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How to (and How Not to) Get Married in Sixteenth-Century Venice (Selections from the Diaries of Marin Sanudo)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Patricia H. Labalme
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Study [Labalme]
Laura Sanguineti White
Affiliation:
Rutgers University

Abstract

Marriage between Venetian patricians in the early decades of the sixteenth century was a matter of considerable moment. The process of joining two families — as narrated by a contemporary diarist—involved a choreography of events and a level of display in rituals more public than private in import: the lavish style of entertainment paralleled civic rituals in arguing the power of the Venetian city-state, and the strengthening of familial political and economic ties betokened the effectiveness of the city's urban polity and economic status. When private ceremonies went awry, the subsequent opprobrium underscored the community's interest in more proper procedures.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1999

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Footnotes

*

This article is extracted from a volume in preparation whose working title is The World of Renaissance Venice: Excerpts from the Diaries of Marin Sanudo, 1496-1533, and it is dedicated to the memory of Felix Gilbert with whom the idea for the volume originated. Early support for the preparation of this volume was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the sponsorship of the Renaissance Society of America.

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