Review

Reviewed Work(s): Pursuing Honor while Avoiding Sin: The "Monte delle doti" of Florence
by Julius Kirshner
Review by: William M. Bowsky
Source: Speculum, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Jul., 1979), pp. 594-595
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Medieval Academy of
America
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2855802
Accessed: 12-02-2023 04:10 UTC

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 594 Reviews

linguistic comments are disconcertingly phrased in reference to "rules" of Latin,

Modern French, or some hypothetical medieval norm (e.g. "JM a fourni les verbes
flechis d'un sujet dans la plupart des cas; cependant, les exceptions d cette regle sont assez
nombreuses," p. 62). The citing of Voltaire to illustrate this medieval norm is particu-
larly disturbing: "En latin l'explicitation d'un complement d'objet n'est pas necessaire,
s'il peut etre supplee par le contexte . . les traductions d'Ernout et p.ex. la
construction de Voltaire "Le mis-tu (un enfant) dans ses bras? - Oui, je le lui
donnai" (v. Littre, "donner"), montrent que le fran ais explicite l'objet dans la meme
situation" (p. 63).
For an assessment of Jean de Meun's technical skill as a translator of military
vocabulary, Dr. Lofstedt obviously agrees with Robert's harsh judgement. "D'autant
plus sautent aux yeux l'imperfection et le manque de soin dans la traduction
militaire. Mon predecesseur, M. U. Robert, en a donne de beaux exemples" (p. 8).
Certain qualifications should here be made, however. The thirteenth-century trans-
lator was usually a popularizer, and was nothing if not "relevant." Hence his reduc-
tion of certain technical lists to an abbreviatory "et autres choses" or "et autres
engins" is not to be explained as "naivement negligent" or as a sign of defeat,
"decourage par une t'ache trop difficile" (p. 8). Such formulae prudently avoided
superfluous detail that could be of no significance to a thirteenth-century audience.
Further, the frequent rendering of "miles" as "chevalier" was not merely an
unthinking transformation to the nearest word for "le soldat'normal' (p. 8). Similar
usage in Li Fet des Romains demonstrates that "chevalier" was a considered choice in
contexts where a more "accurate" translation, being pejorative (e.g. "soudoiers," or
"genz a pie'), would have misrepresented the intention of the source.
The neutral rendering of the pejorative "barbarus" merely as "estrange" (p. 8) also
has analogies with the usage of Li Fet des Romains, where the translator carefully
removed all pejorative uses of "barbarus" in reference to the Gauls (but used "bar-
bare" and "Barbarin" in contexts of his own choosing viz. for the Greeks!).
Further analysis of the above examples proved impossible, however. For "bar-
barus" the "Index des mots latins discut&s" refers only to the brief sentence on p. 8.
The Glossary gives neither "barbare," "barbarin," nor "estrange," and the "Index des
noms propres' frustratingly provides "Barbarin 3, 10 barbari cf. p. 00." It is a pity
that minor flaws of this sort should mar a major textual undertaking which Dr.
Lofstedt has wryly called her "combat avec Vgece."

JEANETTE M. A. BEER
Fordham University

JULIUS KIRSHNER, Pursuing Honor while Avoiding Sin: The "Monte delle doti" of Florence.
(Quaderni di Studi Senesi, 41.) Milan: A. Giuffre, 1978. Paper. Pp. 82; 1 plate. L
2,800.

THIS SHORT STUDY iS far more than the analysis of the reversal of position concerning
the legitimacy of the Florentine dowry fund made by a Renaissance theologian, and
the presentation of the first edition of the text of that reversal. This book is useful for
a far broader readership than those specifically concerned with the arguments of that
theologian, the Franciscan Angelo da Chivasso, and some of his fellows.

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 Reviews 595

The first section (pp. 2-15) contains a fine succinct treatment of the changing
concept of honor in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Florence, especially as related
to the giving and receiving of dowries. These pages include a useful introduction to
the role and nature of dowries in that period, complete with the useful reminder that
the dowry was a woman's patrimony, which she need not marry in order to receive.
Kirshner also surveys the relation of each family member to the dowry and its
management.
Section II (pp. 16-30) offers the best brief survey available of the history of the
dowry fund from its inception in 1425 into the sixteenth century, and relates the
fund's history to the vicissitudes of the commune's larger financial needs. Particularly
valuable is the explanation of the linkages created between the Monte Comune, the
commune's funded debt, and the dowry fund (Monte delle doti), allegedly created in
order to make certain that women of marriageable age possessed the necessary
dowries.
The third section (pp. 31-59) examines the moral and theological issues raised by
fifteenth-century theologians with reference to the legitimacy of the dowry fund and
its operation. Kirshner explicates four opinions proferred against the fund, as being
essentially usurious and therefore illegitimate. These include the views of San Ber-
nardino of Siena and Sant'Antonino, the Dominican archbishop of Florence (1446-
1459), and the original position of Angelo da Chivasso himself. The eventual support
of the fund by Angelo and the Florentine Dominican fra Santi Rucellai receives
equally careful analysis, while the reader is rightly warned that these two works
exercised little if any later influence. A documentary appendix includes Kirshner's
edition of Angelo's defense.
The specialist will want to examine in detail the explication and argumentation in
this careful and accurate work. The more general issues that it raises should interest
a wide variety of scholars concerned with social, economic, legal, and religious
history.

WILLIAM M. BOWSKY
University of California, Davis

JOHN MARTIN KLASSEN, The Nobility and the Making of the Hussite Revolution. (East
European Monographs, 47.) Boulder: East European Quarterly, distributed by
Columbia University Press, New York (1978). Pp. 186. $12.

THIS BOOK offers another excellent example of a nobility in operation during a time
of crisis. The Hussite revolution involved a complex package of religious, socio-
economic, dynastic, and nationalistic issues. The Bohemian aristocracy faced some
potentially dangerous choices in dealing with these issues but, as so often happened
in European history, the nobles as a class emerged in a stronger position than before.
John Klassen has systematically studied the patronage of churches by Bohemian
nobles and he has compared the lists of nobles who participated in various religious
or antiroyal movements from the 1390s onward. The result of his work has been to
shed new light on the comple.x motives that influenced the Bohemian aristocracy in
the half-century before Sigismund finally secured his kingdom in 1436.

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