Francesco Caccini and Ginevra Brancacci: Marital Collaboration in Fifteenth Century Florence☆

AbstractThis article sheds light on the role of women as procurators in Renaissance Florence, focusing on Ginevra Brancacci (1432–1499) and her legal and economic agency during her marriage to Francesco Caccini (1414–1465). Drawing on newly‐discovered archival documents, it explores Ginevra's ability and authority to manage Francesco's estate and finances while her husband was in exile, showing some of the strategies through which women could safeguard family wealth in challenging circumstances. Female procurators were in some ways exceptional, yet they also exemplified the financial and legal clout that women exercised in fifteenth‐century Florence. Francesco's will, account books, and correspondence, alongside Ginevra's private writings, offer a detailed portrait of their partnership, highlighting the collaborative dynamics between husband and wife, as well as between elite women and their kinsmen. Together, they illustrate how women's legal agency operated within a matrix of trust and collaboration among and within elite families and their kin networks.