• Law courts were a site of connection between rulers and subjects

• Good reason to take women as the focus — as the face of it, women are marginal people in these regimes

Tuscany from Florentine Republic to Grand Duchy

• Cosimo I (ruled Tuscany, 1537-1574, after 1569, held title of “Grand Duke of Tuscany”) [fyi: after 1564, he left more ruling tasks to his son, Francesco]

  • 1. Grand Duchy = political successor of the Republic of Florence

• How the Medici Re(Gained) Legitimacy

  • When French first invaded in 1490s (later Spanish defeated them and controlled the peninsula), Florentines who didn’t like Medicis used it as an excuse to chase the Medici out of Florence

  • Experiment in republic again

  • But then it didn’t work, they were brought back in 1530 as the dukes of the city, hereditary ruling family

  • State of Tuscany creates modern nuclear family

  • Cosimo I was seen as outsider — descendants of two branches of the family tree

    • 1537, he was from collateral branch → unexpectedly elevated to duke

  • Cosimo secured his rule; recognized Spanish pre-eminence in Italy; made a smart marriage; 

    • Marries the daughter of the highest ranking Spanish official in Italy of that time (governor of Naples) → marriage choice shows Spanish ascendancy

  • coopted nobles; annexed Siena through war; & had a particular interest in judicial reform (case for Tuesday) & judicial institutions in general

  • Tries to build a navy for Tuscany

  • The case prompted him to write a new law on sexual violence

    • Punishment should be the same anywhere in the state and regardless of status

    • Radical idea because before this laws were written differently depending on who was the victim and who was the perpetrator

• Judicial institutions

  • The Law Court of the “Eight on Public Safety” = Otto di Guardia e Balìa – Cosimo challenges their decisions in case to discuss Tuesday

    • Successor to the Podesta

    • Cosimo just changes result, some might call that overreach

    • Incarceration isn’t really used as a punishment at this time → people are held in jail before cases so they don’t run off before case

      • Two most common punishments are corporal punishments and fines

    • Running a legal system with people who aren’t necessarily trained in the law (court of eight is elites)

  • The prisons (Bargello and Le Stinche) = institutions of public order and criminal prosecution in the city of Florence

Rethinking the Renaissance Family as a Site of Stability and (Potential) Danger

• Ties between modern family mother and children are the main ties, matrilineal

  • Industrialization → as people left the countryside, the tie with agricultural work was broken, necessity of thinking about inheritance of land diminished in value or was totally erased

• Young widow predicament generalized to the way women behave (previous lecture - good daughter, mother, but not both)

• The Bilinear View of the family: Evidence from Venice, Rome (as compared to Florence) (Ago, “team sport” (gioco di squadra))

  • resources of mother and father both matter (to get kids to positions in life where they want to be)

  • ‘parenti’ (or parentado) – friends, distant relatives, wives’ relatives also matter

• Widows petitioning for custody reoriented system to matrilineal (Calvi)

  • Women challenged the notion that by default, children belonged with the patrilineal family

    • Both by exploiting earlier laws

    • AND they argue that women are better capable of caring for children than men

  • Even a widowed mother could be a moral person

How did the Magistrato dei Pupilli Intervene in the Protection of Children?

• Evidence from the Magistrato dei Pupilli (Magistracy for the Protection of Orphans)

• By the late 16th century, law court is paying more attention to orphans and trying to secure more stable living for them

• If the father of the child died without making a will and specifying who would be the guardian, then the door was open for his widow to step forward and ask for custody

  • 50% of cases involved a man who died without making a will

  • He could have specified wife as guardian (not making will is an interesting choice in a society that makes a lot of wills)

  • Women could not in their last wills designate guardians for their children, but men could

• She calls them a court because they act like a court: calls experts, witnesses, etc. End up with a judgment where child would best be suited

  • Also acts like a court of appeal for other custody cases

• Who can help a child survive, and who can tend best to the child’s inheritance?

General Patterns of Decision-Making: Who Gets Custody of Children at Death of Father?

• Donna e Madonna (Woman and Mother)

  • No longer a wife → left “servitude” of marriage

• Typical battle was between mothers (widows) and brothers-in-law (deceased husband’s brother)

• From 1648-1766, Calvi analyzed 1,503 cases for Florence and the countryside:

  • 1,083 cases decided in favor of the mother: 72%

  • 393 cases decided in favor of father’s family: 26.1%

  • 27 cases, custody given to an unspecified guardian: 1.7%

• Calvi thinks law court probably not persuaded by sentimental aspect (mother being with child); rather looking for legal precedent to overturn what would be normal (going to uncle family)

  • Older Laws (Statues) / Legal “loopholes” employed: No orphan should become the ward of a person who was potentially his/her heir (see family tree on powerpoint for danger posed by guardian/heir

• The Virtues of Marginality: Mothers cannot inherit from their under age children

  • Women don’t inherit from their husbands

  • They can be left some money, but generally she has nothing to do with patrilineal inheritance

• Therefore Mother Love: “above suspicion” (al di sopra di ogni sospetto); “pure” (puro)= extraneous to her interests; it was free (gratuito); mother capable of charity and affection (carità ed affetto)

• Mothers seen as having superior skills to care for children (relative to deceased husband’s male relatives)

  • Children under the age of 3 seen as “fragile beings” who would thrive better under the care of their mother

• Therefore, “cruel mother” stereotype gives way to “cruel uncle” stereotype

  • Flipped the whole equation “there is no love greater than a father’s love”

Impact of Choosing Women as Guardians for the State and for the Family – what did the

state gain from these interventions? What was the impact of choosing mothers over uncles?

• (Case of Agnese Griffoli, of Montepulciano)

  • Key terms: Avere casa da per sé = to have a house of her own

  • Ideal Family = widowed mother and children; emotional bond between mother and children is the new standard for family life.