280 BuoniCattolici
feast of importance marked the calendar. But May was traditionally the
Virgin’s month, and the crowning of ‘‘May queens’’ on 1 May to some extent
satisfied the lack of festivity during this long dry period. But even when
examined in haste, the merrymaking looks secular, if not pagan, in inspira-
tion. Treating of Bologna in the 1260 s, the chronicler Matteo Griffoni writes
of May queens and their courts as already traditional. On May Day of 1267 ,
a youth named Giovanni Tarafocolo and his friends snatched an expensive
purse from the daughter of Pietro of Masimilla, who was presiding as queen
under the portico of Paolo the shoemaker in Porta Saragossa. Pietro chased
the boys down and wounded one of them in a scuffle.^51 In 1288 , the city
outlawed the rites and fined those who crowned May queens.^52 By then, the
festivals had lost any religious element they might once have possessed.
The rites of May were famous at Florence.^53 Their observance dates to
1283 , when, according to Giovanni Villani, the festivities extended for nearly
two months, from May Day to the feast of John the Baptist ( 24 June).^54
During the first of these celebrations, the Rossi family and its neighbors
crossed the Arno into the city to celebrate with ‘‘companies and brigades of
a thousand men or more, all dressed in white robes, presided over by a Lord
of Love.’’ The brigades occupied themselves with games, amusements, and
dances for women and knights. The party of the Popolo paraded through
town with trumpets and other instruments and gathered for dinners and
suppers. The festival was connected to 1 May after the Florentine victory at
Campaldino on that date in 1289. In the new version, brigades of genteel
youth dressed in new clothes, constructed ‘‘courts’’ throughout the city, and
displayed queens on platforms decorated with drapes and banners. Women
and young girls paraded through the city, playing musical instruments and
dancing with garlands of flowers on their heads. Citizens spent their time in
games and enjoyments, in dinners and suppers. Any excuse is probably good
enough for a party, and spring, the Virgin, and victory are better than most.
TheCityFasts
In the calendar of medieval Christianity, feast alternated with fast. The tradi-
tional fasts were the Advent fast, during the four weeks before Christmas,
and the Lenten fast, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week. The Lenten fast
was the most solemn; at its start, men stopped cutting their hair and let it
grow until Easter. This symbolically recalled Lent as a time for Christians to
prolong their meditations and grow in good works.^55 Advent was always of
secondary importance; its addition of a Wednesday fast to those of Friday
51. Matteo Griffoni, 18.
52. Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 4. 93 , 1 : 249.
53. On these celebrations, see Trexler,Public Life, 217 – 18.
54. Giovanni Villani,Cronica, 7 : 84 , 7 : 132.
55. Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msMagl.xiv. 49 , fol. 43 r.