ABSTRACT
From linens and clothing to furniture and utensils to jewelry and devotional items, artisan brides brought a plethora of goods to their marriages. The many items were practical in one sense or another, serving utilitarian and social goals. The goods listed in trousseaux suggest details of women’s activities, interests, and agency, demonstrating their impact in constituting new families, residences, and livelihoods. This essay considers both aggregate and specific data from 60 dowries in seventeenth-century Bologna to reveal a rich realm of female agency in everyday life in the early modern era.
