Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 45680
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Ubaldis , Baldus de, Franciscus de Albergottis, , Julius Kirshner and Osvaldo Cavallar
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Remarriage of Widows and Conflicting Claims to the Dowry
  • Source: Jurists and Jurisprudence in Medieval Italy: Texts and Contexts.  Edited by Osvaldo Cavallar and Julius Kirshner .  University of Toronto Press, 2020.  Pages 759 - 772. Available with a subscription from JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctv179h1fw.49
    and from De Gruyter: https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487536336-011
  • Description: Two documents are translated:
    42.1. Franciscus de Albergottis, Consilium (ca. 1362-1364)
    42.2. Baldus de Ubaldis, Consilium (ca. 1362-1364)
    Three jurists (Franciscus, Baldus and Ricardus de Saliceto of Bologna) submitted opinions about the case of the remarried widow in Cortona who left her entire dowry to the children of her second marriage. Franciscus found in favor of the son from the first marriage who claimed half his mother's dowry. The jurist saw the mother's arrangements as illegal since they constituted a gift to her second husband, given that their son was a minor. Baldus upheld the dowry agreement, arguing that the mother's gift was to her second son not to his father. The court decided in favor of the first son. The editors note that given the percentage of young widows who remarried in Florence, arrangements to favor the children of the second marriage were needed in order to promote this practice of remarriage. In 1415 Florentine revised statutes declared the entire dowry went to the current husband even in cases where children from the woman's previous marriage survived.
  • Article Type: Translation
  • Subject (See Also): Children Dowries Family Husbands Inheritance Law Marriage Widows Wives
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 14
  • Primary Evidence:
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  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Nanzan University [Cavallar]; University of Chicago [Kirshner- Emeritus Professor]
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2020.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 9781487507480 (print); 9781487536336 (online)