WorldWithoutEnd.Amen. 413
Does the prohibition on distantly related and unrelated women mean that,
with all the wine flowing, things occasionally got out of hand? In any case,
the funeral banquet was a sign that, at least for the neighborhood, a society
fractured by death was returning to normal.
For the immediate family, the funeral banquet began the period of public
or solemn mourning. ‘‘When Baldovino di Giacomo Riccomanni, son and
brother of the Calimala, died at Florence in 1272 , his widow was supplied
with only the traditionalbenda,waiting for three months before putting on
what would become firmly fixed as the traditional black of widowhood. How
the children were clothed we do not know, but his sole daughter-in-law
immediately had her guarnacca [cloak] dyedin sanguignoand had made up a
costume a few weeks later with the purchase of a bracio [a cloth measure of
about two feet] of silk, which she also dyedin sanguignoto make a gonnella
[gown].’’^217 Brown and red were the mourning colors of communal Italy.
Widows worepanno bruno;more distant female relatives wore red. The mark
of deep mourning was the dark widow’sbenda,a headcovering that originally
signified the loss of a spouse. In theory, only the widow herself could wear
it, and she for only two weeks after the funeral.^218 She then put it aside for
simple dark clothing, the attire used also to mourn the death of children
under thirty.^219 But some widows, and even their friends, wore thebendafor
months or even years to express their sorrow.^220
Union with theDead
Bishop Sicardo gave three possibilities for the soul after it left the body:
‘‘There are souls that, immediately after they leave the body, fly like a spar-
row to the Lord. There are others that descend to hell. Others are in be-
tween, and they go to purgatory, to be helped by almsgiving, prayer, fasting,
and the Mass. But because of the uncertainty, these things are done for all.
For it is better that more be done for those whom it can neither help nor
hurt, than that it be lacking to those whom it can help.’’^221 Death did not
break the bonds of family, contrada, and city. Almsgiving, prayers, fasting,
and the sacrifice of the Mass: by these, the living aided the needy dead, just
as the saints helped the living by their prayers in heaven. No Christian was
perfect, and even a saint might have to pass through some short purgation
before entering God’s presence. Saint Umiliana dei Cerchi appeared after
- Hughes, ‘‘Mourning Rites,’’ 33. The Calimala was a cloth guild.
- Florence Stat.i( 1322 ), 5. 7 , pp. 223.
- At least in Siena, the two-week period was the norm: Siena Stat.ii( 1310 ), 5. 204 , 2 : 319.
- Although cities tried to regulate its use: Lucca Stat. ( 1308 ), 1. 11 ,p. 15 ; Pisa Stat.ii( 1313 ), 3. 58 ,
pp. 350 – 51. - Sicardo,Mitrale, 9. 50 , col. 430 : ‘‘Sunt enim animae quae, statim ut exeunt a corporibus, ut
passer volant ad Dominum; sunt aliae quae descendunt in infernum, sunt mediae, quae vadunt in purga-
torium, quarum intuitu eleemosynae, oratione, jejunia et sacrificia, sed propter incertitudinem pro omni-
bus etiam fiunt; melius enim supererunt ista his, quibus nec prosunt, nec obsunt, quam derunt his, quibus
prodesse possunt.’’