Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 2867
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Klapisch-Zuber , Christiane.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Un Salario o l'onore: come valutare le donne Fiorentine del XIV- XV secolo [in Renaissance Italy, a married woman's honor was incompatible with such public functions as gainful employment; an unmarried woman or a widow was more likely to seek employment, although a married woman might make thread or cloth at home; the married woman's economic identity was supposed to be submerged in that of her husband].
  • Source: Quaderni Storici , 1 (aprile 1992): Pages 41 - 49.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Dowries Florence Honor Wages Work
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 14- 15
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract: This paper examines three cases involving questions relating to wages and dowry as part of an attempt to reconstruct the identity of Florentine women in this period and the ways in which they interiorised or rejected the position they were given in the world of work. In Florence, a society that was dominated by values of honor, female work was widespread but considered socially degrading and was thus kept hidden or confined to the private sphere. The possibility of reconstructing the identity and the historical subjectivity of Florentine women is shown to depend on the elaboration of new interpretive tools and of specific questions to which the fiscal and administrative source material must be subjected. These, in fact, tend to give only a vague and imprecise picture of the professional activity of women.
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: Italian
  • ISSN/ISBN: 03016307