Choix et strategies d’alliance : chroniques presque contrefactuelles des réseaux parentaux dans le patriciat vénitien, XVIII siècle

Abstract

In this paper we analyze how political and strategic constraints drove the marital alliances of the Venetian aristocracy in the eighteenth century. Scholars assume that aristocratic families used marriage to establish useful relations that could enhance their social or political standing. However very few tried to analyse how such a mechanism was put into practice. In order to test this hypothesis, we resort to Social Network Analysis: we define the relational features of marital alliances, and we compare those that were actually established with a set of potential alternatives. If families tried to maximize their relational capital through marriage, we expect that actual marriages gave better relational outcomes than the potential ones. In order to clarify our approach, we focus here on a single case study regarding the Manin, a family well known for its careful management of social relationships.

http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/ohm.24.2822