Medieval Family

El juliol de 1764, el gran historiador Edward Gibbon, davant la Venus de Mèdici, en la Tribuna dels Uffizi, va arribar a la conclusió que només la lectura dels documents li donaria la clau per entendre el passat que buscava explicar-se i explicar als seus conciutadans. La seva imaginació es va veure especialment avivada per aquest descobriment que no està gaire lluny del que el mateix comte de Darnius va fer el dia que per fi va accedir a la lectura de l'Speculo. Es tracta, doncs, de comprendre la veritable naturalesa de la història a través dels testimonis documentals.

One of the main expressions of power of urban nobles during the Central and High Middle Ages in the majority of Mediterranean towns, was a possession of a fortified residence or a refuge. Many townscapes were dominated by mighty private towers, visual assertions of distinguished families. Similar examples can be found in Dalmatia, especially in the documents of Split and Trogir but also in Dubrovnik, Rab, and Zadar. There, towers seem to have been mostly connected to city walls. Thomas the Archdeacon explains in his chronicle that after the settlement of Salonitan refugees in the ancient imperial palace, the rich built their houses, and those who lacked money for building got the towers, while the rest of the people settled in crypts. However, it does not seem that the towers were inhabited only by “the middle class, ” since the leader of the refugees himself, Sever the Great, had a home consisting of a palace and tower in the south-eastern corner of the palace. This early inheritance and control of ancient Roman ruins which were suitable for fortification by the urban nobility seems common in Italy and some other regions of Mediterranean Europe. Most of the later references to private towers of Split are indeed connected to the walls of the palace. In the Split feud in the thirteenth century, described by Archdeacon Thomas, the party of “Vitalis” took shelter in a tower over the northern gate of the city. The opponent party took refuge in the tower of Kalenda, which was probably located somewhere in the south-west part of the wall. The tower of the rich Split merchant Ciprian de Ciprianis shared the borders with the northern side of the archdiocesan complex which was the former palace of Sever the Great. For some others, it may be presumed that they might have also been connected with the city walls, since they were in the proximity of external buildings while for some the location cannot be deduced at all. The only still standing Romanesque casa turrita is situated beside the western entrance of the Diocletian palace (the “Iron Gate”) but it is more of a representative, than defensive, nature. In Trogir, historian John Lucius suggested that after the twelfth-century destructions, the city authorities must have allowed rich citizens who financed reconstruction of towers of city walls to keep them. This issue is better understood for the period from the second half of the thirteenth century onwards, thanks to richer sources and the work of Irena Benyovsky Latin and Ana Plosnić Škarić. Their research on the topography of the dwellings of Trogir nobility show that most of them were close to the walls of the old city (before the expansion to the west in the thirteenth century). The examples of private towers in Dubrovnik at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century also show their connection with town fortifications of that period as well as individual property over the towers. Some examples in Rab could also be connected to the old fortifications. It seems puzzling that there is only one private tower mentioned in Zadar sources. It belonged to the house of Count Dominic Morosini, whose son Roger sold it in 1193. This house is described as being situated in front of the church of St. Mary the Great, which was situated very close to the city wall. This house might have also been attached to the walls, in the same way as the examples in Trogir. It is possible that in Zadar the possession of private noble towers was discouraged by the Venetian authorities, who may have rightfully seen such towers to be the places of mutiny and resistance. Thus, the only tower known to be erected was supposed to protect a Venetian Count from the locals. The towers thus seem to have performed two functions: providing military protection in case of feuds, but mainly serving as family residences (the casa-torre or tower-house). The Split sources mention the examples of defensive use in the thirteenth, and the residential one in the fourteenth century but the earlier use of towers as residential should also not be neglected. The remains of the few existent towers show that these towers contained windows even in the lower part. In this regard, they were similar to the Venetian examples, which were more of a representative than a defensive character. I could not find evidence that the towers presented the joint property of the whole lineage, although they could be held by one branch of the lineage. A possible example is the private tower of the Gauzigna clan in Rab on the top of which Albert, senior stirpis, along with the rest of the male members of the clan, founded the private chapel of St. Stephen. However, it might have been that only the chapel was supposed to be the property of the whole lineage. On the other hand, in several other examples, the individual character of ownership of towers is evident in the fact that parts of them could be owned by women, at least while they kept the right to equal shares of inheritance. This feature seems to be in accordance with Venetian practice, and in contrast with the usual Italian practice described by Heers and his followers. A possibility that some family towers if not performing defensive role, might have served as a suitable place for women of the family, who might have preferred a religious life over marriage but were not cloistered nuns, should also not be discarded. In the earlier period, the Split towers are sometimes mentioned as having several different owners, who seem not to be related to one another: a Split document dated to 1040 (although suspected to be a forgery from the twelfth century) mentions how the prior (Split mayor) Nicifor bought parts of a tower from nine different people, two of whom were priests while four were women (including the wife of one of the priests). In all but one case they do not seem to be related. This tower does not appear to have belonged to nobility or any particular family. It would be wrong to see in them tower societies, societies of shareholders who are not necessarily kinsmen but who imitate kinship ties. They may have been simply occupants with some mutual, already forgotten relation, but even this interpretation may be overstating their connections, since shares in towers seem to have been sold at will. There are no records of any kind of tower societies that might have been organised on the basis of keeping the tower for mutual protection. The spatial position of towers in Trogir and Split as well as records from Dubrovnik provides some support to the old idea of John Lucius that the city walls first developed as the obligation of noble families to protect them. In Zadar, Venetian authorities probably prevented or discouraged such a role for fear of the rebellious Zadar nobility.

This book is a study of medieval queenship – an examination of the nature and role of feminine authority and power and the monarchy in the late Middle Ages.  Based on thorough and rigorous original archival research, it examines the life and career Maria de Luna, queen-consort of the Crown of Aragon (1396–1406); a woman who also served as lieutenant-general (second-in-command) for her husband, King Martí I (1396–1410).  It is not, however, a biography, nor does it focus narrowly on themes which tend to be considered “political.” It approaches the phenomenon of queenship from an array of perspectives, and by uncovering networks of religious, cultural, familial patronage demonstrates that “political” activities cannot be sectioned off from the wider activities of the royal and queenly court. A revised Spanish translation was published in 2012, María de Luna. Poder, piedad y patronazgo de una reina medieval. Zaragoza: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC, 2012.

The political history of early medieval West Francia is often conceived of as the story of influential lineages. This article explores the territorial power and social status of the “house of Vermandois” in the ninth and tenth centuries, suggesting that (a) there is only rare proof of large-scale continuity between different generations of the lineage, (b) there is no evidence that the accumulation of wealth into the hands of the family was the chief purpose of the actions of individual “Herbertians,” and (c) the traditional picture of a “house” is indebted to modern historians confused by post–tenth-century sources.

Les fruits furent-ils jugés efficients par les praticiens médiévaux de la pastorale ? Ou pour être plus précis, étaient-ils présents dans les récits exemplaires, dans les exempla, ces anecdotes que les prédicateurs employèrent volontiers au Moyen Age dans leurs sermons pour faire passer auprès de leurs auditeurs les croyances chrétiennes élémentaires et pour leur faire adopter des modes de comportements conformes à ceux que désirait l’Église ? La présence importante, voire capitale, des animaux dans le discours exemplaire est connue. Celle des fruits n’a pas été jusque là approchée. Or les fruits sont là… À travers l’analyse de l’exemplum connu sous le titre de « Le neveu et l’évêque et le panier de poires », et par l’approche de quelques autres récits, l’auteur veut montrer la richesse de ce type de récits exemplaires qui font intervenir les fruits.

This book is a study of medieval queenship – an examination of the nature and role of feminine authority and power and the monarchy in the late Middle Ages.  Based on thorough and rigorous original archival research, it examines the life and career Maria de Luna, queen-consort of the Crown of Aragon (1396–1406); a woman who also served as lieutenant-general (second-in-command) for her husband, King Martí I (1396–1410).  It is not, however, a biography, nor does it focus narrowly on themes which tend to be considered “political.” It approaches the phenomenon of queenship from an array of perspectives, and by uncovering networks of religious, cultural, familial patronage demonstrates that “political” activities cannot be sectioned off from the wider activities of the royal and queenly court. A revised Spanish translation was published in 2012, María de Luna. Poder, piedad y patronazgo de una reina medieval. Zaragoza: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC, 2012.

Le domaine religieux fait partie de l’environnement quotidien des familles médiévales. L’aristocratie entretient des relations suivies avec différents établissements monastiques, sur lesquels s’appuie la conscience familiale et les politiques de donation. Les familles les plus importantes comme les Lusignan ont laissé des traces matérielles de ces relations avec les abbayes. Des gisants, des vitraux, des objets, le plus souvent assez précieux, des cycles de peintures murales renvoient à la famille ou à certains de ces membres au moyen notamment de leurs armoiries. La famille et ses membres les plus importants, qui exercent le pouvoir dans la société sont alors mis en scène dans la proximité immédiate du sacré en vue de délivrer un message, le plus souvent celle de la haute moralité du groupe ou de ses membres mais aussi le désir d’unité familiale autour d’un personnage interne ou externe au groupement de parenté. Ce rapport étroit entre la famille et les éléments parfois les plus sacrés du culte religieux doit être lu comme le résultat d’un double enjeu, celui de l’expression de la foi médiévale et de la foi des donateurs et commanditaires mais aussi celui de l’utilisation du sacré autant comme garantie que comme mise en scène d’une situation, d’un serment, d’une unité.

Religion take part of the daily life of medieval families. Aristocracy maintains close relationships with different monasteries, on whom relies familial consciousness and giving politics. Some important families like the Lusignan let material marks of these relationships : recumbent statues, stained-glass window, precious objects, mural paintings refer to the family or some of its members thanks to their coat of arms. Family and its most important members, who have the power in society are staged nearest to the sacred in order to deiver a message, often the group's high morality, the wish for familial unity around one character, which is or not one of its members. This close relationship between family and most sacred elements of religious cult should be seen as a result of a double issue : the expression of medieval faith and donor's faith and also the use of sacred things as warranty and materialization of a situation, an oath, an unity.

Zoran Ladić-Goran Budeč / Neki aspekti privatnog i obiteljskog života te razine materijalne kulture stanovništva Hrvatske u kasnom srednjem vijeku 213 Neki aspekti privatnog i obiteljskog života te razine materijalne kulture stanovništva Hrvatske u kasnom srednjem vijeku * Zoran Ladić Goran Budeč U ovom će tekstu, koliko to prostor dopušta, biti razmotrena tri aspekta kasnosred-njovjekovne povijesti Hrvatske koja još uvijek nisu dostatno istražena, iako se danas njima intenzivno bavi suvremena historiografija. Spomenute teme mogu se defini-rati u odnosu na ranije dominantne istraživačke teme kao značajan odmak povje-sničara od isključivog proučavanja tzv. izuzetnih povijesnih (primjerice političkih, crkvenih, ratnih) događaja i istaknutih povijesnih osoba koje su imale značajan utjecaj na povijesna zbivanja u određenom trenutku, nerijetko utječući na zbivanja u sljedećim desetljećima pa i stoljećima. Pomičući težište istraživanja, povjesničari se-uglavnom pod utjecajem tzv. treće generacije škole Annales kojoj su pripadali primjerice Jacques Le Goff, Pierre Chaunu ili Philippe Áriès-usredotočuju na raz-matranje naoko manje važnih aspekata prošlosti, uloge naizgled nevažnih osoba ili skupina u jednako tako prividno nevažnim povijesnim okolnostima. Povjesničari svakodnevice nastoje ukazati na jednak značaj tzv. iznimno važnih događaja i osoba te njima istovremenih, ali naoko beznačajnih događaja i osoba u kreiranju povijesne zbilje u određenom razdoblju. U svom nastojanju da to postignu povjesničari su se koristili raznim istraživačkim metodama i znanstvenim pristupima, primjerice kvantitativnom ili demografskom metodom ili prozopografijom i hagiografijom. Na pojačani interes povjesničara za proučavanje povijesti svakodnevnog života u svim njegovim refleksijama utjecala je i činjenica da su se povjesničari okrenuli i drugim vrstama vrela. Od pisanih vrela sve veću su pažnju počeli privlačiti biljež-nički spisi, narativni izvori poput dnevnika, legendi, životopisa ili kronika, matične knjige, kanonske vizitacije, obiteljski fondovi, a na važnosti su dobila i materijalna vrela (arheološka, slike i njihov ikonografski sadržaj i program), kao i ona koja se mogu podvrgnuti antropološkoj analizi. Sva su ta vrela svojim svježim, do sada sla-bo ili nikako uočenim sadržajima i motivima otvorila vrata prema novim temama u istraživanju prošlosti, pa tako i privatnog života, obitelji i materijalne kulture. Treba reći da istraživanje triju spomenutih tema ne pretpostavlja istraživanje samo nižih društvenih staleža već se bavi svim staleškim skupinama. Od samih početaka proučavanja povijesti svakodnevice otvarala su se nova istraži-vačka pitanja. Danas, kada je povijest postala interdisciplinarna znanost koja se ko-risti informacijama i metodologijama drugih znanosti, kao npr. povijesti umjetno-sti, arheologije, povijesti književnosti, sociologije i dr., otvaraju se doista nebrojena * Zoran Ladić napisao je uvodni dio i potpoglavlja »Obitelj«, »Brak« i »Djeca i djetinjstvo«, a Goran Bu-deč potpoglavlje »Neki aspekti materijalne kulture stanovnika kasnosrednjovjekovnih hrvatskih zemalja«.

En la política de promoción de las monjas mendicantes que desarrollaron los reyes de Castilla se percibe una tipología de “fundaciones en relación” con mujeres. Alfonso X y Pedro I colaboraron con sus amantes, Mayor Guillén y María de Padilla, y el segundo también con sus hijas, Beatriz e Isabel, para dar origen a monasterios de la Orden de Santa Clara o de sus formas previas. Estas páginas analizan unos procesos de fundación que enlazan lo personal y lo familiar con lo político, visibilizan formas de interacción entre los sexos y desvelan algunas de las fisonomías adoptadas por las religiosas que constituyeron la institución clarisa, una orden religiosa exclusivamente femenina en la que tuvieron gran peso las mujeres como agentes históricos.

The city of Zadar suffered heavy demographic losses during the Venetian siege in 1345/1346 as well as afterwards when many citizens were taken as hostages to Venice or banned from the territories under Venetian jurisdiction. The consequences of Black Death were less considered in the historiography although, according by the preserved judicial proceedings, they were much stronger than it was earlier supposed. There are attempts, based on preserved sources, to estimate human losses, especially the losses suffered by the Zaratin nobility in this period, as well as to validate in what way their social status in the city was influenced afterwards. More detailed insight in the losses of nine noble families (the Senzaeo, the Detrico, the Botono, the Cande, the Sloraddo, the Soppe, the Saladini, the Rosa, the Drechia, the Bogde/the Lovrehna) was made possible by judicial proceedings. These can be complemented by data from testaments and contemporary Venetian sources. Although there are contrary examples, it seems that smaller and younger kindreds were more endangered as well as the old, already more demographically weakened ones. Especially vulnerable were families with young children living all together in households. Older kindreds with more branches had more chances for survival and further social and economic rise.

Abstract – In the Mamluk Sultanate, family ties mostly play a crucial role in the rise and the exercise of power – seen as a collective dynamic – of a financial administrator. This paper deals with the case study of Ġibriyāl, vizier of Damascus in the first third of the 14th century. If Ġibriyāl's ascendants' influence and role in his career are unknown, the narrative sources provide useful datas on his offspring – a son and six daughters. By reconstructing Ġibriyāl’s network of marriage alliances contracted with some of the most prestigious families of ulamas and civilian administrators in Cairo and Damascus, this paper seeks to provide a better understanding of the place and role of women in the strategies by which individuals tried to consolidate their positions. Through such a case study, the aim of this paper is also to contribute to bring out the limits of the transmission and the sustainability of wealth, patrimony, and social positions among the civilian elites in 14th century Damascus.

Keywords : Egypt – Damascus – Mamluk Sultanate – Bureaucracy – Women – Marriage alliances – Patrimony – Legacy

Résumé– L'ascension et l’exercice du pouvoir d’un administrateur des services financiers du sultanat mamelouk sont bien souvent le résultat d’une entreprise menée collectivement dans laquelle les liens familiaux jouent un rôle primordial. Le cas étudié dans cet article, celui de Ġibriyāl, vizir de Damas dans le premiers tier du XIVe siècle, a ceci de singulier que nous ne connaissons rien des influences familiales qui ont pu contribuer à son entrée et à son avancement dans la carrière administrative. En revanche, les sources narratives nous renseignent sur sa descendance – un fils et six filles –et nous permettent de reconstituer le réseau d’alliances matrimoniales qu’il fut amené à tisser avec quelques-unes des plus prestigieuses familles d’oulémas et d’administrateurs civils au Caire et à Damas. Ce faisant, l’objet de cette étude est de contribuer à mieux apprécier la place et le rôle des femmes dans les stratégies de consolidation du pouvoir, ainsi que de mettre en évidence les limites de la transmission et de la pérennisation des fortunes, des patrimoines et des positions sociales des élites civiles à Damas au XIVe siècle.

Mots-clés : Égypte – Damas – sultanat mamelouk – administration – femmes – alliances matrimoniales – patrimoine – héritage

The Madii were the leading family of Zadar, the capital of the Byzantine theme of Dalmatia, from the late tenth until the end of the eleventh century. They can be regarded as an example of, but also in a certain way as an exception to, families of the Dalmatian urban elite in the tenth and the eleventh centuries. Their family structure (especially the importance of female members in the second half of the eleventh century) reveals that they did not have a firmly-structured noble lineage such as those of the families who were to hold power in the Dalmatian towns in later centuries. Such a flexible family structure perhaps could be regarded as especially useful in those times when the positions of power were not strictly inheritable – the urban elite was not a totally closed group in which the position of an individual was automatically guaranteed at his/her birth. Like other families, the Madii leaned on the support of the extended family circle in ensuring the preservation of their leading position in the community. Through the successful cooperation of family members, they managed to obtain the highest secular and spiritual posts in Zadar in the first half of the eleventh century. In securing their position they relied on good relations with ecclesiastical institutions as well as on economic wealth. They also managed to make successful affinal connections with the Croatian royal family in the hinterland. It seems, too, that they were the only Dalmatian family at this time who had the ambition to expand the authority of Zadar’s priors outside the local context, first over the territory of central Dalmatia (the towns of Trogir and Split), and then even perhaps over the whole territory of the theme of Dalmatia. However, these plans were thwarted by historical circumstances, which were leading to the gradual disintegration of Dalmatia. The Byzantine Empire, which could not stop the slow declination of its own power in Dalmatia, had just enough strength to prevent the appearance of a semi-dependent local dynasty, similar to those in contemporary Italy. The attempt of the Madii thus failed. Although after a few decades they recovered, they did not manage to impose their authority in such a manner as they could in the first half of the eleventh century. In the second half of the century other families of Zadar ensured that their monopolization of power would not be repeated again.

Outside of the history of canon law circles, not much has been written on incest in the medieval world. Yet, incest has a long and surprisingly prolific history in literature, and its use as a metaphor is beneficial for understanding contemporary reactions to changing ideas about marriage. This is true of medieval Europe--in which writers struggled to articulate their apprehensions with the church's evolving definition of what constitutes a valid marriage and how the institution interacted with the material interests of elite families--but, as Linda Rouillard is eager to assert, it is also true of the twenty-first century, in which a tabloidesque preoccupation with father-daughter incest is mobilized to combat the legalization of same-sex marriage. In studying this phenomenon in the medieval context, Rouillard discovers how representations of incest help us also to learn more about the significance of the central medieval penitential revolution, the growing affinity for relics and a popular distaste for their control by the church, as well as the power of women's words.

In the latter half of the 12th century, the families of the groups overseeing the comuni forged widespread, implementable and strictly regulated military alliances. These alliances were organized around the control of tower houses. However, the paucity of surviving documentation has long hindered meaningful research into these ‘intermediate bodies’ of society, too often considered relics of a ‘feudal’ past. The shared management of power and assets, the written regulation of violence, and the presence of controlling groups that would vary according to precise legislation all indicate that the ‘association of towers’ organized around the ‘pacta’ were not simply family groups, rather complex coordinating bodies not dissimilar to the city communes.

This paper seeks to analyse economy of a well-to-do peasant family settled in the urban fringes of the city of Valencia, capital of the kingdom, in the first half of fifteenth Century. The death of the head of the family, due to the plague, made emerge the solidarity of the relatives, who took care of the orphans. Thanks to the memorial of rents we can assess the economic strategies of a wealthier peasant family, the importance of markets and the city and countryside relations.

One of the main expressions of power of urban nobles during the Central and High Middle Ages in the majority of Mediterranean towns, was a possession of a fortified residence or a refuge. Many townscapes were dominated by mighty private towers, visual assertions of distinguished families. Similar examples can be found in Dalmatia, especially in the documents of Split and Trogir but also in Dubrovnik, Rab, and Zadar. There, towers seem to have been mostly connected to city walls. Thomas the Archdeacon explains in his chronicle that after the settlement of Salonitan refugees in the ancient imperial palace, the rich built their houses, and those who lacked money for building got the towers, while the rest of the people settled in crypts. However, it does not seem that the towers were inhabited only by “the middle class, ” since the leader of the refugees himself, Sever the Great, had a home consisting of a palace and tower in the south-eastern corner of the palace. This early inheritan...

Since ancient times, in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Period, abandonment of children has been a method of regulating the size of family, dealing with inheritance problems, bearing an unwanted female, ill or deformed child.  It was also a way to handle social condemnation for giving birth to illegitimate children , born out of wedlock, or aut of adulterous or incestuous relationships, and to solve all sorts of existential problems that couples or individuals had to face. In Rome, the common practice of abandonment was to expose children in places where they could be found and taken by other people. other methods were recorded as well, such as entrusting little children to monasteries (oblatio), forced ordainment, leaving children with relatives or strangers, giving or selling children under servitude or apprenticeship contracts. There was also another novelty in comparison to the Roman times: the institutional care over abandoned children. The Church was the first to take responsibility for them and the lay institutions followed.

Care of abandoned children was assumed by individuals, by the Church, and later, by specialized lay institutions such as the home for foundlings Ospedale della misericordia in Dubrovnik. Dalmatian normative, judicial, notarial, literary and other sources reveal such practices and provide a possibility of studying reasons and ways of abandoning and caring for children in that area.
Foster care and adoption were among consequences of abandonment of children. Foster care only implied care for children, usually in exchange for services – it was a way of providing labour force for house or land activities. Adoption led to creation of family and relations between children and parents on a legal basis as opposed to blood relationships. It was based on assuming parental responsibilities and emotional relations. Adoption had other purposes as well, for example, regulation of inheritance of property in families without biological children. For this purpose, it was also possible to adopt adult persons. In the first place, this referred to sons-in-law. Legally, adoption in Dalmatia was based on legacies of Roman law and Canon law that recognized adoption as a manner of creating family ties between parents and children. It is mentioned in some statutes such as Statutes of Dubrovnik, Kotor, and Budva. Sources from Dubrovnik comprise adoption contracts and other sources witnessing adoptions. Legislation and practice illustrate public views of adoption and families that altered the predominant definition of family and family ties based exclusively on biological relations.

Two chapters were published as "Growth of Secure Inheritance" and "In Pursuit of Aristocratic Women" (see Papers).  Additional chapters on Anglo-Norman family history and a case study of three generations of the Vere family in England 1086-1194.  Aubrey III de Vere became the first earl of Oxford, a title held within the Vere lineage until the 18th century.  The dissertation was microfilmed by the Univ. of Michigan dissertation databank and is held in two collections besides the Univ. of California Santa Barbara library.