Through his research on the status of women in Florence and other Italian cities, Julius Kirshner helped to establish the socio-legal history of women in late medieval and Renaissance Italy and challenge the idea that Florentine women had an inferior legal position and civic status.
In "Marriage, Dowry, and Citizenship in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy", Kirshner collects nine important essays which address these issues in Florence and the cities of northern and central Italy. Using a cross-disciplinary approach that draws on the methodologies of both social and legal history, the essays in this collection present a wealth of examples of daughters, wives, and widows acting as full-fledged social and legal actors.
Revised and updated to reflect current scholarship, the essays in "Marriage, Dowry, and Citizenship in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy" appear alongside an extended introduction which situates them within the broader field of Renaissance legal history.
Author(s): Julius Kirshner
Series: Toronto Studies in Medieval Law, 2
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 472
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 3
1. Making and Breaking Betrothal Contracts ('Sponsalia') in Late Trecento Florence / with Osvaldo Cavallar 20
2. 'Li Emergenti Bisogni Matrimoniali' in Renaissance Florence 55
3. Materials for a Gilded Cage: Nondotal Assets in Florence, 1300–1500 74
4. The Morning After: Collecting Monte Dowries in Renaissance Florence 94
5. The Seven Percent Fund of Renaissance Florence / with Jacob Klerman 114
6. Wives’ Claims against Insolvent Husbands in Late Medieval Italy 131
7. Women Married Elsewhere: Gender and Citizenship in Medieval Italy 161
8. Dowry, Domicile, and Citizenship in Late Medieval Florence 189
9. Pisa’s "Long-Arm" 'Gabella Dotis' (1420–1525): Issues, Cases, Legal Opinions 197
Original Publication Information 215
Appendix 1. 'Ricordanze' of Paolo d’Alessandro Sassetti 217
Appendix 2. 'Formulario' of Iacopo di ser Francesco Toschanelli 219
Appendix 3. Two 'Consilia' of Angelus de Ubaldis 221
Appendix 4. 'Confessio dotis' of Chirico di Giovanni of Florence 230
Appendix 5. The Seven Percent Account of Lorenzo di Bonaccorso Pitti 232
Appendix 6. Selected Jurists and Theologians 235
Abbreviations 239
Notes 241
References 383
Index 453
