Panel présenté à la European Social Sciences and History Conference de Leyde, 28 Mars, 16h30-18h30 Université de Leyde
Coordinator, discussant, chair: Ida Fazio
Rebuilding after a crisis : family relations ; jobs opportunities; gender roles (Italy, 17th century)
The panel brings together four papers on Italy in the 17th century, a period characterised by multiple crises: economic, epidemic, political, military. The ‘iron century’ is for the Italian peninsula also the century of the ‘loss of primacy’, of the overturning of the economic balance to the advantage of the Atlantic area, the century in which ‘decline’ would begin. The ‘crisis of the seventeenth century’ is the context from which the four papers are articulated, which descend to the level of individual experiences, to propose case studies that question how crisis situations of various kinds can exasperate gender roles and relations and lead to their redefinition. The case studies concern the labour market in Venice; the violence in family relations in Rome; the use of care institutions in Naples; and the different perception by men and women of the dangers of war. Reconstruction also creates new relationships, new identities and new gender roles.
Anna Bellavitis
New roles and new activities for women after a crisis? (Venice, 17th century)
The 17th century has long been described by historiography on Venice as the century of the great crisis: a demographic crisis due to the plague of 1630 and an economic crisis linked to the shift in the world’s economic balance from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. A process that began well before, but that only gave its full negative effects during the century. In fact, historiography has relativised the extent of the Venetian decadence, now defined as ‘relative’ and in some cases completely denied. But no one has so far questioned the consequences of a period of changing economic structures on women’s employment and the possibilities for women to enter the labour market and in what roles. The study of seventeenth-century apprenticeship contracts offers some interesting answers in this regard, in fact, compared to a general trend in the early modern age of a prevalence of female apprentices over mistresses, in the period 1632-1682, there were twice as many mistresses as female apprentices: women therefore had greater access in this specific period to positions of power in the workplace, employing not only other women – which was frequently the case in the textile sector – but also young men and in particular in a luxury production that was characteristic of the period, namely mirror manufacturing.
Can we therefore assume that in the context of a demographic crisis and a more general change in the economy of a major capital of early modern Europe, gender roles in the workplace were also redefined ? And, if this is the case for how long? In a lasting way or only for a short period? These are the questions I will try to answer in my paper.
Vittoria Fiorelli
A Casa Santa of women against the crisis
The last few years have been accompanied by the narrative of an unbroken succession of shocks covering a broad spectrum of economic, demographic, environmental and health issues. The centrality of the category of emergency has profoundly affected the perception of the category of crisis, which developed an expanded metaphorical and narrative value that has weakened its analytical skills.
Building on the study of the plague epidemic of 1656 that reduced by one-third the inhabitants of Naples, at that time the largest and most populous city among those on the Italian peninsula, this research intends to go through the establish historiography trying to outline the structures that have supported strategies to recover and improve the social architecture.
The Archives of Casa Santa dell’Annunziata in Naples, one of the secular welfare institutions in the capital that, since its medieval foundation, has been the place of power representation for urban classes, offers an opportunity to verify the impact of the epidemic impact on the care institution and its projection into the city’s needs. Destined to provide a home for abandoned children, the Casa Santa had added to this original mission a complex network of activities and a considerable financial and managerial commitment.
Therefore, using this complex perspective, this research aims to test the tendency of individual and family responses to cope with the impact of the demographic crisis, but also the managerial and financial strategies planned by governance to ensure the sustainability of welfare functions, in a context in which women’s work may provide an interpretive key not yet used by scholars.
Within the flow of abandoned children, the employment of nannies and women assigned to care for the little abandoned guests, the salary trends and the external service system, the research aims to test the logics by which the institution has imagined parameterizing its response to the crisis, choosing between a commitment to the restoration of the status quo ante or a transition to renewed arrangements
Simona Feci
Rome 17th century: Rebuilding family relations after a crisis
The paper presents the results of a research, based mainly on the judicial and notarial sources preserved in the roman Archives, on the role of conjugal and intimate violence as a) a symptom of the family crisis; b) a trigger and detonator of the crisis; c) a tool for resolving the crisis itself in the 17th century. Following studies on the violence exercised by men and women in its various forms (as correction, as reaction and response to mistreatment and insult, as self-defence), the aim is to focus on the manifestations of aggression as an idiom of relationships in a period characterised by high rates of interpersonal and collective violence and subjected to stress tests consisting also of the plague and the economic crisis. Violence is a manifestation and at the same time a fuel for the conflict between genders, but its use in domestic crises is also one of the possible options within a framework of resources and tools to get out of the crisis and to build a new family balance.
Louise Bonvalet
Afraid of the Enemy in Venice : seeking protection in witchcraft after the wars (1630-1699)
The Republic of Venice experienced a number of wars during the 17th century, including the Candian War (1645-1669) and the Morea War (1684-1699) against the Ottoman Empire. The protracted nature of these wars left their mark on the Venetian population. It is in this context of crisis and violence, as well as tales of violence, that some men turn to witchcraft for reassurance. The trials that took place before the Venetian Inquisition give us an insight into how some men felt about war: there was a great fear of weapons and the wounds they could cause among the male population. While some soldiers used spells to avoid being wounded in battle, the general population, including priests, also used forbidden magic to ward off weapons and their wounds. On the contrary, there were no women seeking protection from weapons through witchcraft, which raises questions about gender practices in reaction to war.
The aim of this presentation is therefore to examine the gendered feeling of fear towards the Other, the Enemy that the Turk may represent, while analysing sources that have yet to be studied by gender historiography: the case of men accused of witchcraft. How did witchcraft represents a tool of last resort and reassurance to rebuild one’s life after the war in order to feel safe ? How does the gendered concept of masculinity – in relation to the concept of femininity – helps us to understand the gendered reaction when it comes to feeling reassured ?
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
annabellavitis (20 mars 2025). Rebuilding after a crisis: family relations, jobs opportunities, gender roles (Italy, 17th century) ESSHC Leiden 26-29 mars 2025. DEFI. Consulté le 19 avril 2025 à l’adresse https://anrdefi.hypotheses.org/621