Women in the Fourteenth-Century Venetian Scuole

Abstract

This article examines the presence of women in fourteenth-century Venetianscuole piccoleand describes their participation. According to surviving confraternity statutes, women seldom shared in the governance of the entire confraternity. But female office holders were often responsible for their sisters in matters of illness, death, burial, and sometimes moral conduct. They also made contributions and left numerous legacies to their scuole. Membership lists sometimes reveal the social and occupational status of women. Information on one confraternity for women only, the Scuola d'Umiltà, survives.