Society and Population
The Death of Lucrezia Panzano
Primary Source Reading
from Brucker, The Society of Renaissance Florence, pp. 44-45.
November 5, 1445. I record that my wife Lucrezia, from whom I have eleven children alive today, died this day, Friday evening, two and one-half hours after sunset. This has caused me as much grief as though I were dying, for we have lived together for twenty years, one month, and eleven days. I pray to God most fervently that He pardon her. She died in labor; the child was apparently stillborn. But since the child was said to be breathing, it was baptized and named Giovanni. We buried it in the church of S. Simone.
We dressed my daugher Gostanza and Monna Caterina, the wife of Filippo di Ghezzi, with fourteen yards of cloth for a cloak, and a pair of veils and handkerchiefs. On Saturday morning at 11 o'clock, we held a vigil in our house with priests and friars. We buried her that day in S. Croce, in the vault of Messer Luca [Luca's grandfather] next to the found of holy water. On the 8th, we had a mass said for her soul in S. Croce, with candles and as much pomp as possible. A large number of friends and relatives attended.
The loss of this woman was a grievous blow; she was mourned by the entire populace of Florence. She was a good woman, sweet-tempered and well-mannered, and was loved by everyone who knew her. I believe that her soul has gone to sit at the feet of God's servants. For she bore her final sufferings with patience and humility. She lay ill for two weeks after the child was born. May God with His great mercy make a place for her with angels.
On May 16, 1446, I, Luca da Panzano, ordered thirty masses of St. Gregory to be said, one each morning on consecutive days, for the salvation of my wife Lucrezia's soul. I commissioned my confessor, Fra Altaviano del Mangano, a friar of S. Croce in Florence [to say these masses]. Today I gave him two wax candles weighing a pound each to keep lighted during these masses. And for his services, I gave Fra Altaviano approximately one-half yard of Alexandria velvet.
Note: This source appears in the original in the Diary of Luca di Matteo da Panzano; C. Carnesecchi, Archivio storica italiano, ser. 5, IV (1889), 156-159. The English version here was translated by Gene Brucker.