Heirs, Kin, and Creditors in Renaissance Florence [Paperback]

A previously unexamined serial registry of repudiations of inheritance provides a greater understanding of law and society in Renaissance Florence.The process of inheritance was one of the most important moments in social life of the past, but also one of the most difficult to study. This book exploits a previously unexamined source of inheritance practices in Renaissance Florence, the serial registry of repudiations of inheritance, in order to understand social life and law of this historically important European society.The process of inheritance was one of the most important moments in social life of the past, but also one of the most difficult to study. This book exploits a previously unexamined source of inheritance practices in Renaissance Florence, the serial registry of repudiations of inheritance, in order to understand social life and law of this historically important European society.Visions of modernity rest in part on a distinction between inherited status (past) and achievement (present). Inheritance is taken as automatic, if not axiomatic; the recipients are passive, if grateful. This study, based on a singular source (Florentine repudiations of inheritance), reveals that inheritance was in fact a process, that heirs had options: at the least, to reject a burdensome patrimony, but also to maneuver property to others and to avoid (at times deceptively, if not fraudulently) the claims of others to portions of the estate. Repudiation was a vestige of Roman law that became once again a viable legal institution with the revival of Roman law in the Middle Ages. Florentines incorporated repudiation into their strategies of adjustment after death, showing that they were not merely passive recipients of what came their way. These strategies fostered family goals, including continuity across the generations.Preface: the ambivalence of inheritance; Introduction: inheritance and kinship; 1. Family and inheritance; 2. Florentine laws regulating inheritance and rel³˜