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Field-fortifications of quilted fabric and timber to defend crossbowmen, in Guido da Vigevano’s military treatise of 1335. (Ms. Lat. 11015, f. 41 v, Bibliothegue Nationale, Paris)

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the status of women. Tli is change in family life was tuore tnie of the aristocracy than of other classes in Italy. For most medieval Italian families, links with the mother’s as well as the father’s family remained strong. This persistence of the consortia in Italy meant that there was often an

equal sharing of the parental inheritance. The political turmoil often witnessed in towns also strengthened the reliance on this system, particularly amongst the middle classes: it was dangerous to concentrate the family’s wealth in the hands of one, vulnerable individual, and wiser to spread the tisk as widely as possible. Such arrangements could be linked to ‘tower societies’, in which sereral heirs or unrelated families joined forces to build and defend fortified toni, a feature that came to dominate the Italian urban skyline. The consortia also had an outer circle of distant rel-atives, sometimes in other parts of the country, who served as useful business contacts or provided refuge in times of crisis. With i n a few gen-erations a consortia could be madę up of hundreds of people and scores of branches. Ali the while though, the wife’s rights over her httsband’s property were being whittled away: it was considered safer to place wealth in the hands of men strong enough to Fight in its defence.

Interior of the Castello Visconteo in Pavia, built by Galeazzo II between 1360-65: it is typical of the imposing fortifications preferred by the signori.

(Author’s photograph)

One way families defended themsehes at a time when governments were rarely able to maintain law and order was by the rendetta. Originally the codę of rendetta was carefully circumscribed so that it did not get out of control. Yengeance had to be ‘condencens' (appropriate) and not excessive, only involving those regarded as guilty of the original offence, and a close relative of the injured party. The man who carried out

the vendetta, particularly if it imohed killing, would take yengeance and then flee to a place where his family had relatives. The family would then be tried in his absence, and then subsequently seek reconcil-iation with those on the other side. This was usually possible once injuries were judged to be equal, though a guilty individual still needed to obtain a pardon from the city authorities, usually after his family had paid a fine.

A revival of Roman law in the 13th cen tury meant that a father retained control

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