Table Of ContentMARRIAGE, DOWRY, AND CITIZENSHIP IN LATE
MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ITALY
Through his research on the status of women in Florence and other Italian
cities, Julius Kirshner helped to establish the cross-disciplinary study of
social and legal history in late medieval and Renaissance Italy, and chal-
lenged 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 of his most important essays that 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 so-
cial and legal history, Kirshner’s research presents a wealth of examples of
daughters, wives, and widows acting as fully fledged members of society.
Revised and updated to reflect current scholarship, the essays in Mar-
riage, Dowry, and Citizenship in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy ap-
pear alongside an extended introduction which situates them within the
broader field of Renaissance legal history.
(Toronto Studies in Medieval Law)
julius kirshner is a professor emeritus in the Department of History at
the University of Chicago.
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Marriage, Dowry, and
Citizenship in Late Medieval
and Renaissance Italy
JULIUS KIRSHNER
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2015
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in the U.S.A.
ISBN 978-1-4426-1421-5
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks.
Toronto Studies in Medieval Law
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Kirshner, Julius, author
Marriage, dowry, and citizenship in late medieval and Renaissance Italy /
Julius Kirshner.
(Toronto studies in medieval law)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-1421-5 (pbk.)
1. Marriage law – Italy – Florence – History – Medieval, 500–1500. 2. Dowry –
Italy – Florence – History – Medieval, 500–1500. 3. Citizenship – Italy – Florence –
History – Medieval, 500-1500. 4. Real property – Italy – Florence – History –
Medieval, 500–1500. 5. Women – Legal status, laws, etc. – Italy – Florence – History –
Medieval, 500–1500. 6. Law, Medieval – Italy – Florence. 7. Renaissance – Italy –
Florence. I. Title. II. Series: Toronto studies in medieval law
KKH542.K57 2015 346.4501′60902 C2014-908167-7
University of Toronto Press gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, in the publication of this book.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing
program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency
of the Government of Ontario.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of
Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 3
1 Making and Breaking Betrothal Contracts (Sponsalia)
in Late Trecento Florence 20
with osvaldo cavallar
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 114
with jacob klerman
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
vvii MCoanrrtieangtes, Dowry, and Citizenship
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
Acknowledgments
In researching and writing the studies in this volume, I have benefited
from the innumerable acts of generosity – smoothing the way for me to
gain access to local archives, providing archival and manuscript references,
sending copies and scans of texts that were unavailable in Chicago, provid-
ing bibliographic leads, and commenting on drafts of early versions of the
studies – of friends and colleagues. Warm thanks to all: Harvey Adelstein,
Lawrin Armstrong, Mario Ascheri, Nicola Lorenzo Barile, Gabriella Bat-
tista, Kees Bezemer, John Cochrane, Vincenzo Colli, Gino Corti, Angela
De Benedictis, Constantin Fasolt, Robert Fredona, Orsola Gori, Maria
Teresa Guerra Medici, Linda Guzzetti, David Herlihy, Alexander Kirsh-
ner, Susanne Lepsius, Michele Luzzati, Christine Meek, Sara Menzinger,
Maria Grazia Nico, Diana Robin, Rodolfo Savelli, Justin Steinberg, Clau-
dia Storti Storchi, Francesca Trivellato, and Alan Watson.
Special thanks are due to Elena Brizio of the Medici Archive Proj-
ect, who verified archival and manuscript references in Florence; Daniel
Jamison, who skillfully transformed the PDF files of the published studies
into clean MS Word files and compiled the first draft of the comprehensive
bibliography; Erik Carlson, who meticulously edited the manuscript; and
my coauthors Osvaldo Cavallar and Jacob Klerman, who agreed to the
republication of chapters 1 and 5, respectively, in this volume.
The research on the records of the Monte delle doti and Monte delle
Graticole, which supplies the basis for the findings in chapters 4 and 5,
was undertaken in collaboration with Tony Molho. Our collaboration has
been fruitful, resulting in a number of publications, written together as
well as individually. I want to express my appreciation for Tony’s hospi-
tality, first in Providence and then in Florence, intellectual engagement,
vviiiiii MAcakrrnioagwel,e Ddgomwernyt, sand Citizenship
and readiness to share his incomparable knowledge of Florentine public
finance in the Renaissance. Tom Kuehn and I have been commenting on
each other’s drafts and exchanging ideas since the 1970s. I have come to
rely on his sound judgment and have profited immensely from his sub-
stantial and farsighted sociolegal contributions. I am beholden to Osvaldo
Cavallar, friend, coauthor, and indefatigable decipherer of medieval legal
texts, who over the past twenty-five years has patiently read and critically
commented on draft after draft of my work. It was Lauro Martines who
urged me to publish a volume of my studies. I hope the volume measures
up to his high scholarly standards.
I am indebted to Paolo Grossi for his welcoming friendship and for
making available the resources of the Centro di Studi per la Storia del
Pensiero Giuridico Moderno at the University of Florence, when he was
its director and before his appointment to Italy’s Constitutional Court.
Many of the legal works cited in the volume are found at the remarkable
Robbins Religious and Civil Law Collection, School of Law (Boalt Hall),
University of California at Berkeley. I am grateful to its director, Laurent
Mayali, and staff for making my visits to the “Robbins” both pleasurable
and productive. I am also grateful to the personnel of the Archivio di
Stato and Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence and the Biblioteca del
Senato in Rome for their efficient and courteous assistance.
I wish to acknowledge the support of the Centre for Medieval Stud-
ies, University of Toronto, and particularly its sometime director, John
Magee, who generously allocated a subsidy from the departmental publi-
cation fund for the production of this volume; and Lawrin Armstrong for
his abiding enthusiasm for this project and encouraging me to publish the
volume in the Toronto Studies in Medieval Law, of which he is the editor.
Much more than formal acknowledgment can express, my deepest debt
is to my family, and above all to Judith, whose loving support sustained
me during the years of research and writing, and finally and happily I
dedicate the book to her.
