The true servant: Self-definition of male domestics in an Italian city (Bologna, 17th–19th centuries)
2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.hisfam.2005.09.005
ISSN1873-5398
Autores Tópico(s)Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender
ResumoAbstract Some historians have classed as servants only people living with their masters; some have excluded farm servants; some have included married domestics living with their own families. The archive of the Bolognese Confraternity of San Vitale, also known as Università dei Servitori, is analyzed in this article to show how one group of servants defined a "true" servant. Their solution was to exclude from their association people who performed what they deemed "filthy" tasks. They also excluded women, giving us a particular insight in the history of gender and masculinity. In their view, the "true" servants were bourgeois (and locally born) men rather than lower class (migrant) women who are often identified as the stereotypical servants. Moreover, most members of the association were married, they had their own families in Bologna and did not always live with their masters. This makes possible the analysis of married male servants living with their own families, a category of servant that has received less attention than life-cycle servants. Keywords: ServantsMasculinityGender rolesLife-cycleMigrationConfraternitiesItaly Acknowledgment I would like to thank Richard Wall for helping me to revise this article and to C. Boscolo of the University of Birmingham for translating it. Notes 1 For different interpretations of transformations in meaning the French words serviteur and domestique have undergone, see CitationGutton (1981), pp. 13, 58, and CitationFairchilds (1984), pp. 18–19. On the uses of the Italian words servo/a, servitore, domestico, see CitationSarti, 1994a, [ch. I]; Citation2000. On English servant terms, see CitationKussmaul (1981), Appendix 1. 2 The discussion in the text is in part informed by CitationSarti (1999a), although approached from a different perspective. 3 CitationRavà (1873, pp. 32–33) and CitationSarti (1999a, pp. 717–718). On Bolognese confraternities, see CitationFanti (1989), CitationTerpstra (1995). 4 US, b. 4, Libro A, N. 1, Campione, Memoriale presentato per parte de servitori di Bologna al Signor Cardinale Arcivescovo per potere erigere una congregazione, 2/7/1697, cc. 1v–2r; US, b. 2, vol. 2, 4–17/7/1697, cc. 1r–7v. 5 In ancient Italian the term università, which derives from the Latin term universitas, meant "all of the people belonging to a certain group," "a class of persons regarded collectively," or "corporate body." 6 US, b. 2, vol. 2, 17/7/1697, c. 6v. From the available data, such an estimate of the total number of servants seems to be correct. 7 The congregazione delle cappenere had taken the title of "San Floriano." On the fusion of the two confraternities, see US, b. 2, vol. 1; vol. 3, c. 23v ff.; vol. 4, 6/1–15/3/1703; b. 4, Libro A, N. 1, Campione, Memoriale presentato à Monsignor Vicario Generale di Bologna in occasione dell'Unione, ò sia aggregazione all'Universita de Servitori de devoti di S. Floriano con suo rescritto sotto li 10 marzo, cc. 27r–28v. 8 While Bologna lacked a court, a number of Bolognese nobles were in service in various European courts. 9 CitationBattaglia, 1964; CitationSecretario, 1719, pp. 53–54, see footnote Footnote6. Ciao, from the Venetian term sciao (in Italian, schiavo), literally means "slave." 10 US, b. 1, fasc. 1, no. 2, Statuti, Capitoli e Constitutioni della Congregatione dell'Università de Servitori sotto l'invocatione degl'Anni della Beata Vergine e de protettori S. Antonio da Padova e S. Vitale, ch. 13, no. 19 and no. 21. While allowing for the traditional hierarchy, even the articles that can be traced to the cappenere expressed the need to form a confraternity of all servants; see ibid., untitled statutes. 11 US, b. 2, vol. 5, 11/7, 30/9, 3/11/1752; ibid., vol. 6, 11/7, 30/9 and 3/12/1752. Together with the revocation of Serantoni's membership, the request for admission by the confraternity's bidello (factotum) was also rejected. 12 US, b. 1, fasc. 1, n. 2, Statuti, Capitoli e Constitutioni, ch. 13, no. 21 (c. 14r). The definition of "pages" was also deleted. 13 US, cart. 1, SR (1696 [sic]–1821), fasc. 1, untitled statutes (this is apparently a document produced by the original group of servants who formed the confraternity before the split). 14 The soldo was a 20th of the Bolognese lira. Between the 1690s and 1790s, it was possible to buy bread weighing between 300 and 800 g with 2 soldi, depending on the period (CitationGuenzi, 1982, pp. 64–68). 15 Riforma statuti, 1719, pp. 10–11; US, b. 2, vol. 5, 11/1 and 6/2/1734; Riforma statuti, 1753, p. 21; Riforma statuti, 1784, c. 24; US, b. 3, LC, vol. 3, 7/1/1800, 4/11/1801; Statuti, 1821–1822, p. 9. The 1855 Statuti made no provision for the "disabled." 16 Statuti, 1697–1698a, Capitoli generali, ch. 1; Riforma statuti, 1719, pp. 7–8, p. 10; US, b. 2, vol. 4, 3/3/1723 and 12/6/1723; vol. 5, 3/11/1735; Riforma statuti, 1753, pp. 14–17, 20; Riforma statuti, 1784, cc. 14–18; Statuti, 1821–1822, pp. 7–9; Statuti, 1855–1856, pp. 7–8, 20. Unemployed members had to pay half a soldo per month. 17 The data on servants in Bologna include sedan-chair carriers, scullery-boys, stable boys, and porters, if it is clear they were employed under one master. Excluded are people serving in institutions such as monasteries and colleges (although the latter had the right to be admitted into the Confraternity of San Vitale), and apprentices. 18 See Angeli, Citation1990; Barbagli, Citation1984, Citation1990; Barbagli & Kertzer, Citation1990; Benigno, Citation1989; Da Molin, Citation1990; Doveri, Citation1993; Kertzer & Saller, Citation1991; Moretti, Citation1989; Sarti, Citation2002; Viazzo, Citation2003. In central and southern Spain, life-cycle service was practically unknown (García Gonzales, Citation1998; Reher, Citation1998) as well as in Galicia (CitationDubert, 1992, pp. 73–83). On Greece, see Violetta Hionidou's paper in this volume. 19 My data do not include apprentices. Yet to include them would not radically change the results, because by the end of the 18th century, there were very few co-resident apprentices. 20 Provvisione sopra li fumanti, che intendono acquistar le civiltà, and esser levati dall'estimo, e gravezze rusticali, 13/5/1597, in CitationConcessiones, 1632, pp. 78–79. I am indebted to Angelozzi for the reference to this document. 21 Since servants could not have a real guild, and the brotherhood took on some of the functions of a guild (cf CitationSarti, 1999a). 22 There is no evidence to indicate whether female servants in Bologna also shared this view. This does, however, seem to have been the case in London. 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