family and society 323
identified not only by surname but also by parish rather than by the casati,
that is, the group of patricians who shared the same surname.10
Venice’s political role as capital of a composite territorial state and its
economic role as a center of exchange imply a constant influx of immi-
grants, whose integration, more or less feasible depending on the histori-
cal period in question, was based in part on the capacity to weave family
ties and to obtain the right to citizenship, subdivided according to various
degrees. in all periods, however, Venice was characterized by the presence
of foreigners and temporary immigrants from territories across the Vene-
tian State, and one might wonder whether the family conduct of these
“foreigners” influenced the structure of the Venetian family. Recent schol-
arship has investigated the consequences, in Venetian courtrooms, of the
contrasts between different juridical traditions in the area of family law,
both in the capital and in the terraferma.11 Finally, in a city so open and
so composite, where in the 18th century “the excessively licentious life-
style of women” was bemoaned, new fashions and new ideas continued to
arrive and to spread with great ease; these too had a profound influence
on family behavior.12
in any society, the norms that regulate, define, and structure the fam-
ily are a reflection of that society’s economy, politics, social hierarchies,
and history. if gender and generational hierarchies are a universal given,
many nuances can be noted underneath the “patriarchal umbrella.”13 For
example, in the case of Venice, the equal division of the paternal property
among sons, provided for by the statutes, is at the same time the founda-
tion of a mercantile economy, in which all brothers were destined to set
off to make their fortune along commercial routes, and of the republican
political structure, in which the government was managed by a group of
men who were each other’s “equals.” Women’s property rights and their
management on the part of judicial magistracies can be seen as a way of
safeguarding those aspects of reciprocity in the matrimonial system that
were themselves a keystone in the political-family system of the Repub-
lic. Whether, and to what extent, this affected women’s role in Venetian
10 trebbi, “la società”; Hunecke, Il patriziato; chojnacki, “Families.”
11 claudio Povolo, “centro e periferia nella Repubblica di Venezia. Un profilo,” in Gior-
gio chittolini, anthony molho, and Pierangelo Schiera, eds., Origini dello Stato. Processi di
formazione statale in Italia fra Medioevo ed Età moderna (Bologna, 1994), pp. 207–21.
12 Plebani, “la socialità,” p. 160.
13 chojnacki, Women and Men, p. 6.