Letter from Margherita Datini

February 20, 1388
Margherita Datini, at the time living in Florence while her husband Francesco conducted his thriving merchant business in Prato, wrote to him about a variety of business matters in this letter but also included sentences expressing her frustration at his sexual behavior.
Prato State Archives, Paper in Motion Website Exhibit

Connection to Website Themes

Spousal Power Dyanmics: Margherita Datini often added scoldings and criticisms of her husband in her letters to him. At the same time, those criticisms occupied only a small portion of longer messages that otherwise focused on business matters.¹ Margherita came from a higher status family than Francesco and although she lacked the power to compel him to do her will, she possessed enough leverage to exert power in her immediate household. For example, she learned to write in order to prevent the interventions of scribes in her letters.

Community Social Norms: In her letters, Margherita comes through as a business partner to Francesco and not really as a subordinate. Her more noble family background gave her the status required for pushing against patriarchical norms. The community social norms that exerted pressure on the aristocratic and royal elites could lessen for the bourgeois elite. Their immense wealth could insulate them from social sanction and they might avoid the political entanglements that could make them targets for criticism by ecclesiastical authorities.

Church and State: As part of an archive of merchant business papers, financial matters determine the primary concerns related to the main institutions of the era. Taxation rates would affect business deals and the profits of the Datini firm. Not much of the Church’s authority appears in this letter.

What is Love: The marriage of Francesco and Margherita Datini might not have been loveless, but little in their letters indicate that the marriage began as a love match. Rather, the couple likely married for economic reasons. Francesco respected Margherita’s business acumen, as she managed his Prato business office.