Dowries, last wills and evidence through orality
In documents concerning monetary transactions and economic relations, such as restitution of dowries to widows and last wills, procedures were based on written documentation. Venetian documentation from medieval and modern times on dowries and their restitution, as well as on wills and the magistrac...
Enregistré dans:
| Dans: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/mefrm, |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
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Mélanges de l’École française de Rome - Moyen Âge
2023
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | In documents concerning monetary transactions and economic relations, such as restitution of dowries to widows and last wills, procedures were based on written documentation. Venetian documentation from medieval and modern times on dowries and their restitution, as well as on wills and the magistracies that intervened in the event of conflicts or the absence of a last will, is very rich and has been partly studied. However, one aspect of this type of transaction still remains in the shadows: when no dowry contract or inventory of the assets brought by the spouse had been dressed at the moment of marriage or when the deceased had not had the time to write or dictate a last will, but he or she appears to have expressed his or her wishes orally, there was the possibility to reconstitute the amount of the dowry or identify heirs only through oral testimonies. In those testimonies, given to the Venetian courts of the Giudici del Proprio, for dowry restitution, and to the Giudici dell’Esaminador, for oral testaments, networks of relationships emerge, but also many elements of material life: the valuation of trousseau items, or the ways in which the dying were cared for. |
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