Research Catalog

Mother and Sons, Inc. : Martha de Cabanis in medieval Montpellier

Title: Mother and Sons, Inc. : Martha de Cabanis in medieval Montpellier / Kathryn L. Reyerson.
Author: Reyerson, Kathryn
Publication: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2018]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	HF3554.6.C3 R49 2018	Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 254 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.

Summary

In the late 1320s, Martha de Cabanis was widowed with three young sons, eleven, eight, and four years of age. Her challenges would be many: to raise and train her children to carry on their father's business; to preserve that business until they were ready to take over; and to look after her own financial well-being. Examining the visible trail Martha left in Montpellier's notarial registers and other records, Kathryn L. Reyerson reveals a wealth of information about her activities, particularly in the area of business, commerce, and real estate. From these formal, contractual documents, Reyerson gleans something of Martha's personality and reconstructs what she may have done, and a good deal of what she actually did, in her various roles of daughter, wife, mother, and widow. Mother and Sons, Inc. demonstrates that while women were hardly equal to men in the fourteenth century, under the right conditions afforded by wealth and the status of widowhood, they could do and did more than many have thought. Within the space of twenty years, Martha developed a complex real estate fortune, enlarged a cloth manufacturing business and trading venture, and provided for the support and education of her sons. Just how the widow Martha maneuvered within the legal constraints of her social, economic, and personal status forms the heart of the book's investigation.

Series Statement

The Middle Ages series

Uniform Title

Middle Ages series

Subject

Genre/Form

Biography
Biographies
History
Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-243) and index.

Contents

Montpellier in the Time of Martha -- Martha, Her Family, Their Social Rank, and Political Influence -- Marriage, the Groom, and the In-Laws -- The Cabanis House: Domestic Space and Possessions -- Guiraudus's Death and the Beginnings of Guardianship -- The Widow's Legal Position as Guardian -- Guardianship in Practice: Commerce and Industry -- Real Property -- Collaboration: Mother and Sons, Inc.

ISBN

9780812249613
0812249615

LCCN

2017013304

OCLC

ocn980496981
980496981
SCSB-8912731

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library