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  • The Merchant of Prato's Wife: Margherita Datini and her World, 1360–1423 by Ann Crabb
  • Natalie Tomas
Crabb, Ann, The Merchant of Prato's Wife: Margherita Datini and her World, 1360–1423, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2015; cloth; pp. 275; 10 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US$75.00; ISBN 9780472119493.

I first came across Margherita Datini while reading Iris Origo's popular biography of her husband, The Merchant of Prato: Francesco di Marco Datini, 1335–1410 (Knopf, 1957). I was fascinated by Francesco's wife, Margherita, and felt that there must be more of substance to this woman than Origo's rather sharp-tongued portrait. The publication in 1977 of an Italian edition of over two hundred and forty of Margherita's letters to her husband facilitated my future research and writing on her. More recent work by Joseph Byrne, Jerome Hayez, Carolyn James, and others has also focused on Margherita and helped to paint a more complex portrait than that of Origo. [End Page 205]

Ann Crabb's title declares her view that Margherita saw wifehood as a profession. Crabb argues furthermore that Margherita strove to perform her role as wife honourably and that doing so was fundamental to her sense of identity. Equally important to Margherita's sense of identity was her familial relationships and her aristocratic lineage. Her father, Domenico Bandini, was executed in 1360, the year Margherita was born, for his involvement in a plot against the Florentine Government. Margherita's parents were from noble families: the Bandini and Gherardini, who had both been excluded from participation in Florentine life since the 1290s because of their violent behaviour. Margherita's mother, Dianora, moved Margherita and her siblings to Avignon in 1374. There, the family became acquainted with Francesco – an orphaned parvenu from Prato, some twenty-five years Margherita's senior – who had made his fortune in Avignon as a merchant. The impoverished Dianora could not provide Margherita with a dowry, but Francesco was happy to marry a Florentine girl of higher social status than him, despite this. They married in Avignon in 1376.

The correspondence between them began when Francesco and Margherita returned to Italy in 1383. The couple were often apart as Francesco would divide his time between his various trading companies in Prato, Florence, Pisa, and elsewhere. Margherita remained either in Prato or in the house they rented in Florence. Margherita's childlessness was a shadow over her life as the key duty of a wife was to provide heirs for her husband's family. Crabb suggests that despite any jealousy she may have felt, Margherita accepted Francesco's infidelity and supported him in the care of his two illegitimate children. His daughter Ginevra grew up in the Datini household.

The early years of her relationship with her husband were often difficult, but Margherita's authorial voice comes through strongly in the many letters she dictated to Francesco, as she asserted her right to be treated with respect by him when she does her job well. Wifely obedience was demanded of women but Francesco was often a hard-taskmaster and his friends often had to step in to chide and cajole him to treat his spouse more respectfully. At times, aware that she had stretched the boundaries of permissible action too far, Margherita would apologise, while justifying her actions in terms of her responsibility to care for him appropriately and ensure the salvation of his soul.

The range of activities that Margherita undertook was vast and extended well beyond the household and childrearing. She acted as a wet-nurse broker, supervised Francesco's employees, collected moneys owed to Francesco, and supervised the activities on his farms, as well as reporting on the progress of the building and decoration of his town-house. In the 1390s, Margherita's efforts to ensure that Francesco was not too heavily taxed required some decidedly political actions that went beyond the boundaries of wifely duties [End Page 206] and were quite extraordinary. In this instance, Margherita's own aristocratic status possibly helped her to convince equally high-status Florentines to support Francesco. More could perhaps have been made by Crabb of both...

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