| This dissertation argues that it was possible for women in Milan, who had access to a substantial dowry, to an inheritance, and/or to property, between the plagues of 1576 and 1630, to play a role in the urban economy. Using notarial evidence located in Milan's State archive, I argue that some women of means, particularly widows, were able to support themselves and their families as shopkeepers, investment partners, and property owners. Making the argument that it was possible for some Milanese women, provided that they had adequate financial resources, to take part in commercial pursuits involves addressing such issues as how women used their dowries or an inheritance to acquire property, the circumstances under which they took control of and operated the businesses of their deceased husbands, the limited legal rights that they enjoyed, and the ways in which men and women sometimes worked cooperatively in pursuit of their commercial and legal goals. I conclude my dissertation with a consideration of women's last wills and testaments, and how these documents shed light on the social ties that may have existed in this city. By focusing on the contributions that some women of means made to the urban Milanese economy, and the limited legal rights that made it possible for them to be involved in entrepreneurial ventures, this study suggests that the lives of commercial women were more complex than traditional historiography has suggested. By taking into consideration how some women took advantage of the rights and opportunities available to them, my dissertation moves the story of their lives in a new direction, and suggests that they had more to look forward to in adulthood than a life of subordination to fathers and husbands, isolated domesticity, conventual austerity, or prostitution. |
