Feminine Names from 15th-Century Bologna (Italy)

by Gigi Coulson (Magnifica Gianna Maddalena Alberti/ Giata Magdalena Alberti)

These names are taken from the 1401 Registro della bollatura delle veste from the Comune of Bologna published in Belle vesti, dure leggi (2003) edited by Maria Giuseppina Muzarelli. The Registro was a list of clothing items that were declared to the record-keeper at a Parish location so that the item could be grandfathered in and not fined by the new sumptuary laws. Once the item was recorded it received a bollatura, a label or seal to affix on the inside. The records are numbered and list the woman's title, her given name, and in most cases both the husband's or father's given name and surname in lieu of her family name (e.g. Domina Iacoba uxor Baldesarre de Bove). The names and titles are written in Latinized Italian specific to the Bologna city-state. A description of the garment being declared is also included, but is not translated in this name article.

The names reflect trends typical of the Emiliano and Bolognese dialects spoken in and around Bologna. Names that in modern Italian would start with Gi- often start with Z- because the sound for the Bolognese in their dialect would be the same sharper, softer Zh-. For example, Zanna is a form of Gianna, which is a nickname for Giovanna. You'll also notice the use of x for s, perhaps because of the softer sound their dialect has for x. Names marked with an asterisk (*) are shown as recorded and are likely a Latin grammatical ending of -e that would correspond to an ending in -a if the person was the subject of the sentence.

Alphabetical Order (Duplicates indicated by number in parentheses)

Frequency Order (Duplicates indicated by number in parentheses)

Recorded Order (Duplicates indicated by number in parentheses)

References

• BVDL1401 = Belle vesti, dure leggi: In hoc libro . . . continentur et descripte sunt omnes et singule vestes. Maria Giuseppina Muzarelli. Published by Costa, Bologna, 2003
• RTD = The Right to Dress: Sumptuary Laws in a Global Perspective, c.1200-1800. Giorgio Riello, Ulinka Rublack. Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp 172-176
• Liturgical Latin Dates =https://sites.rootsweb.com/~chevaud/latin_liturgical_calendar.htm 
• Latin numbers, words and phrases used for dates. University of Nottingham: Research Guidance, accessed on May 5, 2022 at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/researchguidance/datingdocuments/latin.aspx
• "All the numbers given below [on this University website] are in the form in which they would appear in documents from the medieval period onwards.
• Latin Dictionary accessed on May 7 2022 at http://www.latin-dictionary.net/definition/20624/filia-filiae