalongside payments to various craftsmen for the latter work on his clothes and accessories the fact that they belonged to his livery, giving the destination of the purchases as well as theoccasion for their use (see Table 2). However, he also entered a list of the clothes of the Partefor me that he pawned, exchanged or sold on a number of occasions, as mentioned above,and in particular during the 1450s (see Table 3).

Tables 2 and 3 also make clear the regular presence of furs in Pieros livery, such as squirreland otter (lontra). While the highly valued vair57 was only employed to line fully one of Pierosovergowns (and even then it was with the cheaper fur of the heads and haunches rather than withthe expensive, soft bellies), other furs were used to trim the edges of his garments.58

Another item of note in his livery was the doublet ( farsetto), not a particularly valuablegarment per se, but made of black velvet in this case. The silk fabrics placed under thename of velvets (velluti) composed a very heterogeneous group in this period and the pricedifferences for different types were marked.59 It will sufce to say that if velluti were plain,they were much cheaper than those a due peli or a tre peli di altezze addobbate (that is, velvetwith either two or three pile warps per dent of the reed);60 if they were also dyed crimson red,they could reach astronomical gures.61 A plain crimson velvet cost 3 to 7 orins per

54AOIF, 12618, fol. 60v.55Lubkin, A Renaissance Court, 128.56AOIF, 12618, fols. 21v, 26v, 28r, 33v, 64v, 77v, 84v, 88r.57Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, La pratica della mercatura, ed. Allan Evans (Cambridge, MA: The Medie-val Academy of America, 1936), no. 24, 38, 436; and Collier Frick, Dressing Renaissance Florence, 169,Table 8.1, Pelts used for lining, borders and sleeves in fteenth century Florence. The costly grey fur ofthe greater squirrel (originally imported from Siberia and Bulgaria) was called vair.58On fur, see Elspeth M. Veale, The English Fur Trade in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford: Clarendon Press,1966).59For (silk) velvet, see Lisa Monnas, Renaissance Velvets (London: V&A Publications, 2012).60Lisa Monnas, Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 13001550 (New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 304.61Luca Mol, The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UniversityPress, 2000), 11220. On the price of colours, see Giovanni da Uzzano, La pratica della mercatura(Bologna: Formia Editore, 1967, reprint), IV, LX, 170.

History of Retailing and Consumption 59

braccio,62 depending upon its quality, while a crimson velvet with gold thread cost 24 orins perbraccio.63 The farsetto purchased by Piero was probably made of lower-quality velvet, a plainmaterial, possibly devoid of decorative motifs and certainly not enriched with silver and goldthreads. In fact, if we consider the cost of manufacture, which is supposed to have beenhigh,64 the price Piero paid for the doublet a little more than 1 orin is a lower gure thanthat documented for only a braccio of velvet, whose market price ranged between a minimumof 1 orin 13 soldi 9 denari to a maximum of 1 orin 15 soldi expressed in orini di suggello,a money of account.65 Almost certainly Piero purchased this farsetto second-hand.

Another of the elements appearing in the most rened wardrobes, but also as part ofPieros livery that gave an immediate effect of elegance to an ensemblewere gloves. In particular,suede gloves were very popular, especially in the second half of the fteenth century, as werethose made of silk or cloth. Gloves from Milan were especially sought after.66 Some of Pierosmost conspicuous expenses appeared in relation to this accessory; he jotted down the purchaseof a pair of suede leather gloves at the cost of 10 lire in 1453, and then again in 1459. In thatyear he recorded having bought on 1 June several pairs of gloves for the Popes arrival in Florence(per la venuta del Papa a Firenze) at the cost of 2 lire 19 soldi from Simone di Dino, the doubletmaker.67 Benedetto Dei, an eyewitness to the events, described the substantial expenses that theSignoria and theParte had incurred to properly celebrate the arrival of the Pope and other illustriouspersonalities, such as Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord ofRimini.68

The 28 silver buttons that Piero purchased represent another element of great importance inthe hierarchy of clothing accessories.69 These were probably used to close the loops of one ofhis garments, either a doublet (perhaps the velvet one), the deep blue giubbarello (doublet)with pink sleeves made of fustian, or one of his various overgowns.70 Katherine KovesiKillerby has shown that, while magistrates and communal ofcers were exempted from strictlyfollowing the rules,71 men accused of breaking the clothing laws were especially prosecuted

62The Florentine braccio measured 0.583 metres.63Jane Bridgeman, Pagare le pompe: Why Quattrocento Sumtuary Laws Did Not Work, in Women inItalian Renaissance, Culture and Society, ed. Letizia Panizza (Oxford: European Humanities ResearchCentre, 2000), 20926, 217.64Florence Edler de Roover, Andrea Banchi, Florentine Silk Manufacturer and Merchant in the FifteenthCentury, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 3 (1966): 22883, Table 4, 248; William Caferro,The Silk Business of Tommaso Spinelli, Fifteenth-Century Florentine Merchant and Papal Banker, Renais-sance Studies 10, no. 4 (1996): 41739, Table 1, 430; and Monica Cerri, Sarti toscani nel Seicento: attivit eclientela, in Cavagna and Butazzi, Le trame della moda, 42135, 427. To make a doublet, which had to betted to the individual body and stuffed with cotton, required a lot of work.65Sergio Tognetti, Unindustria di lusso al servizio del grande commercio. Il mercato dei drappi serici edella seta nella Firenze del Quattrocento (Florence: Olschki, 2002), 115. The estimates are calculated forthe period 14591470.66Rita Levi Pisetzky, Il costume e la moda nella societ italiana (Turin: Einaudi, 1978), 198; see also EvelynWelch, Scented Buttons and Perfumed Gloves: Smelling Things in Renaissance Italy, in Ornamentalism:The Art of Renaissance Accessories, ed. Bella Mirabella (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011),1339.67AOIF, 12618, fol. 77v.68Benedetto Dei, La cronica dellanno 1400 allanno 1500, ed. Roberto Barducci (Florence: Papafava,1984), 66.69On buttons, see Dora L. Bemporad and Caterina Chiarelli, eds., Appesi a un lo. Bottoni alla Galleria delCostume di Palazzo Pitti (Florence: Sillabe, 2007).70Bridgeman, Aspects of Dress and Ceremony, 139. Bridgeman argued that an additional requirement forthe emissaries of the Signoria was to wear silver buttons.71Kovesi Killerby, Sumptuary Law, 85.

60 A. Meneghin

for having silver or enamelled silver buttons on their own outts or on those of their daughtersand sons.72

The grana hose and the silk cappuccio, and the fur trimmings, coloured yarn and beads, aswell as the same gloves and the manicottoli made of coloured cloth, were almost certainlyparts of a non-ordinary livery; not to be worn every day, but only under special circumstances.In fact, although silk hardly featured in any other garments and the range of decorative effectswas limited (except for the cases mentioned above), it would seem that it was common practiceto enrich the liveries with a few key elements before important public ceremonies or celebrationsrather than ordering new liveries, unless it was strictly necessary. In order to emphasise the clothesof the donzelli, beads, trimmings or coloured yarn (refe) could be added to make the servantsimmediately recognisable as such, just as the various members clothes displayed their differencesin status. Pieros purchase records contain a wealth of data to conrm this from various Flor-entine merciai (haberdashers) regarding purchases of coloured refe and cords of variouskinds and colours, possibly to decorate his livery.

Finally, the responsibility for the care of these clothes adds another interesting dimension. Inaddition to giving the already mentioned bonus for the liveries, it also seems that the Parte com-pensated the donzelli when they incurred some expenses in order to keep their clothing neat.When Piero turned to Giovanni dAntonio Tesoro for adjustment in 1451 (he made me alucco by converting a cloak: per acconciatura di un mantello mi ci fece un lucco), and to turna garment inside-out (per rivoltare da capo a pi un lucchetto verde) as it was probably wornon one side, the Parte refunded him the 22 and 25 soldi he had spent.73 This benevolent attitudetook into account the labours of the servant and the consequent wear-and-tear on his clothes.

Conclusions

Analysing the rules and regulations regarding the dress of the household staff of the Parte Guelfaoffers important evidence as to the visual impact and the political signicance of the livery ofminor ofcers. As this study has illustrated, the livery was employed to publicise messages inti-mately linked to the power and honour of the Parte. The members of the Partes household woreclothes that represented their social identity, guaranteeing an immediate recognition of their rolesas individuals as well as members of a group. Indeed, the liveries of the subordinates functionedas prime indicators and direct reections of the power of the institution to which they belonged,and the garments were conceived and perceived as a way to illustrate the Partes virtues andliberality.

While the trimmings in ormesino of cioppe and lucchi, the silver buttons, the silk cappucciand the suede gloves of a simple donzello were an obvious manifestation of the honour of theParte, the nancial advantage for the wearer must also be taken into account and must not beunderestimated. Clothes that were given to the donzelli for a limited period of time, only entrustedto them for the duration of their service, became, in practice, their personal belongings which theyfelt entitled to exchange, pawn and even sell, in essence committing embezzlement.

At times the records of Piero di Francesco indicate that the Parte paid artisans and tailors onhis behalf for the items listed. Nevertheless, this arrangement does not necessarily mean that theParte dictated his choices, despite what was prescribed in the statutes. In fact, it seems unlikelythat the Parte controlled its servants spending very closely or that the control was very strict. Infact, it is common to nd records testifying to a different arrangement which seems to have

72Ibid., 1545.73AOIF, 12619, fol. 6v.

History of Retailing and Consumption 61

become the norm at some point: that is, Piero made his own purchases on credit from local retai-lers and had the transaction charged to the Partes account. This last method was advantageous tohim as the Parte was undoubtedly more creditworthy and its credit innitely more extensive thanthat of its servants. It must be said that, if the Parte allowed its servants a certain latitude in theirhandling of clothing, this was hardly unique. It remains possible that the Parte expected its ser-vants to maintain sartorial standards that were both more elevated and more constrained thanthose demanded by the social class to which they belonged. In enforcing these standards, theParte may have been more generous with gifts of clothing. The more stylish items may notnecessarily have been as ne as those owned by the captains, but they certainly included, atleast as accessories, the furs and velvets complained about in fteenth-century sumptuary legis-lation. Piero, who seems to have combined the costly and stylish with the cheap and mundane,took full advantage of his lucky circumstances.

Ultimately, if the livery was conceived of as a means of constraining the extravagance of theservants dress, while serving as a reection of the Parte Guelfa, the lax behaviour of the ofcerswhose responsibilities included checking on regulations on clothes, but who neglected to do so,effectively allowed some of the donzelli to deceitfully use the clothing given to them. Probablynot all servants chose to employ their clothing allowance in the way Piero did, but the factremains that, if the precise laws aimed at prohibiting the misuse of clothing written in the statuteswere enacted, they probably only reected formalities rather than strict regulations.

Acknowledgement

This study is largely based upon collections in the Archive of the Hospital of the Innocenti (AOIF) and in theState Archive in Florence (ASF).

Disclaimer

No potential conict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Alessia Meneghin is Research Associate in Italian Renaissance Studies at the University of Cambridge. In2011 she was the recipient of the Society for Renaissance Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2011 and 2012she worked on the ARC-funded project, The Anatomy and Physiology of Renaissance Florence: TheDynamics of Social Change in the Fifteenth Century, led by Nicholas Eckstein of the University ofSydney. Her published work focuses on issues of life-standards, consumption and the social mobility ofthe lower social orders in Renaissance Florence. She has published in Archivio Storico Italiano and has forth-coming work in Quaderni Storici and in the volume Retail Trade, Supply and Demand in the Formal andInformal Economy from the 13th to the 18th Centuries, published by Firenze University Press, for the IstitutoInternazionale di Storia Economica F. Datini.

62 A. Meneghin

AbstractThe Parte Guelfa and the clothing allowance of the donzelliPiero's livery

ConclusionsAcknowledgementDisclaimerNotes on contributor