ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the position of married women in Istria from the end of the fi fteenth century and throughout the sixteenth in terms of property rights, legal competence, and ability to divide goods by testament, as well as their role as guardians (tutor) of their children. Special attention is paid to the “Istrian marriage pattern”—also referred to as “marriage like brother and sister”—which was specifi c to and very widespread in Istria. This was a system of communal governing of marital property, in which the surviving spouse had the right to half of the deceased spouse’s patrimony. I will demonstrate that in this type of marriage, husband and wife were almost equal economic partners.
