Giovanni Francesco Aldobrandini

What people wore

Jewelry and accessory limits for women

Regulations in 1516 limited young women to wearing no more than three rings decorated with precious stones or pearls and permitted a single gold necklace weighing no more than six ounces. Women were also permitted to carry a small penknife and a hair-parter as functional accessories.

Daily life

Schooling for children in Florence

Merchant children attended practical abacus schools to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic for trade, while wealthier families hired private tutors to teach Latin, grammar, and geometry. Girls were traditionally taught domestic arts, though some progressive families began to push for broader education.

Work

Limited annual work days

Florentines did not work more than 230 days per year due to numerous mandatory, unpaid feast days that broke the annual work rhythm. Apprenticeships often began between ages 10 and 11, and families sometimes had to pay the employer to have their children trained.

Music

Popular Carnival songs and street theater

Florentine Carnival songs were popular secular tunes performed by costumed groups during street festivals, often featuring witty, satirical lyrics about different trades.

At the table

Meat as a rare treat

When a pig was slaughtered, it was customary for neighbors to share blood sausage as a gesture of friendship and good luck. Meat was otherwise rarely consumed by the poor, reserved primarily for special occasions like holidays.

Getting around

Pack animals dominated 16th-century travel

In the 16th century, travel across mountain routes was done exclusively by pack animals like mules, as carriages could not navigate the terrain. Large carts used on flat roads were often pulled by oxen, while carriages were rare and uncomfortable, lacking suspension.

What it cost

Desperate food sources during famine

In desperate conditions, the poor consumed unusual sources of food; mice were purchased for one giulio each, and cats were sold for forty soldi.