ABSTRACT
The fact that a doctor from Montalcino was amongst the group of witnesses gathered at Ser Longo di Guccio’s bedside suggests, for example, that Ser Longo may have been obliged to draw up a will as a result of a sudden and life-threatening illness. Furthermore, the details of the will itself suggest that Longo was perhaps not the only member of the family to be struck down. Individual asides within the will imply that Ser Longo’s wife, Tessa, was pregnant but, like her husband, ill. That Ser Longo was on the point of an untimely death, and that other members of his family were threatened with the same fate, is also confirmed by several other caveats. Ser Longo stipulated, for example, that 50 lire should be allocated to his sister Margherita, and 100 lire to his other sister Francesca, but that in the event of their dying and their having no heirs, the money was to be spent instead on masses for his and their souls. Ser Longo also asked that in the event of his wife Tessa giving birth to a live male heir money should be paid to the church of San Michele, in thanksgiving. But, in the event of the death of such an heir Ser Longo decreed that his own mother Gemma should become his universal heir. Should Tessa give birth to a female heir, Ser Longo stipulated that the sum of 300 golden florins should be paid to the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena, no
doubt by way of insurance for such a daughter’s future as a prospective bride, but possibly also to cover the possibility of her being left an orphan. In the event of neither a son nor a daughter being born alive or reaching the age of maturity, Ser Longo again asked that his mother Gemma should become his universal heir. on Gemma’s death the role of universal heir was to pass to Santa Maria della Scala. In the event of Gemma predeceasing Ser Longo’s wife, and Tessa, herself subsequently dying, Ser Longo wished that Santa Maria della Scala should inherit all his assets, and that Friar Francesco di Giovanni of the ‘frati minori’, together with three other individuals (Giovanni di Vitale, Andrea di Chele and Naccio di Jordanello) should act as his executors.
