ABSTRACT
In Renaissance Florence, the manipulation of women’s patrimonial rights was at the core of the strategies used by both fathers and husbands in order to lay claim over young widows and dowry property. The widow could ask for the return of her dowry and give it either to a new husband if she remarried, or to a convent if she wished to become a nun. The deeply patrilineal nature of the Florentine inheritance system ensured that both of a widow’s families had an interest in her welfare and in the control of her patrimony. The succession of Florentine wives and mothers who died ab intestato, that is without making a will, was governed by statute. The men who made the bequests seemed intent on protecting their sons’ rights over the maternal inheritance, by preventing their widows from remarrying, and by maintaining the status quo.
