I am known in the SCA as Baronessa Franca Donato. My name: Girls names are often modeled after Saints' names and I chose my name for St. Francis, and the Donato from the Libro d'Oro, the book of the nobles of the Grand Case. Both names are found on census records of the period. Donati were a family of architects. Formulating my name without pronoun (i.e. d', dei, della) and ending in "o" would be a designation for someone who had distinguished themselves in society. It was a way of forming a personal challenge to myself every time someone said my name.
As you can see from my persona story, I model myself as one of the many women who may have been in residence at the court of Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua. This time period offers some benefits with regard to style, which is one of my interests. The clothing of the period is undergoing many transmutations and innovations by the style mavens of the period, which gives me the opportunity to display a variety of materials, ornamentations, and variations in my dress. Since there are many portraits and frescos of Isabella over her lifetime, there is also an opportunity to show how style changed within the period within my own dress, which is personally entertaining to me as well. In addition, my personal heritage is linked to this area of Italy as well and my own personal "figura" is complimented by the styles of this region and time period. It was a pleasure when attending my first SCA event in a dress of my own making that others did not recognize me as new, but as one who was comfortable in persona. Since that time, this time period has been my own personal time period of study and our love affair continues.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Baronessa Franca DonatoVandy Pacetti-Donelson is a milliner, costumer, illuminator and calligrapher, and researcher who is interested in all that is the Italian Renaissance. A true Florida Native originally from Saint Augustine, she now calls Daphne, Alabama her home. Vandy is known in the Society for Creative Anachronism as Baronessa Franca Donato, OL and resides in the Barony of the Osprey in the Kingdom of Merides. Archives
March 2021
|