ABSTRACT
Attention turns in this chapter to a number of property-owning women in early fourteenth-century Sant’Angelo in Colle, in an attempt to establish which, if any, of the female members of the population might best be classified as ‘women with prospects’, as opposed to ‘poor relations’. Nearly 50 entries in the 1320 Tavola delle possessioni for Sant’Angelo in Colle – some one sixth of the entries recorded there – were filed in respect of women.1 In some cases it is clear that the woman was married. Thus, there are references to Domina Nuta ‘uxor Ciaffi’, Domina Rosa ‘uxor Futii’, Domina Rosa di Piero ‘uxor Minutii Banduccii’ and Vinitiana ‘uxor Guidarelli’.2 In one instance, that of Domina Cellina, it also becomes clear that the woman had been married but was at that date widowed, since her entry contains a reference to her dead husband, Micheluccio.3 In the majority of cases, however, no reference was made to the woman’s marital state. It would seem from this that the early fourteenthcentury population consisted of a considerable number of property-owning spinsters who had reached the age of maturity, but who had not yet engaged in matrimony, or had long since been widowed.4
