Gregorio Dati (1362–1435) and the Limits of Individual Agency

Abstract

This article focuses on the diary of the Florentine Gregorio Dati (1362–1435) and its significance for the study of agency in pre-modern Europe. In particular, this article analyses Dati's ‘abeyance of individual agency’ in the context of his family affairs, business ventures, and participation in politics, as well as in relation to Dati's views on his personal development. The diary data, and in particular the private memoranda of 1404 and 1412, are corroborated with Dati's other writings and placed in the context of late-medieval and Renaissance culture. As such, this article draws attention to the role of cultural factors in the construction of agency, and aims to participate in a broader, interdisciplinary debate.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Asad, Talal . 2003. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity, Stanford .

Baron, Hans . 1955. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance, 2 vols, Princeton .

Battaglia, Debbora . 1997. ‘ Ambiguating Agency: The Case of Malinowski's Ghost ’, American Anthropologist, vol. 99(3): 505–10 .

Battaglia, Salvatore (ed.). 1961–73. Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, vol. 6, Torino .

Bec, Christian . 1967. Les marchands écrivains: affaires et humanisme à Florence, 1375–1434, Paris-La Haye .

Bono Giamboni . 1968. Il Libro de' vizî e delle virtudi e il trattato di virtú e di vizî, ed. Cesare Segre , Torino .

Bourdieu, Pierre . 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice, trans. Richard Nice , Cambridge .

Brucker, Gene . 1977. The Civic World of Early Renaissance Florence, Princeton, NJ .

Brucker, Gene . (ed.). 1991. Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati, trans. Julia Martines , reprint, Prospect Heights, IL .

10.

Buc, Philippe . 2001. The Dangers of Ritual, Princeton and Oxford .

11.

Buonaccorso Pitti . 1905. Cronica, ed. Alberto Bacchi della Lega , Bologna .

12.

Burr, David . 2001. The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century after Saint Francis, University Park, PA .

13.

Crespi, Franco . 1992. Social Action and Power, Oxford .

14.

De Angelis, Laura . 2000. ‘Territorial Offices and Officeholders’, in William Connel and Andrea Zorzi (eds), Florentine Tuscany: Structures and Practices of Power, Cambridge : 165–82.

15.

Fabricatore, Bruto (ed.). 1870. Fiore di Virtù, Napoli , 1870.

16.

Galbert of Bruges . 1994. De multro, traditione, et occisione gloriosi Karoli comitis Flandriarum, ed. Jeff Rider , Corpus Christianorum Continuation Medieualis 131, Turnholt .

17.

Gargiolli, Carlo . (ed.). 1869. Il Libro segreto di Gregorio Dati, Bologna .

18.

Giddens, Anthony . 1987. Social Theory and Modern Sociology, Stanford .

19.

Gilson, Etienne . 1944. The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy: Gifford Lecture Series, 1931–32, trans. A.H.C. Downes , New York .

20.

Goody, Jack . 1986. The Logic of Writing and the Organisation of Society, Cambridge .

21.

Goody, Jack . 2000. The Power of the Written Tradition, Washington, DC .

22.

Green, Thomas . 1972. ‘ Societal Concepts of Criminal Liability in Medieval England ’ in Speculum, vol. 47(4): 669–94 .

23.

Gregorio Dati . 1735. Istoria di Firenze, ed. Giuseppe Manni , Florence .

24.

Hall, Stuart . 1994. ‘Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms’, in Nicholas B. Dirks , Geoff Eley and Sherry Ortner (eds), Culture/Power/History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory, Princeton, NJ : 520–38.

25.

Hankins, James . 1995. ‘ The Baron Thesis After 40 Years and Some Recent Studies of Leonardo Bruni ’, Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 56(2): 309–38 .

26.

Herzfeld, Michael . 1990. ‘ Pride and Perjury: Time and Oath in the Mountain Villages of Crete ’, Man, n.s., vol. 25(2): 305–22 .

27.

Keane, Webb . 2003. ‘ Self-Interpretation, Agency, and the Objects of Anthropology: Reflections on a Genealogy ’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 45(2): 222–48 .

28.

Martines, Lauro . 1968. Lawyers and Statecraft in Renaissance Florence, Princeton, NJ .

29.

McCormick, Andrew P. 1983. ‘ Toward a Reinterpretation of Goro Dati's Storia di Firenze ’, Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, vol. 13(2): 227–50 .

30.

Miyazaki, Hirokazu . 2000. ‘ Faith and Its Fulfilment: Agency, Exchange and the Fijian Aesthetics of Completion ’, American Ethnologist, vol. 27(1): 31–51 .

31.

Najemy, John . 1982. Corporatism and Consensus in Florentine Electoral Politics, 1280–1400, Chapel Hill, NC .

32.

Newhauser, Richard . 1993. The Treatise on Vices and Virtues in Latin and the Vernacular, Typologie des Sources du Moyen Âge Occidental 68, ed. Léopold Genicot , Turnhout .

33.

Ortner, Sherry . 1997. ‘ Thick Resistance: Death and the Cultural Construction of Agency in Himalayan Mountaineering ’, Representations, vol. 56: 135–62 .

34.

Pandimiglio, Leonida . 1988. ‘ Pigliate esempro di questo caso: l'inizio della scrittura di Bonaccorso Pitti ’, Lettere Italiane, vol. 40(2): 161–73 .

35.

Pineau-Harvey, Catherine . 2001. ‘ Jeu, ouverture sociale et diplomatie: a propos de Bonaccorso Pitti ’, Bibliothéque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, vol. 63(1): 33–45 .

36.

Poppi, Antonino . 1988. ‘Fate, Fortune, Providence, and Human Freedom’, in Charles Schmitt et al., (eds), The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, Cambridge : 641–67.

37.

Roper, Lyndal . 1994. Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality, and Religion in Early Modern Europe, London and New York .

38.

Segatto, Filiberto . 1983. ‘ Un'immagine quattrocentesca del mondo: la Sfera del Dati ’, in Atti della Academia Nazionale dei Lincei. Memorie. Classe di Scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, eighth series, vol. 26(4): 147–82 .

39.

Stern, Laura . 1994. The Criminal Law System of Medieval and Renaissance Florence, Baltimore .

40.

Taylor, Charles . 1985. Philosophical Papers, vol. 1: Human Agency and Language, vol. 2: Philosophy and the Human Sciences, Cambridge .

41.

Trexler, Richard . 1980. Public Life in Renaissance Florence, New York and London .

42.

Varese, Claudio . 1961. Storia e politica nella prosa dell Quattrocento, Torino .

43.

Veyne, Paul . 1997. ‘Foucault Revolutionises History’, in Arnold Davidson (ed.), Foucault and His Interlocutors, Chicago : 146–82.

44.

Viti, Paolo . 1987. ‘Gregorio Dati’, in Massimiliano Pavan (ed.), Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 33: 35–40, Roma .

45.

Viti, Paolo . 1987. ‘Leonardo Dati’, in Massimiliano Pavan (ed.), Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 33: 40–44, Roma .

46.

Wellman, Barry . 1988. ‘Structural Analysis: From Method and Metaphor to Theory and Substance’, in Barry Wellman and S.D. Berkowitz (eds), Social Structures: A Network Approach, Cambridge : 19–61.