ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the range of blended families in the Venetian past, from remarrying widows and widowers to cohabiting couples who brought their legitimate and illegitimate children to a new household. The condition of illegitimate children was contemplated by municipal laws and statutes which, in the case of Venice, allowed for the 'acquisition of legitimacy following marriage', but also legitimization by 'ducal grace'. Married or cohabiting stepfamilies incorporating children from the unions of both the mother and father also grew as a category over the decade from the late 1990s to 2009, resulting in some rather complex but inclusive families. According to the medieval Venetian statutes, still in force in the early modern era, a widower did not need to ask for the guardianship of his children, as he had the patria potestas, but a widow had to present her request to a specific court, called the Giudici di Petizion.
