New Year's Resolutions from the Middle Ages

On January 1, 1404, a Florentine named Gregorio Dati wrote down his good intentions in his "secret ledger" to keep himself accountable. This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle revisits Dati's New Year's resolutions and the life of this colourful medieval silk merchant.

You can read more of Gregorio Dati’s diary in Julia Martines’ Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati.

The creator and host of The Medieval Podcast is Danièle Cybulskie. Follow her on Twitter @5MinMedievalist

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[jeremygreen]

This is just wonderful, thank you! My husband and I were speculating about what lied between the pages, after you left off. Amazing!

[white]

i love how he says "these are not vows, but intentions". it shows how humble and aware he is of his own nature as a human who fails sometimes, and also how he avoids perfeccionism and accounts for these potential failures. 6 centuries later, and i think i will follow in his footsteps in this case.

[madelinevanderbunny]

Regarding what may have spurred him on to make those resolutions at that particular time he does mention that he is 40 at the time of writing them. 40 tends be one of those markers in one's life at certainly in our day. It represents one of the transition times in one's life from younger adulthood to middle age. And I wouldn't be surprised if even all the back then people saw 40 as a particular milestone. It's just another possibility, of course there is absolutely no way to know but as you said it always interesting to speculate. 🐰

[diarysawan]

It's such a wonderful thing to have access to... love history and love the internet that makes this able