Život žena u Rijeci u 15. stoljeću

Cvitanović, Monika. (2013). Život žena u Rijeci u 15. stoljeću. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of History. [mentor Nikolić Jakus, Zrinka].

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Abstract

This paper portrays the lives of women in the city of Rijeka at the turn of the 15th century by engaging with two overarching themes; their lives within the structure of the family and the impact of women in the public sphere. The theme of family uses a chronological approach, wherein it looks at the lives of women from topics arising during childhood to the inheritance rights of daughters, which also touches upon the question of dowry. This theme also includes the implementation of marital law and vowels, the inheritance rights of married women and a look at personal relations within a marriage, which impacted the lives of widows. Women's impact in the public sphere deals with women's roles in officially sanctioned activities, their roles as maids or house servants and as craftswomen and merchants. Under this theme special attention is given to the lives of widows, who made up the majority of actively working women. In this regard, the paper evaluates to what degree there are differences and inconsistencies between information that is provided in the statute of Rijeka to examples of everyday life that have been recorded in the city's notarial documents. These findings are also compared with the statutes of surrounding areas. The question of women's freedom is also considered, and, in regard to women in medieval times it brings up the ideal of chastity, as woman's most prized possession. The last chapter covers everyday life in Rijeka, by looking at particularly domestic culture and women's clothing. The paper makes use of a few interesting case studies which have been reconstructed and told using facts from primary source. Through these stories it is possible to form a picture of individual aspects of women's lives. In that regard, the notarial documents found and studied present an invaluable source of information for looking at the lives of people in medieval Rijeka, which were used in this paper to shed light on the women of this era, within a wider context of cultural history available to us.

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