Privilegios jurídicos y relaciones de vecindad en la formación de la pareja en la Italia moderna

Abstract

The article focuses on the importance of a good reputation within the neighbourhood in order to appeal the justice of the courts and to settle matrimonial disputes. After the Council of Trent (1545-63), the most common type of suit argued before diocesan courts was that regarding the fulfillment (or, more rarely, the dissolution) of marriage promises. The author highlights the jurisdictional routes that could be used by women to obtain the fulfillment of a promise, especially in the event of their pregnancy. Canon law offered a concrete protection for seduced and abandoned women. The binding nature of marriage promise was disputed during the Eighteenth-Century. Secular authorities translated these tendencies into legal measures, in order to reduce legal options for women and give more power to fathers in a period of strong criticism to the principle of authority. Nevertheless most women went on turning to the law and protecting their reputation.