Since ancient Roman times up to Early Modern Italy, gender determined an individual’s life and career as much as social class or economic status. Career options for men lay in the public domain where personal networks were as important as education and training. Women, on the other hand, had one “career” option, regardless of social class – marriage. Note that the option of the nunnery for women began much later, based on economic shifts. This course looks at the family as a social institution where individuals, both men and women, were legally subordinated in different ways to their father’s authority, and their social behaviors were strictly controlled by the society. At the same time, if they behaved ‘correctly’, they were given protection and freedom. The course also considers some alternative, personal or professional life strategies, far from ‘correct’ behaviors, which evolved during these times. The aim is to give students a cultural and socio-historical approach to an intriguing topic from different but interrelated perspectives.
Prerequisites:
None
Attendance policy:
Successful progress of the program depends on the full cooperation of both students and faculty members: regular attendance and active participation in class are essential parts of the learning process. Attendance at and participation in all class meetings and field-studies are required. More than TWO unjustified absences (that are not medically excused with a written certificate of the doctor or caused by serious sudden family and/or personal occurrences, as for example death of a family member) will result in a lowering of your grade.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students are able to:
Identify aspects of social life that were considered 'problems' and the solutions adopted to face these difficulties;
Compare theory and practice, essentially analyzing what was theoretically considered good (or bad, legal or illegal) and how real people tried to navigate around itt, in order to achieve their aim;
Discuss the different roles of family members, and determine if they were all tied to what they were expected to be, or if they had the opportunity to create personal solutions to their dreams and/or expectations.
Method of presentation:
Lectures (including PowerPoint projections, CD-ROMs and other visual materials), seminar discussions. Guided tours to museums and exhibitions, and archives.
Required work and form of assessment:
Active class participation and class discussions (15%); written paper [7-10 double spaced pages on a chosen topic related to the course] (35%); mid-term exam (25%); final exam [short essay-style answers and a short essay, to be picked from a given list, which cannot be the same topic as the written paper, as well as a 10 to 15 minute oral presentation to the class of the written paper] (25%).
content:
Week 1.: The ancient Roman family; the role of father and the position of offspring
RICHARD P. SALLER, Roman Heirship Strategies in Principle and in Practise. The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present. Yale University press, New Haven and London, 1991 (pp.26-47).
PETER GARNSEY, Child Rearing in Ancient Italy. The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present. Yale University press, New Haven and London, 1991 (pp. 48-65).
SCOTT, J., “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, The American Historical Review, 91, nr. 5, December 1986 (pp. 1066-1075).
AHR Forum: Revisiting “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, The American Historical Review, 113, nr. 5, December 2008 (pp. 1390-1403).
Week 2.: The invasions of Barbarians; the new social rules
SHEEHAN, M., Sexuality, Marriage, Celibacy and the Family in Central and Northern Italy: Christian Legal and Moral Guides in the early Middle Ages.The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present. Yale University press, New Haven and London, 1991 (pp. 168-183).
DAVID HERLIHY, Women, family and Society in Medieval Europe: Historical Essays, 1978-1991. Providence-Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995 (pp. 96-153).
Week 3: After the ancient Roman Law and the Barbarian Traditions: a new reality for women
DAVID HERLIHY, Women, family and Society in Medieval Europe: Historical Essays, 1978-1991. Providence-Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995 (pp. 14-95).
Week 4.: The different social and political realities in medieval Italy
EPSTEIN A., The Medieval family: A Place of Refuge and Sorrow. Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance Living. Essays in Memory of David Herlihy. The University of Michigan Press, 1996.
DAVID HERLIHY, Women, family and Society in Medieval Europe: Historical Essays, 1978-1991. Providence-Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995 (pp. 261-278; 296-313)..
Week 5.: Canon and civil law jurisprudence in the Middle Ages: the example of Florence
KIRSHNER J., “Consilia” as Authority in Late Medieval Italy: The Case of Florence. Legal Consulting in the Civil Law Tradition, eds. M. Mascheri, I. Baumgärtner, J. Kirshner. Berkeley: The Robbins Collection, 1999.
KUEHN T., Heirs, Kin, and Creditors in Renaissance Florence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008 (pp. 51-81).
Week 6.: Christian religion and Christian family in medieval society
DAVID HERLIHY, Women, family and Society in Medieval Europe: Historical Essays, 1978-1991. Providence-Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995 (pp. 154-192).
Week 7.: Being a woman in the medieval society: rules, prohibitions, limits, and chances
KUEHNT T., Daughters, Mothers, Wives, and Widows. Women as legal persons. Time, Space and Women’s Lives in Early Modern Europe, eds. A. Jacobson Schutte, T. Kuehn, S. Seidel Menchi. Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2001.
KUEHN T., Law, Family & Women: Toward a legal anthropology of Renaissance Italy. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991 (pp. 212-237; 197-211).
BRUNDAGE, JAMES A., Widows as Disadvantaged Persons in Medieval Canon Law. Upon My Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature & Histories of Medieval Europe, ed. L. Mirrer. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1992.
Week 8.: The marriage: technical, social, legal, economic aspects
D’AVRAY P., Marriage ceremonies and the church in Italy after 1215. Marriage in Italy, 1300-1650, Camridge University Press.
BRUCKER G., Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986.
KOLSKY S., Bending the rules: marriage in Renaissance collections of biographies of famous women, Marriage in Italy, 1300-1650, Cambridge University Press.
MOLHO A., Marriage and Alliance in Late Medieval Florence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.
Week 9.: The offspring: advantages and disadvantages in being mother
DAVID HERLIHY, Women, family and Society in Medieval Europe: Historical Essays, 1978-1991. Providence-Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995 (pp. 215-243).
KIRSHNER J., Pursuing Honor while Avoiding Sin: The Monte delle doti of Florence. Milano: Giuffrè, 1978 (pp. 87-102).
KUEHN T., Illegitimacy in Renaissance Florence. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002
Week 10.: Medical knowledge and practical aspects of women’s bodies and life
GREEN, MONICA H., Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval West, St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St Edumunds, Suffolk, 2000 (pp. 39-78).
Week 11.: The social role of women and their help to kin strategies
RIEMER S. E., Women in the Medieval city: sources and uses of wealth by Sienese women in the thirteenth-century. Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1975.
BRIZIO E., In the Shadow of the Campo. Sienese Women and Their Families (c. 1400-1600). Across the Religious Divide. Women, Property, and law in the Wider Mediterranean (ca. 1300-1800), ed. by Jutta Gisela Sperling and Shona Kelly Wray, Routledge Research in Gender and History, New York.
JENKENS, LAWERENCE A., Caterina Piccolomini and the Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena, REISS, SHERYL E., WILKINS, DAVID G. (ed. by), Beyond Isabella. Secular Women patrons of art in Renaissance Italy. Truman State University Press, Missouri, 2001.
Week 12.:The artistic role of women in Renaissance and Baroque era: Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti (as known as “Tintoretta”), Artemisia Gentileschi.
GARRAND M.D., Artemisia and Susanna. Feminism and art history. Questioning the litany. Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1982.
Required readings:
All the required readings will be in the course packet.
AHR Forum: Revisiting “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, The American Historical
Review, 113, nr. 5, December 2008.
BRIZIO E., In the Shadow of the Campo. Sienese Women and Their Families (c. 1400-1600). Across the
Religious Divide. Women, Property, and law in the Wider Mediterranean (ca. 1300-1800), ed. by Jutta
Gisela Sperling and Shona Kelly Wray, Routledge Research in Gender and History, New York.
BRUCKER G., Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley-Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1986.
BRUNDAGE, JAMES A., Widows as Disadvantaged Persons in Medieval Canon Law. Upon My Husband’s
Death: Widows in the Literature & Histories of Medieval Europe, ed. L. Mirrer. Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 1992.
D’AVRAY P., Marriage ceremonies and the church in Italy after 1215. Marriage in Italy, 1300-1650,
Cambridge University Press.
EPSTEIN A., The Medieval family: A Place of Refuge and Sorrow. Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance
Living. Essays in Memory of David Herlihy. The University of Michigan Press, 1996.
GARNSEY, P., Child Rearing in Ancient Italy. The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present. Yale
University press, New Haven and London, 1991.
GARRAND M.D., Artemisia and Susanna. Feminism and art history. Questioning the litany. Harper & Row
Publishers, New York, 1982.
GREEN, MONICA H., Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval West, St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St
Edumunds, Suffolk, 2000.
HERLIHY D., Women, Family and Society in Medieval Europe: Historical Essays, 1978-1991. Providence-
Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995.
JENKENS, LAWERENCE A., Caterina Piccolomini and the Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena, REISS, SHERYL
E., WILKINS, DAVID G. (ed. by), Beyond Isabella. Secular Women patrons of art in Renaissance Italy.
Truman State University Press, Missouri, 2001.
KIRSHNER J., Pursuing Honor while Avoiding Sin: The Monte delle doti of Florence. Milano: Giuffrè, 1978.
“---“. “Consilia” as Authority in Late Medieval Italy: The Case of Florence. Legal Consulting in the Civil
Law Tradition, eds. M. Mascheri, I. Baumgärtner, J. Kirshner. Berkeley: The Robbins Collection, 1999.
KOLSKY S., Bending the rules: marriage in Renaissance collections of biographies of famous women,
Marriage in Italy, 1300-1650, Cambridge University Press.
KUEHN T., Law, Family & Women: Toward a legal anthropology of Renaissance Italy. Chicago and
London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991.
“---“. Illegitimacy in Renaissance Florence. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.
“---“. Heirs, Kin, and Creditors in Renaissance Florence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
“---“. Daughters, Mothers, Wives, and Widows. Women as legal persons. Time, Space and Women’s
Lives in Early Modern Europe, eds. A. Jacobson Schutte, T. Kuehn, S. Seidel Menchi. Kirksville:
Truman State University Press, 2001.
MOLHO A., Marriage and Alliance in Late Medieval Florence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.
RIEMER S. E., Women in the Medieval city: sources and uses of wealth by Sienese women in the
thirteenth-century. Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1975.
SALLER, P. RICHARD, Roman Heirship Strategies in Principle and in Practise. The Family in Italy from
antiquity to the present. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1991.
SCOTT, J., “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, The American Historical Review, 91, nr. 5,
December 1986.
SHEEHAN, M., Sexuality, Marriage, Celibacy and the Family in Central and Northern Italy: Christian Legal
and Moral Guides in the early Middle Ages.The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present. Yale
University press, New Haven and London, 1991.
Recommended readings:
BELLOMO, M., La struttura patrimoniale della famiglia italiana nel tardo medioevo. Marriage, Property
and Succession, ed. L. Bonfield. Berlin: Dunckler & Humblot, 1992
CHABOT, I., Lineage strategies and the control of widows in Renaissance Florence. Widowhood in
Medieval and Early Modern Europe, a cura di Sandra Cavallo, Lyndan Warner, London Longman,
1999, pp. 127-144.
CHOJNACKI S., Women and Men in Renaissance Venice: Twelve Essays on Patrician Society. Baltimore
and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000 (pp.1-52; 115-131; 169-182).
CRABB A., The Strozzi of Florence. Widowhood & Family in the Renaissance. Ann Arbor: The University of
Michigan Press, 2000 (pp. 180-205).
“---“. How Typical Was Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi of Fifteen-Century Florentine Widows? Upon My
Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature & Histories of Medieval Europe, ed. L. Mirrer. Ann Arbor:
The University of Michigan Press, 1992
DIEFENDORF, BARBARA B., Family Culture, Renaissance Culture. Renaissance Quarterly, 40, 1987.
EISENACH E., Husbands, Wives, and Concubines: Marriage, Family, and Social Order in sixteenth-
century Verona. Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2004 (pp. 87-133; 178-219).
FERRARO J. M., Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001
SHEEDY A., Bartolus on social conditions in the fourteenth century. New York: AMS Press 1967.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Elena Brizio earned a Ph.D. in Medieval History from the University of Florence. She pursued postdoctoral studies and earned a Master’s in Gender Studies at the University of Siena. She also earned some scholarly fellowships in the United States. She has published on the political, institutional and legal history of the Trecento, and her current research focuses on the cultural, economic and social power of women in the Renaissance.
Since ancient Roman times up to Early Modern Italy, gender determined an individual’s life and career as much as social class or economic status. Career options for men lay in the public domain where personal networks were as important as education and training. Women, on the other hand, had one “career” option, regardless of social class – marriage. Note that the option of the nunnery for women began much later, based on economic shifts. This course looks at the family as a social institution where individuals, both men and women, were legally subordinated in different ways to their father’s authority, and their social behaviors were strictly controlled by the society. At the same time, if they behaved ‘correctly’, they were given protection and freedom. The course also considers some alternative, personal or professional life strategies, far from ‘correct’ behaviors, which evolved during these times. The aim is to give students a cultural and socio-historical approach to an intriguing topic from different but interrelated perspectives.
None
Successful progress of the program depends on the full cooperation of both students and faculty members: regular attendance and active participation in class are essential parts of the learning process. Attendance at and participation in all class meetings and field-studies are required. More than TWO unjustified absences (that are not medically excused with a written certificate of the doctor or caused by serious sudden family and/or personal occurrences, as for example death of a family member) will result in a lowering of your grade.
By the end of the course, students are able to:
Lectures (including PowerPoint projections, CD-ROMs and other visual materials), seminar discussions. Guided tours to museums and exhibitions, and archives.
Active class participation and class discussions (15%); written paper [7-10 double spaced pages on a chosen topic related to the course] (35%); mid-term exam (25%); final exam [short essay-style answers and a short essay, to be picked from a given list, which cannot be the same topic as the written paper, as well as a 10 to 15 minute oral presentation to the class of the written paper] (25%).
Week 1.: The ancient Roman family; the role of father and the position of offspring
Week 2.: The invasions of Barbarians; the new social rules
Week 3: After the ancient Roman Law and the Barbarian Traditions: a new reality for women
Week 4.: The different social and political realities in medieval Italy
Week 5.: Canon and civil law jurisprudence in the Middle Ages: the example of Florence
Week 6.: Christian religion and Christian family in medieval society
Week 7.: Being a woman in the medieval society: rules, prohibitions, limits, and chances
Week 8.: The marriage: technical, social, legal, economic aspects
Week 9.: The offspring: advantages and disadvantages in being mother
Week 10.: Medical knowledge and practical aspects of women’s bodies and life
Week 11.: The social role of women and their help to kin strategies
Week 12.: The artistic role of women in Renaissance and Baroque era: Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti (as known as “Tintoretta”), Artemisia Gentileschi.
All the required readings will be in the course packet.
AHR Forum: Revisiting “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, The American Historical
Review, 113, nr. 5, December 2008.
BRIZIO E., In the Shadow of the Campo. Sienese Women and Their Families (c. 1400-1600). Across the
Religious Divide. Women, Property, and law in the Wider Mediterranean (ca. 1300-1800), ed. by Jutta
Gisela Sperling and Shona Kelly Wray, Routledge Research in Gender and History, New York.
BRUCKER G., Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley-Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1986.
BRUNDAGE, JAMES A., Widows as Disadvantaged Persons in Medieval Canon Law. Upon My Husband’s
Death: Widows in the Literature & Histories of Medieval Europe, ed. L. Mirrer. Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 1992.
D’AVRAY P., Marriage ceremonies and the church in Italy after 1215. Marriage in Italy, 1300-1650,
Cambridge University Press.
EPSTEIN A., The Medieval family: A Place of Refuge and Sorrow. Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance
Living. Essays in Memory of David Herlihy. The University of Michigan Press, 1996.
GARNSEY, P., Child Rearing in Ancient Italy. The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present. Yale
University press, New Haven and London, 1991.
GARRAND M.D., Artemisia and Susanna. Feminism and art history. Questioning the litany. Harper & Row
Publishers, New York, 1982.
GREEN, MONICA H., Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval West, St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St
Edumunds, Suffolk, 2000.
HERLIHY D., Women, Family and Society in Medieval Europe: Historical Essays, 1978-1991. Providence-
Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995.
JENKENS, LAWERENCE A., Caterina Piccolomini and the Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena, REISS, SHERYL
E., WILKINS, DAVID G. (ed. by), Beyond Isabella. Secular Women patrons of art in Renaissance Italy.
Truman State University Press, Missouri, 2001.
KIRSHNER J., Pursuing Honor while Avoiding Sin: The Monte delle doti of Florence. Milano: Giuffrè, 1978.
“---“. “Consilia” as Authority in Late Medieval Italy: The Case of Florence. Legal Consulting in the Civil
Law Tradition, eds. M. Mascheri, I. Baumgärtner, J. Kirshner. Berkeley: The Robbins Collection, 1999.
KOLSKY S., Bending the rules: marriage in Renaissance collections of biographies of famous women,
Marriage in Italy, 1300-1650, Cambridge University Press.
KUEHN T., Law, Family & Women: Toward a legal anthropology of Renaissance Italy. Chicago and
London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991.
“---“. Illegitimacy in Renaissance Florence. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.
“---“. Heirs, Kin, and Creditors in Renaissance Florence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
“---“. Daughters, Mothers, Wives, and Widows. Women as legal persons. Time, Space and Women’s
Lives in Early Modern Europe, eds. A. Jacobson Schutte, T. Kuehn, S. Seidel Menchi. Kirksville:
Truman State University Press, 2001.
MOLHO A., Marriage and Alliance in Late Medieval Florence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.
RIEMER S. E., Women in the Medieval city: sources and uses of wealth by Sienese women in the
thirteenth-century. Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1975.
SALLER, P. RICHARD, Roman Heirship Strategies in Principle and in Practise. The Family in Italy from
antiquity to the present. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1991.
SCOTT, J., “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, The American Historical Review, 91, nr. 5,
December 1986.
SHEEHAN, M., Sexuality, Marriage, Celibacy and the Family in Central and Northern Italy: Christian Legal
and Moral Guides in the early Middle Ages.The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present. Yale
University press, New Haven and London, 1991.
BELLOMO, M., La struttura patrimoniale della famiglia italiana nel tardo medioevo. Marriage, Property
and Succession, ed. L. Bonfield. Berlin: Dunckler & Humblot, 1992
CHABOT, I., Lineage strategies and the control of widows in Renaissance Florence. Widowhood in
Medieval and Early Modern Europe, a cura di Sandra Cavallo, Lyndan Warner, London Longman,
1999, pp. 127-144.
CHOJNACKI S., Women and Men in Renaissance Venice: Twelve Essays on Patrician Society. Baltimore
and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000 (pp.1-52; 115-131; 169-182).
CRABB A., The Strozzi of Florence. Widowhood & Family in the Renaissance. Ann Arbor: The University of
Michigan Press, 2000 (pp. 180-205).
“---“. How Typical Was Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi of Fifteen-Century Florentine Widows? Upon My
Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature & Histories of Medieval Europe, ed. L. Mirrer. Ann Arbor:
The University of Michigan Press, 1992
DIEFENDORF, BARBARA B., Family Culture, Renaissance Culture. Renaissance Quarterly, 40, 1987.
EISENACH E., Husbands, Wives, and Concubines: Marriage, Family, and Social Order in sixteenth-
century Verona. Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2004 (pp. 87-133; 178-219).
FERRARO J. M., Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001
SHEEDY A., Bartolus on social conditions in the fourteenth century. New York: AMS Press 1967.
Elena Brizio earned a Ph.D. in Medieval History from the University of Florence. She pursued postdoctoral studies and earned a Master’s in Gender Studies at the University of Siena. She also earned some scholarly fellowships in the United States. She has published on the political, institutional and legal history of the Trecento, and her current research focuses on the cultural, economic and social power of women in the Renaissance.