ABSTRACT
The nature of the ‘family’ and the relationships of members of a family have been much re-considered by social historians of Europe, more particularly with Britain and France than Italy. The concern in Italy has been more with family-clan and family-household inter-connections, than with affective relationships within the closer family. The composition of the household, whether it is a multi-generational group with unrelated servants and apprentices or a nuclear family of two parents and young children, affects the relationships and affections of key family members. So a discussion of household and family structure precedes a consideration of marital and parental relations.
