GOSSIP TIME!
1603:
Mendoza also reports his need for clothing and states that the Italians do not spend nearly as much money on clothes as the Spaniards do.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=15046&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=0
April 3. 1547:
François I, who had given many precious jewels to his wife Eleonore von Habsburg [including a large diamond called la Punta di Milano and a necklace from Brittany with thirteen gems], had asked his successor, Henri II, to let her keep them, and to return them should she render them to Henry II.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21417&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=10
April 8. 1547:
King Henri II has asked for the return of the jewels given from François I to his wife Eleonore von Habsburg. In compliance Eleonore von Hapbsburg has sent him a silver buffet table. She is dressing in mourning clothes.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21418&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=10
April 11. 1547:
According to the express wishes of the dead king, an autopsy was performed on the king's body by Buiansi [perhaps Bouillancy], revealing his liver, heart and brain to be healthy but his lungs, kidneys, groin, and throat to be diseased. The throat disease was blamed on his use of strong wine, but particularly the inadequate medical treatment of his French disease, or pox.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21420&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=10
May 1. 1574:
Federico Barbolani asks Bartolomeo Concini's advice on how to dress for the funeral of Cosimo I. He is not sure if as governor of Siena he should dress in mourning or in military clothes.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=20396&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=20
June 22. 1567
A "pragmatica del vestire" (sumptuary law) has suddenly been renewed in Rome, and the local police are making sport of arresting youths wearing "braconi" (large breeches)
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21625&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=30
May 14. 1569
In the papal consistory a proposal has been floated to create for prostitutes a "serraglio" akin to a ghetto that they would be compelled to live in and which would be locked from 2 am until morning [this is the "Ortaccio," near present-day Piazza Montedoro].
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21842&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=40
February 15. 1570
Bartoli informs that a papal edict has stipulated that Romans should not rent their houses to women "di mala vita" [prostitutes], and that the new ghettolike enclosure built by Pope Pius V and here called the Ortaccio will be locked for all of Lent.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21955&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=50