The Strozzi of Florence: Widowhood and Family Solidarity in the Renaissance

Renaissance Quarterly, Summer, 2002 by Natalie Tomas

Ann Morton Crabb. The Strozzi of Florence: Widowhood and Family So1idarity in the Renaissance

(Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Civilization.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. viii 328 pp. $54.50. ISBN: 0-472-10912-X.

This book is a study of the Strozzi family of Florence during the fifteenth century with its central characters being Alessandra Macigni Strozzi and her sons. It chronicles Alessandra's life and that of her family with the majority of the book organized "around the intrinsic 'plot' of the Strozzi's fall and rise" (vii). This broader story, familiar to many who have availed themselves of the scholarly 1877 edition of Alessandra's letters to her sons or more recently the bilingual edition of selected letters by Heather Gregory, is one that has received increasing attention. But none has told the story so fully of the Strozzi experience of exile with such a particular focus on Alessandra's intense and ultimately successful effort to rehabilitate her marital family's fortunes, especially that of her sons.

Crabb begins with an account of Alessandra's early life prior to her husband's exile from Medicean Florence; she then proceeds to document her life as a widow and Alessandra's relationships with her daughters and sons-in-law. The next two chapters document her sons (Filippo's and Lorenzo's) careers as merchants outside of Florence, particularly in Naples, followed by the Strozzi's (including Alessandra's) efforts to have the exile decree revoked. The final two chapters deal with Alessandra's involvement in arranging the marriages of her sons, her last years and Filippo's rise to become one of Florence's wealthiest citizens by the time of his death in 1491.

This narrative structure is complemented by several themes that run through the book: family relationships (particularly the dominance of patrilineal ties), honor, profit, and women. In the introduction Crabb discusses the voluminous Florentine historiography (and that of other Italian and European cities on these issues) making good use of anthropological discussions on honor, shame and kinship as it relates to women in the Mediterranean, in the process placing herself more on the positive side of the ledger in the ongoing debate on the position of women in Renaissance Florence. A lengthy conclusion summarizes her thoughts on these themes making comparisons between Florence and the rest of Italy as compared to Northern Europe.

There is much of use here on women, family and social relationships generally apart from the narrative history of the Strozzi's fortunes. Chapter two on widowhood is particularly rich because it provides valuable data and discussion on women's access to wealth from inheritance and the financial position of widows (statistically represented in Appendices B and C) arguing that women were more often heirs than might be believed. It also shows that despite her frequent complaints about her lack of money, Alessandra was one of the wealthiest widows of her day. It might have been more profitable if Crabb had dealt with other issues of comparison in a similar way because too often contextual and narrative detail are subject to needless repetition. Each chapter's concluding section begins with 'in sum' or 'in summary', repeating the main points of the chapter without also drawing out their wider implications. The Conclusion also is repetitive without exploring the broader implications of her analysis.

Crabb manages well to comment on broader historiographical debates as her narrative progresses, but some of the debates discussed seem a little dated now, particularly her discussion of Aries' views on attitudes towards children. Phillip Gavitt's work and more recently that of Louis Haas have surely put paid to Aries' and Stone's arguments. Crabb's discussion of women also could have been improved by using some of the more recent work on women in Renaissance Italy and Europe which analyses and nuances our understanding of gender, a term used by the author but not subjected to the same level of comment and analysis as other terms such as honor, profit and even family. This would have highlighted even more the constraints and opportunities available to Alessandra. For example, in chapters six and seven, the significance of Alessandra's involvement in activities related to politics would have been more nuanced and strengthened if attention had been paid to recent discussions on gender relations in the Italian Re naissance. However, despite these criticisms, this book teaches us much about the Strozzi, widowhood and family solidarity in Renaissance Florence.