ABSTRACT
“Family” shifts focus considerably and takes up concubinage from the perspective of the family, arguing that this union not only did not threaten, but actually helped preserve, family structures, and assure desirable reproductive and affective outcomes. Venetian patrician families wanted to maintain their honor and wealth, and found concubinal relationships instrumental for both of these purposes. Because too many marriages would decimate the family patrimony, families limited the number of legitimate marriages. And because bad marriages—that is, marriages with someone of a lower class—would bring dishonor, many family members preferred to see their kin in concubinal relationships. In addition, the offspring of these unions often maintained ties with their natal kin—including, of course, the overwhelming majority born legitimate—and often interacted regularly with them. In fact, some of the spurious product of concubinage might even have been incorporated into the natal family officially through the process of legitimization. In some cases, these children proved instrumental in the maintenance of the wealth and power of their larger families. This chapter also considers the nuclear concubinal units (concubinaries and offspring) as well. In it, I postulate that concubinal families were recognized as bonded families by their broader kin groups and their communities alike.
