Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice

by Joanne M. Ferraro

Book Overview

Based on a fascinating body of previously unexamined archival material, this book brings to life the lost voices of ordinary Venetians during the age of Catholic revival. Looking at scripts that were brought to the city's ecclesiastical courts by spouses seeking to annul their marriage vows, this book opens up the emotional world of intimacy and conflict, sexuality, and living arrangements that did not fit normative models of marriage.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195144961
• ISBN13: 9780195144963
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

TRue Bedroom STories

No, women were far from powerless in Venice during the late Renaissance, and this book tells you how. This author had a field day in Venetian church archives. She was the first one to read transcripts of real cases in what then was the only "divorce" court. Graphic details make this an enjoyable -- and convincing -- read. But Ferraro is also a first-rate historian, and presents strong evidence that women of high and low classes did use this church court to get either an annulment (which allowed them to re-marry) or "separate bed and board" which at least allowed them to get away from an abusive spouse.This book is a pioneering study and should appeal not only to historians, but to sociologists, psychologists, and to any literate person interested in peering into a previously hidden corner of the past.