Gregorio Dati (b.1362) Diary
My beloved Bandecca, went to Paradise after a nine-month illness started by a miscarriage, July 1390.
I had an illegitimate manchild by Margherita, a Tartar slave whom I had bought. He was born in Valencia on 21 December 1391.
We [business associates] renewed our partnership on 1 January 1393, when I undertook to invest 1,000 [gold] florins. I did not actually have the money but was about to get married-which I then did-and to receive the dowry which procured me a larger share and more consideration in our company… I married my second wife, Betta on 22 June… On the 26th of that same June I received a payment of 800 gold florins from the bank of Giacomino and Co. This was the dowry.
On Sunday, 17 May 1394, Betta gave birth to a girl… On Friday evening, 17 March 1396, the Lord blessed our Marriage with a male son. 12 March 1397, Betta gave birth to our third child… 27 April 1398, Betta gave birth to our fourth child. 1 July 1399, Betta had our fifth child. 11 June 1400, Betta gave birth for the sixth time. On Wednesday, 13 July 1401… Betta gave birth to our eighth child. After that my wife Betta passed on to Paradise…
The [business] partnership is to start on 1 January 1403 and to last three years…I have undertaken to put up 2,000 florins. This is how I propose to raise them: 1,370 florins… are still due to me from my old partnership… the rest I expect to obtain if I marry again this year, when I hope to find a woman with a dowry as large as God may be pleased to grant me…
I record that on 8 May 1403, I was betrothed to Ginevra, daughter of Antonio Brancacci… the dowry was 1,000 florins: 700 in cash and 300 in a farm at Campi.
On Sunday morning at terce, 27 April [1404], Ginevra gave birth to our first born son… Altogether Ginevra and I had eleven children: four boys and seven girls… After that it was God’s will to recall to himself the blessed soul of my wife Ginevra. She died in childbirth after lengthy suffering… God bless her and grant us fortitude.
I then took another wife, Caterina, the daughter of Dardano Guicciardini [30 March 1421]… The dowry was 600 florins.
Caterina, my fourth wife, miscarried after four months. On 4 October 1422… Caterina gave birth to a daughter… On Friday, 7 January 1424, Caterina gave birth to a fine healthy boy… 20 March, 1425 Caterina had another healthy and attractive child… 26 July 1426, Caterina had a fine little girl… Monday, 28 August 1427, Caterina gave birth to a fine little girl… 2 June 1431, Caterina gave birth to a girl…[At this point, with about nine of his children still alive, he stopped keeping his diary and dies in 1435.]