ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines upward social mobility through marriage in early modern Venice. It considers the extent to which the Venetian ruling elite corresponded to others elsewhere in Italy, both in terms of composition and ideology. The book argues that in spite of some major differences the Venetian elite came to resemble other Italian elites both in cities and in the countryside. The issues of self-definition in the face of the aspirations of others to upward social mobility were just as much a concern in Venice as elsewhere, shaping behaviour towards families with aspirations to become connected to them by marriage. The book discusses the alternative criterion of nobility as a reflection of virtue, illustrated by meritorious behaviour. It is also about alternatives to patrician marriage and their implications for the general place of women in Venetian society.
