Women, Clothes, Legal Regulations

Focussing on the historical role of legal proceedings and processes as a means of engaging and applying
vigilance in the Italian Renaissance and Early Modern city, our project treats the enforcement of
Lucchese sumptuary laws during the period from 1370 to 1498. These legal texts mainly addressed the
regulation of women’s dress, funerals and weddings, aiming to restrict excessive luxury in the Late
Medieval and Early Modern state, in this instance the city-state (città-stato) of Lucca. For the regulation
to be effective, citizens played an active role by denouncing transgressions as otherwise, in the absence
of the necessary law enforcement organs, they would have been left unnoticed.
As the regulations were frequently reformed, we argue that there must have been some sort of
interaction between the (predominantly) women being restrained by these sumptuary laws and the men
deciding to reform the regulations. The enforcement against the women themselves – or against their
legal representatives (e.g. husbands, fathers, brothers; “Quis teneatur pro mulieribus condemnatis?”) –
raises the question of the status conceded to the women as legal subjects. How much of the legal
responsibility really could rest with them? Did a woman’s envy towards another encourage her to
denounce a transgression of legal dress code? Or did the role as a targeted minority of bans promote a
behaviour of solidarity, encouraging the women to support each other, for instance in giving excuses (e.g.
insisting on having worn the fur of a milk weasel instead of the forbidden fur of ermine)?
This is where the expertise of Prof. Elena Brizio (Georgetown University) comes forth. As an expert on
women’s history in the Trecento and Quattrocento Tuscany, combined with her scientific focus on the
city-state of Siena, she will offer an introduction to the status of women in such societies. Even though
they were only given the rank of deprived, marginal members of the legal society, women left traces in
archival documents. Showcasing their insights into the archival field work of legal historians, Prof. Elena
Brizio and Prof. Susanne Lepsius will further explore these subjects.
In the main working phase of the palaeographical workshop, we will bend over challenging excerpts of
the statutes studied by the CRC’s project B.02. Starting from the legal text, we will then direct our focus
to the enforcement mechanisms, exploring the diverse contact points with and the relevance to our
vigilance project. In this context, to investigate and understand the enforcement process, we will analyse
procedural documents, such as denunciations, accusations, court notices and decisions as well as
condemnations and their collection (e.g. by the chancellor). The second part of the palaeographical
workshop will focus on these types of archival sources.

The workshop will take place in English as the introductory literature will be. The archival texts treated
will be in Latin or Italian.

We warmly invite all interested fellows and scholars to join us in this workshop and benefit from
the opportunity to engage in a discussion with our inspiring guest, Prof. Elena Brizio.

Date

February 13, 2025 (2:15 p.m. to 7 p.m.)
February 14, 2025 (10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.)

Location

Library of Legal History, Raum V 213
Bibliothek für Bayerische und deutsche Rechtsgeschichte
Prof.-Huber-Platz 2
80539 München