'If I could write': Margherita Datini and letter writing, 1385-1410

Margherita Datini's correspondence with her husband Francesco presents a well-documented case of progress from partial to full literacy. In Margherita's merchant world, letter writing was a major concern, and her household duties included frequent reports to her absent husband. First, she prided herself on her dictation, and then she turned her attention to reading and writing. A recently discovered autograph letter shows that she was writing at twenty-eight, earlier than previously thought, and she attained full literacy in her mid-thirties. After that, writing no longer seemed a challenge, and she returned to using a scribe.
1. INTRODUCTION In Avignon in 1376, Margherita Bandini, a sixteen-year-old Florentine, married Francesco Datini, aged forty-one. (1) Margherita came from an elite family of Florentine political refugees. Francesco, a native [...]