family and society 335
political aspect of the “families”: the patriciate, reserving the government
for itself, also reserved the right to organize itself into lineages, while cit-
tadini were left only with the family. once again, alessandro Ziliol was
engaging in a dialogue with Gasparo contarini, who one century earlier
had described the honors conferred on “plebei” who “parum honori stu-
dent, sed potius rei familiaris studio inserviunt.”37
Mercantile Fraternein the Venetian merchant class, even beyond the patriciate, the fraterna
represented the fundamental economic structure. exceptions aside, all
brothers were involved, along with the father, in the family company,
which had to be passed on to future generations, according to various
modalities: at times, only one of the brothers accepted the “charge” of
marrying and starting a family, and others granted this readily to him, as
andrea Ziliol wrote at the beginning of the 16th century, specifying that
he had not wished to marry because it was his “predilection” to travel.
He had thus left the task to his brother Vettor, who had received from
his wife lugretia Reverti a dowry of 2000 ducats, “which is quite a fine
dowry at the present time.” in other cases, as happened to the Bortolussi,
glass-makers from murano, all seven brothers married; their wives’ dow-
ries were integrated into the capital of the fraterna; and the sons progres-
sively followed their fathers into the company. Between 1562 and 1574,
elisabetta Gritti, the childless wife of Francesco Bortolussi, made at least
three wills: in the first, she named her husband as heir; in the second,
which she made after her husband’s death, her dowry was destined to his
five brothers, who composed the fraterna; and in the third, to her nieces,
daughters of her sister Pierina, widow of Piero Bortolussi. the evolution
of elisabetta’s testamentary choices, which may appear to tend towards
a progressive “emancipation” from the closed structure of the fraterna, in
reality allowed a balance to be maintained between the fraterna’s compo-
nent parts, that is to say, between center—the brothers and their sons—
and periphery—the wives and their daughters.38
Surprising formulas sometimes appear in the wills of merchants’ wives,
such as, for example, “that my daughter should do as she wishes, and
if anyone objects, may he be deprived of my bequest.” the risk run by
37 Zannini, Burocrazia; Bellavitis, Identité, pp. 310 and 342.
38 Bellavitis, Identité, pp. 288 and 340; pp. 269–73.