Gregorio (Goro) Dati (15 April 1362 – 17 September 1435)John Barnes, "Dati, Gregorio (1362–1435)", The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature, 2002. . was a Florentine merchant and diarist best known for the authorship of The Diaries of Gregorio Dati, which represents a major source for social and economic historians of Renaissance Florence, alongside the diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti. He kept a detailed diary outlining his business dealings as well as personal information about the births and deaths of his four successive wives and his 26 children.
Life
Career Gregorio Dati is perhaps best known for exemplifying the late 14th and early 15th century Florentine silk merchant. Dati was a partner in numerous silk-producing firms over his lifetime, entering the industry when it was still young in Florence. The tumultuous financial situations he describes in his Libro Segreto are testament to risk of the industry. Typical of silk merchants, rather than rely on exporters, Dati's firm sold silks directly in Valencia, a burgeoning Mediterranean trading hub. Complicating his commercial life were piracy, bankruptcy and litigation.
Dati was politically active in Florence, repeatedly serving as consul of the Silk Guild and, later in life, holding a series of public offices. In government, he served as head of the Florentine Signoria and in two bodies of government advisors. He was also overseer of the prestigious Ospedale degli Innocenti and served in the judicial body Ten on Liberty and among the Five Defenders of the County.
Dati's writings have proven useful to historians and scholars alike due to his unique placement within Florentine society. Dati's diary and Libro Segreto represent a major source of information on the economics and social aspects of Florence during this time. His other works include Istoria Di Firenze dal 1380-1405, a chronicle of the Milanese-Florentine wars set in a cautionary tone rather than traditional chronicle, and La Sfera, a manuscript containing astronomical charts and navigational maps. The complexity and thoroughness of his public works demonstrate that he had access to an informal education that involved Classical writers. Dati's writing has been credited as a self-conscious portrayal of Florentine politics, economy and culture.
Dati survived two bouts of bubonic plague that struck his family, and would go on to outlive three of his wives and 19 of his children. Dati did not keep his diary for the last eight years of his life, and he died in 1435.
Early life Gregorio Dati, also known as Goro, was born April 15, 1362, to silk merchant Stagio Dati (1316–1374) and Monna Ghita (d. 1414) in Florence, Italy.Gene Brucker (Ed.) Julia Martines (trans.) Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buannaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati.. (Harper and Row 1967) p. 113 Gregorio had 16 siblings, including Fra Leonardo Dati (1360–1425), a Friar and Master General of the Dominican OrderKaren Severund Cook. "Dati's Sfera: The Manuscript Copy in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas". Mediterranean Studies 11 (2002) 48. At the age of 13, Gregorio quit school to work in the silk shop of Giovanni di Giano, the beginning of his own career as a silk merchant.
Personal life
Marriages and children In his diary, Dati kept an extremely detailed account of the dates surrounding the births and deaths of his four successive wives and his 26 children. With his wives, Dati kept an exact recording of the dowry received and how he invested and spent those florins, handling his personal affairs in the same way he might handle his business affairs.Ionut Epurescu-Pascovici. "Gregorio Dati (1362-1435) and the Limits of Individual Agency". Medieval History Journal 9 no. 2 (2006) p.302. As well as exact dates, Dati kept a record of the godparents of each child and even, in a few cases, what the weather was doing on the day of their births.
Dati's first wife was Bandecca, who died in 1390 following a miscarriage in the fifth month of pregnancy. Consequently, there were no children produced from this union.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 114
After the death of his first wife, Dati travelled to Valencia on an extended trip from 1390 to 1391. During his time in Valencia he fathered an illegitimate child with his Tartar slave, Margherita. He called the child Thomas, but refers to him as Maso in his diary (born December 1391).Brucker and Martines 1967, p.114.
In June 1393, Dati married Isabetta (Betta) Villanuzzi after they had been betrothed for several months. According to his diary entry, her dowry of 800 gold florins that came from Betta's first cousins was soon invested in the shop of Buanccorso Berardi, another silk merchant.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 115 Dati and Isabetta lived together in Florence, though Dati was often travelling to Catalonia and Valencia on business. Together, they had eight children: Bandecca (1394–1420), Stagio (1396–1400), Veronica (1397–1420), Bernardo (1398–?), Mari (1399–1400), Stagio II (1401), and Piero Antonio (1402).Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 113-115 Isabetta died from complications during childbirth in 1402.
Dati married his third wife Ginevra (d. 1419) in 1404 and together they had 11 children before she died from complications during childbirth in 1419. In Gregorio's account of the specifics of each birth, he gives details on only nine. They lived in Florence but moved several times in an attempt to avoid the plague. These children included Manetto (1404–1418), Agnolo (1405), Elisabetta (1406–1414), Antonia (1407–1420), Niccolo (1411), Girolamo (1412–?), Filipo (1415–1419), Ghita (1416–?) and Lisa (1419).Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 120
Dati then went on to marry his fourth wife Caterina, daughter of Dardando di Niccolo Guicciardini and Monna Tita. They were married in March 1421, Dati at the age of 59 and Caterina, age 30.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 125 Dati recorded that he received a dowry of 600 florins from Caterina's uncle Niccolo d’Andrea. Caterina gave birth to six children including Ginevra (1422–1431), Antonio (1424–?), Lionardo (1425–1431), Anna (1426–?), Fillipa (1427–1430) and Bartolomea (1431–?).Brucker and Martines 1967, pp. 125-127
Dati's family would suffer from the bubonic plague twice, once in 1400 and once in 1420.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 120 In 1400, two of Dati's children, Stagio and Mari succumbed to the disease. Following that tragedy, the Dati family moved houses several times in an attempt to avoid the plague until they were infected again in 1420, this time losing several servants and three children, Veronica, Bandecca and Antonia, on the same day.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 120 According to Cohn and Alfani, one quarter of all plague deaths in Italy occurred within households on the same day, so this phenomenon was not uncommon.G. Alfani and S. Cohn. "Households and Plague in Early Modern Italy" Journal of Interdisciplinary History 38 no, 2. (2007). p.188 In total, Dati fathered 26 children, seven of whom were surviving at the conclusion of his diary. Five children succumbed to plague; several died from other early childhood ailments such as being born prematurely, dysentery and the common cold.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 120, 121, 124
Relationship with brother Dati's younger brother Fra Leonardo Dati (1365−1425) was a Dominican Friar and Master General of the Dominican Order during the Great Schism.Cook 2002, p. 48 They seemed to be close; Leonardo was godfather to several of Dati's children, and Dati made a point of mentioning his brother's achievements in his diary entries. This suggests closeness between the two, as Dati never mentions any of his 15 other siblings in his writings. The two men are both associated with the authorship of the cosmographical poem La Sfera.Cook 2002, p. 45
Death Dati did not keep a diary for the last eight years of his life, and he died on September 17, 1435, from an unknown cause.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 130
Commercial life Gregorio Dati is best known for his career as a silk merchant, which he documents in his Libro Segreto. His mercantile life is typical of what we know about the Florentine silk trade at the time. His father worked in the wool guild and Dati followed in his footsteps for a stint in his youth,Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 108. but in the late 14th and early 15th centuries the wool industry in Florence went into a slump,Richard A. Goldthwaite. The Economy of Renaissance Florence. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2009), p. 108. perhaps encouraging Dati to take a different path. He may also have been enticed by the greater potential for profit in the silk industry.Goldthwaite 2009, p. 307. Dati apprenticed in a silk producing shop in 1375 at 13 years old,Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 108. when it was still a fairly new industry in Florence.Goldthwaite 2009, p. 307.
He was first made partner in 1385Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 108. and later formed a number of partnerships throughout his career. Dati's partnerships often lasted less than three yearsBrucker and Martines 1967, pp. 108-109.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 138. (which was shorter than the average of three to five) and were usually composed of himself and two-three other investors (which was typical). He frequently entered into partnerships with Buonaccorso Beradri from 1387–1394 and Michele di Ser Perente from 1395–1403. The exact terms of the contracts, including how long they would last, who was involved, their initial investments and their corresponding share of the profits were decided and recorded in a ledger—Dati records such contracts in his Libro Segreto.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 109. Dati was usually a minor partner in these contracts with a smaller stake in the company, but in 1403, at 41 years old, he tells of a partnership in which the company bears his name, indicating he was the major partner.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 120.
While the silk industry had greater potential profitability, it was also riskier. At this time, merchants used the putting-out system, which meant that the silk firm owner, like Dati, would buy raw materials and have them processed by workers (e.g. weavers) for a price set by the guild. Since silk took a long time to make and spent more time on the loom, weavers would require an advance. As a result, initial investment in silk firms needed to be quite high to buy the costly raw silk and give the weavers cash advances, and it could be 3–4 months before the first silks were saleable.Goldthwaite 2009, p. 303. Thus we see Dati investing all of his money into companies and often struggling to afford the initial investments.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 110.Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 121. He chose his wives based their dowries;Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 121. borrowed from banks, friends and his brother Leonardo;Brucker and Martines 1967, p. 120. and used his own money in order to raise the capital necessary to have a substantial stake in the company and its profits.
Overall, Dati was a successful merchant. According to the 1427 catasto (Florence's tax survey), Dati's total wealth—including private investments, e.g. cash and silk; real estate; and public debt investment—at 64 years old was 3,368 florins. This made him within the wealthiest 10% of Florentines on record.Online Catasto of 1427. Florentine Renaissance Resources/STG: (Brown University, Providence, R.I., 2002).