ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the funding of dowries by combining the history of legal culture and economic development. It focuses on normative sources, certainly, but this practice will be considered here as an element of the class culture that could shape the identities of individuals and families across different generations. The Capitolazioni of the Monte dei Giunti, for instance, recalled the risk of seeing young vocationless girls joining a convent, just because they did not have a dowry appropriate for their social status. As it clearly appears, therefore, the funding and membership systems of the monti dotali created by the Neapolitan aristocracy became a longstanding medium of enhancing class identity. For instance, in 1653 the Capitolatione of the Monte dei Trenta amended its statute allowing women to bequeath half of their dowries, while the other half had to be restored to the monte.
