Femia and Antino

IN 1590, Femia de Andreozza of Trevignano became a widow, though it took some time to learn the news. Her husband had been laboring at a farm near Rome, a ten-hour journey from Trevignano on foot, when he was murdered at a tavern under unknown circumstances. Femia was young, just eighteen, and it does not appear that before her husband’s death they had spent much time together. Nonetheless, she had been dependent on him and on his earnings. So was Femia’s mother, Andreozza, who had been widowed herself years before. Femia’s sister would herself be widowed two years hence. Marrying