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"If I could write": Margherita Datini and Letter Writing, 1385–1410
- Renaissance Quarterly
- Renaissance Society of America
- Volume 60, Number 4, Winter 2007
- pp. 1170-1206
- Article
- Additional Information
Margherita Datini's correspondence with her husband Francesco presents a well-documented case of progress from partial to full literacy. In Margherita's merchant world, letter writing was a major concern, and her household duties included frequent reports to her absent husband. First, she prided herself on her dictation, and then she turned her attention to reading and writing. A recently discovered autograph letter shows that she was writing at twenty-eight, earlier than previously thought, and she attained full literacy in her mid-thirties. After that, writing no longer seemed a challenge, and she returned to using a scribe.