Giovanni and Lusanna

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Giovanni and Lusanna is a micro-historical study by the American art historian Gene Brucker . The book was published in 1988 and is about the love story between Lusanna and Giovanni in Florence in the 15th century. Brucker conducted intensive research on the social conditions during the Renaissance in Florence. Through the story of Giovanni and Lusanna, he tried to give an insight into the social conditions of the time. The book was controversial within historiography.

Cognitive interest

While researching a study on the Tuscan Church in the 15th century, Gene Brucker came across the files of the notary Ser Filippo Mazzei. The relationship between Giovanni and Lusanna negotiated therein interested Brucker. He saw in this the possibility of presenting an investigation of people and milieus based on two individual fates that had not yet been explored. The detailed examination of unused court files made it possible, according to Brucker, to reconstruct a vivid picture of the world at that time. The focus on two individuals, here Giovanni and Lusanna, should enable the reader to experience the Florentine renaissance directly and specifically. Analytical historiography often lacks this (sensual) aspect.

Brucker classifies himself and his book in terms of descriptive historiography ; he is close to historians such as Lawrence Stone , Carlo Ginzburg and Natalie Zemon Davis . Joseph Berrigan counts Brucker as one of the most important Anglo-American microhistorians, with an emphasis on the Florentine Renaissance.

Synopsis

The work is divided into five chapters and ends with an epilogue. For the time being, Brucker shows the context of the case and interprets different individual perspectives on the case of Giovanni and Lusanna. In the last chapters the author deals with the legal process of the process and the social and cultural context of the 15th century in Florence. As the most important source for his research he names the files of the notary Ser Filippo Mazzei, which at the time of his investigations were in the State Archives of Florence.

The work is about a legal case that was heard before an ecclesiastical court chaired by Archbishop Antoninus and his vicar general Messer Raffaello de 'Primadicis in 1455. The applicant was Lusanna di Girolamo, the widow of Andrea di Antonio Nucci and daughter of the craftsman Maestro Benedetto the Girolamo. She charged the wealthy merchant and son of a well-known Florentine family with adultery. Marriage disputes were not unusual in Florence. However, this case attracted a lot of attention as its trial dragged on and produced extremely extensive litigation material. Witnesses from various social classes were also involved.

After the death of her first husband, Lusanna married Giovanni della Casa in May 1453. Since he did not want his family to know about his wedding to a woman from a lower social class, the marriage was concluded in a secret setting. Giovanni later denied the legality of the marriage and that the marriage took place. Two years later (1455) he married Marietta di Cardinale Rucellai, daughter of a noble family in Florence. This resulted in Lusanna bringing charges against Giovanni's adultery through her brother Antonio. In the course of this trial, Lusanna herself was charged in the secular court ( Podestà ) of poisoning her husband in order to marry Giovanni, which led to a dispute over which court should hear the case. The dispute between ecclesiastical and secular courts was decided by the Signoria in favor of the archbishop. The Podestà stopped investigating the murder charges against Lusanna.

The trial before the ecclesiastical court lasted more than four months. It ended with Archbishop Antoninus Lusanna agreeing. However, the case was opened a second time. This time it was negotiated in Rome . The court there decided in favor of Giovanni. In the years after the trial there is nothing left of Lusanna in the files. There are other files on Giovanni. They testify that his business was losing money and that he eventually died in 1480.

Brucker sees in Lusanna a woman who had the courage to reject and challenge the existing social conditions. He describes the social conditions at that time as the oppression of the female sex. According to Brucker, Lusanna passionately followed her heart and consciously took the risk of falling into disgrace in the public eye.

Historical context of the case

The 15th century was marked by the Renaissance. During this time the papacy regained new power. Due to the pronounced hierarchy and the economic differences within society, there was increasing dissatisfaction with the existing order, especially in the lower social classes. The social context of Giovanni and Lusanna was shaped by social unrest. Up until the 18th century, the political and economic life in Florence was also closely linked to the Medici family .

The secret wedding of Giovanni and Lusanna was unusual for the time. Characteristic were public and ritualized weddings with a marriage vow, an exchange of rings and a public wedding procession through the city. Adultery was not considered in the Florentine world, but it did happen quite often. This is shown, among other things, by the fact that illegitimate children are often mentioned in the documents.

reception

Numerous reviews of Brucker's Giovanni and Lusanna have been written in English . The study caused controversy among historians. Thomas Kuehn , professor at the University of Clemson , who researched the Italian Renaissance intensively and also dealt with the case of Giovanni and Lusanna, was a sharp critic of Brucker. He asserted that no investigation into the social and cultural history of a city could be written based on court records. Especially for a complex case like that of Giovanni and Lusanna, a broader range of texts and additional cases must be used. According to Kuehn, a legal process has a strong influence on the testimony of witnesses. This should be taken into account in a source-critical analysis of court files. Brucker would not have done that, so Kuehn. In Giovanni and Lusanna the emergence of this case has been received loud Kuehn too little on the reasons. Brucker did not wonder why the case came about in the first place, nor why Antonio, Lusanna's brother, was so interested in her case. While Brucker sees Lusanna's love for Giovanni as the reason, Kuehn refers to a culture of retaliation, as Florence was known as a place of contentious families and corresponding feuds. Kuehn said that based on the files in this case, conclusions can primarily be drawn about the nature, norms and practices of court proceedings. However, statements about urban society could not be derived from it.

Similar to Kuehn, the historian Anthony Molho was of the opinion that Brucker did not examine the elements of a situation in enough detail in his work. According to Molho, Brucker treated the legal files only superficially and in particular neglected those elements that would show the difference between a premodern and a modern culture.

In contrast, Guido Ruggiero , professor at the University of Miami , saw Brucker as a talented microhistorian who was extremely well-versed with the files on which the case was based and who was very familiar with the cultural and political context of the case. For Ruggiero, Brucker gave a profound insight into the relationship between state and church. In addition, Brucker had the ability to address a wide audience with his work, which was beneficial to the study of history.

Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon and István Szijártó also contradict Kuehn's opinion . If legal documents are not sufficient for the reconstruction of a case and these cannot be used for the reconstruction of social reality, as Kuehn postulates, then according to Magnússon and Szijártó microhistory as such would not be possible.

Otto Ulbricht sketched a differentiated picture on the subject of the sources. He is also of the opinion that insights into questions of society as a whole (or on specific topics) can be obtained even if there are few sources. It is important to deal with the sources openly and critically - especially when it comes to the limits of the possibilities for making statements and the epistemological approach. Both must be reflected on and identified. However, according to Ulbricht, this is lacking in Brucker's work. Brucker is "an expert on Florentine history who was primarily concerned with telling a short, exciting story [...], but it is not micro-history". Brucker only concentrated on the narration and thereby "dropped all micro-historical ambitions". so Ulbricht.

Lauro Martines , a former professor of European history at the University of California , praised Brucker's research as a "jewel". For him the book is a successful risk and a positive example of narrative historiography.

Elizabeth B. Welles is also largely positive about the work. She praises the viewer position that the reader assumes due to the narrative style and the “unique spice of life as it was actually lived.” On the other hand, she criticizes the absence of explanatory footnotes as a nuisance. An average reader who does not have Brucker's background knowledge would have to put in a disproportionate amount of additional effort in order to draw on the full.

output

  • In German: Giovanni and Lusanna - The story of a love in Renaissance Florence. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-499-55466-6 .
  • In English: Giovanni and Lusanna: love and marriage in Renaissance Florence. University of California Press, Berkeley 1986, ISBN 0-520-05655-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1988.
  2. ^ "Gene A. Brucker" on the website of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  3. ↑ a b Brucker Gene: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, p. 140.
  4. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, pp. 9-11.
  5. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, pp. 11-12.
  6. ^ Brucker Gene: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, pp. 10-11.
  7. ↑ Joseph Berrigan: Reviewed Work (s): Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence by Gene Brucker; The Knight, the Lady and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France by Georges Duby and Barbara Bray; William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry by Georges Duby and Richard Howard. In: The Sewanee Review, 95/1987, pp. 657-660.
  8. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, p. 143.
  9. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, pp. 14-15.
  10. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, pp. 30-64.
  11. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, p. 79.
  12. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, pp. 136-138.
  13. ^ Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: The story of a love in the Florence of the Renaissance . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988, p. 101.
  14. ^ Jürgen Huber: Guicciardini's Critique of Machiavelli. Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden 2004, pp. 13–29.
  15. ↑ a b Dietrich Engelhardt: Florence and Toscana. Springer Verlag, Basel 1987, pp. 19-29.
  16. ^ "Kuehn, Thomas J." on Clemson History
  17. ↑ Thomas Kuehn: Reading Microhistory: The Example of Giovanni and Lusanna. In: The Journal of Modern History , 61/1989, pp. 512-534.
  18. ^ "Anthony Molho" on European University Institute
  19. ↑ Anthony Molho: Reviewed Work (s): Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. by Gene Brucker. In: Renaissance Quarterly. 40/1987, pp. 96-100.
  20. ↑ Guido Ruggiero: Reviewed Work (s): Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence by Gene Brucker. In: Speculum. 62/1987, pp. 910-912.
  21. ↑ István Szijártó, Sigurdur Gylfi Magnússon: What is micro history? Theory and Practice. Routledge, London / New York 2013, p. 56.
  22. ↑ a b Otto Ulbricht: Micro history: people and conflicts in the early modern times. Frankfurt and New York, Campus 2009, page 22.
  23. ↑ Lauro Martines: Reviewed Work (s): Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. by Gene Brucker. In: The Sixteenth Century Journal. 18/1987, p. 288.
  24. ↑ Elizabeth B. Welles: Review of Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence by Gene Brucker . In: American Association of Teachers of Italian (Ed.): Italica . tape 65 , no. 3 (autumn 1988), pp. 264-265 .