The business of marriage: dowries, shopping for brides, marriage manuals  

Tuesday 3rd June 2025 at 18:00

In this lecture we turn to the realities of marriage itself, concentrating on 15th-century Florence. During the Renaissance, marriages between elite families were transacted almost as corporate mergers, while lower down on the social ladder arrangements could be extremely informal. We will examine the customs surrounding courtship, the details of the wedding ceremony, and most of all, the overriding concern with the dowry. Standards of beauty and the various qualities that were sought in brides are expressed through first-hand accounts of women such as Alessandra Strozzi and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, while the wife’s comportment and duties are minutely discussed in contemporary advice manuals on marriage, including those written by humanists Francesco Barbaro and Leon Battista Alberti.