Italy,1600s, two scholarly characters

[minn_fae]

Hello, it's my first post here

Comments

[penhaligonblue]

If you're not already reading up on Galileo, you should do so. He was teaching at the University of Padua in the early 17th century, and was also fathered three illegitimate children (all with the same woman). Of these, two were daughters, and neither was considered marriageable, due to their parentage. Both became nuns instead. The older sister, Virginia (Sister Maria Celeste), is the focus of the book Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. Based on these facts, it seems your character's daughter would be lucky to find a husband, let alone high social standing; but perhaps with enough money, or the right connections (i.e. those noble friends), she might manage. I suggest you also look into inheritance law from this period: if the daughter or her husband could get legitimised as your character's heir, that would elevate their position.

Aside from teaching, could your character merely live off the generosity of a wealthy patron? He could be a resident scholar, tutor, or personal physician to a noble family.

[minn_fae]

Thanks for the reply

Galileo's going to be kind of an indirect main character of this thing, pretty much everything I've read about those times was about him. He did legitimize his son, I've never really read much about that one, but I'm not even sure if it would be relevant.

My character really hopes that her daughter gets to have children of her own, and the guy he wants her to marry really owes her many favors too. Though I do plan to make other characters comment on that.

[benbenberi]

Caveat - I speak from knowledge of France more than Italy, but there's a lot of socio-cultural similarity

[randomstasis]

A; what is his background- noble family, wealthy merchant, artisan, commoners, black or white guelph, ghibelline...is he even Italian- if so, from what city-state? This will determine his family''s influence and associations, and therefore his- the social and power structure is entirely made up of patronage networks and alliances which are multigenerational, so these will affect all his chances in life, and his daughter's. Co-dependent relations and nepotism wasn't a badthing in this era; It was just the way things worked

[lilya7]

As other people said, it's unlikely he'd manage to settle in Padua if he didn't know anybody at all there.

A possible job would be a secretary: the Italian poet and writer Alessandro Tassoni (1505 - 1635) worked as a secretary first for cardinal Colonna, then for the duke of Savoy, for cardinal Ludovisi and finally the Duke of Este. However, he belonged to a noble family - it's interesting he had to find a position even if he was his parents' only child and heir.
Torquato Tasso (1544 - 1595), another famous was part of the court of the duke of Ferrara. Even if your characters was part of a court, though, it's unlikely he could spend all his time studying: his lord would give him diplomatic, political or practical assignements he'd have to carry out.

[cheriola]

Giordano Bruno spent most of his adult life wandering all throughout western and central Europe, always on the run from the Church, and even the local non-catholic communities who usually didn't tolerate him and his teachings for more than a few years. He still managed to get himself hired as a lecturer at several universities and get himself enough of a positive reputation (for his memory technique, not his heretical ideas about god and aliens) that he could eventually return to Italy to fill a vacancy at the university of Padua. However, shortly after, that job was given to Gallileo (who was much less controversial), and Bruno took a job offer as a private tutor to one of the merchants or nobles of Venice that he'd gotten to know at the Frankfurt book fair and originally refused. When that guy was dissappointed with what he could learn from Bruno, he betrayed him to the Inquisition, and the rest is history