Skip to main content

IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 243: Reassessing the Boundaries of Kinship in the Late Middle Ages, II: Gendered Confines

Monday 6 July 2020, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Project (MSCA), 'Kinship, Alliance & Urban Space: The Genoese alberghi in the Late Middle Ages (c. 1150-c. 1450)' (GenALMA)
Organiser:Denise Bezzina, Centro interuniversitario di ricerca di storia del notariato (NOTARIORUM ITINERA), Università degli Studi di Genova
Moderator/Chair:Denise Bezzina, Centro interuniversitario di ricerca di storia del notariato (NOTARIORUM ITINERA), Università degli Studi di Genova
Respondent:Isabelle Chabot, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche Geografiche e dell'Antichita' (DiSSGeA) Università degli Studi di Padova
Paper 243-aGuardians and Tutors: Blood Family and Public Responsibility in the Jewish Community of Barcelona, 14th Century
(Language: English)
Anna Rich-Abad, Department of History, University of Nottingham
Index terms: Gender Studies, Social History
Paper 243-bLegal or Family Boundaries?: Reassessing Women's Economic Agency in Late Medieval Padua
(Language: English)
Solène Minier, Département des Sciences Sociales École Normale Supérieur de Lyon
Index terms: Social History, Women's Studies
Abstract

Along the medieval centuries kin groups could establish confines within which individuals (especially females) could act freely; these gendered boundaries eventually came to be reflected in legislation. The limits imposed on women in particular will be discussed: 1) by looking at the development of guardianship in Barcelona and focusing on gender roles, on the duties and limits of female guardians (as mothers of orphans/legal guardians of children that were not theirs); 2) by considering Padua, where discriminatory norms were introduced to favour patrilineage, paying special attention to the gap between law and practice by focusing on the women's ability to take control over their dowries, and gain access to inheritance. The Respondent will draw on her research on Florence and past historiography to further discuss how these limits were devised, implemented, and bypassed in different areas.