The widow and the notary: death, gender, and legal culture in the Jewish and Christian communities of medieval Catalonia

ABSTRACT

When men died in medieval Catalonia, their widows went to the notaries. This article traces the ways in which Jewish and Christian women negotiated legal culture in response to their husbands’ deaths in Catalan cities between 1250 and 1350. Death required deeply practical responses as well as emotional ones: the administration of the estate of the deceased was often a pressing concern. Both Jewish and Christian women relied on a variety of legal institutions to safeguard their own and (in some cases) their children’s financial futures as they entered widowhood. Through a combination of Latin notarial documentation and Hebrew responsa literature, this article compares Jewish and Christian women’s legal responses to the deaths of their husbands. Jews navigated Christian legal institutions and sometimes adapted Christian customs. Yet they also maintained distinct practices, and Jewish widows and their families maneuvered between Christian notaries and Jewish rabbinic authorities as they shaped their individual legal responses to the life-changing deaths of their husbands.

KEYWORDS:

• Widows
• women’s work
• Catalonia
• Jews
• guardianship
• notaries
• responsa
• dowry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Arxiu i Biblioteca Episcopal de Vic, Arxiu de la Curia Fumada [henceforth ACF], vol. 349, fols. 43v–44r.

2 On this system, see Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 40–44; Kelleher, Measure of Woman, 51–52; Ifft Decker, Fruit of Her Hands, 36–37.

3 Arxiu Històric de Protocols de Barcelona [henceforth AHPB], vol. 18/1, fols. 29v–30r.

4 Emery, “Veuves juives,” 559–60; Benedictow, Black Death, 80–81, 278–81; Rich Abad, “Able and Available,” 75.

5 Although some earlier notarial documentation can be found in Catalonia, most extant notarial records date from after 1250. The choice to end this study in 1350 reflects the decision to incorporate immediate responses to the Black Death without addressing longer-term changes wrought by the plague.

6 Baiges i Jardí, “El notariat català,” 142; Blasco Martínez, “El notariado en Aragón,” 199–200.

7 Baiges i Jardí, “El notariat català,” 146–48; Blasco Martínez, “El notariado en Aragón,” 205–10; Brundage, Medieval Origins, 402–03.

8 Bartoli Langeli, “‘Scripsi et publicavi’,” 58, 68.

9 Burns, Jews in the Notarial Culture, 30–31; Smail, “Notaries, Courts, and the Legal Culture,” 23–26, and Imaginary Cartographies, 20–30; Bresc, “Rhétorique et culture notariale,” 454–55.

10 Wray, Communities and Crisis, 32–36.

11 Baiges i Jardí, “El notariat català,” 136; Ferrer i Mallol, “L’instrument notarial,” 41; Pagarolas i Sabaté, “Notariat i cultura,” 342–43.

12 Winer, “Jews in and out of Latin Notarial Culture,” 114–15, 122–24.

13 Baumgarten, “‘A Separate People?’,” 225–27.

14 This article does not include the experiences of conversa women, for whom I have found very little documentation prior to 1391. Nor does it include Muslim women, who only appear in this documentation as enslaved and therefore could not play the same type of managerial role. For enslaved women as legatees, see in this issue McDonough and Armstrong-Partida, “Affective Networks across the Divide.”

15 Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 47–75, 99–125; Kelleher, Measure of Woman, 62–79; Rich Abad, “Able and Available,” 73–79; Comas-Via, Entre la solitud i la llibertat.

16 Chabot, “Widowhood and Poverty,” 291–93; Cohen, Poverty and Charity, 139–41; Kelleher, Measure of Woman, 63–65; Comas-Via, “Looking for a Way to Survive,” 181–88.

17 Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 40–42, 99–100; Rich Abad, “Able and Available,” 75–79; Comas-Via, Entre la solitud i la llibertat, 187–89.

18 Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 40–44; Kelleher, Measure of Woman, 51–52.

19 Klein, “Widow’s Portion,” 149–50; Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 94–95.

20 Chabot, “Widowhood and Poverty,” 301–02; Comas-Via, Entre la solitud i la llibertat, 110.

21 Chabot, “Widowhood and Poverty,” 295; Kelleher, Measure of Woman, 62–65; Comas Via, “Requeriments i viduïtat,” 35–39.

22 Skinner, “Widow’s Options,” 62–64; Ifft Decker, Fruit of Her Hands, 140.

23 Ibn Adret, She’elot u-Teshuvot, I.879; Tallan, “Medieval Jewish Widows,” 64; Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 261.

24 Ibn Adret, She’elot u-Teshuvot, I.1089; Gerondi, Derashot ha-Ran, 86.

25 Brocá y Montagut, Historia del derecho de Cataluña, 870–72; Kelleher, Measure of Woman, 69; Vinyoles Vidal and Muntaner i Alsina, “Acreedoras y deudoras,” 279; Mikes, “Legislació històrica de la família catalana,” 183–85; Comas Via, “Requeriments i viduïtat,” 36–37.

26 Klapisch-Zuber, Women, Family, and Ritual, 124–30; Chabot, “Lineage Strategies,” 135–43.

27 Silleras-Fernández, “Between Expectation and Desire,” 354–55, 358–62; Comas-Via, Entre la solitud i la llibertat, 49.

28 Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 260–61; Tallan, “Medieval Jewish Widows,” 63–64, 68.

29 Ibn Adret, She’elot u-Teshuvot, I.923.

30 Ibn Adret, She’elot u-Teshuvot, I.957; III.146.

31 Ishbili, She’elot u-Teshuvot, 190.

32 Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 47–50.

33 Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 107–25.

34 Ego Elicsendis uxor Bernardi de Granerio quondam parochie Vici filiaque Arnaldi Anglesii quondam dicte parochie: ACF, vol. 299, vol. 191v.

35 Comas-Via, Entre la solitud i la llibertat, 53–55.

36 Vinyoles, Barcelonines, 83–88; Ferrer i Mallol, “L’instrument notarial,” 49–50; To Figueras, “Las funciones sociales del notariado,” 175–86.

37 In 1286, for example, Ponç de Cirera of Vic and his wife Bartomeua sold a plot of land; their minor son and two daughters all participated in the contract: ACF, vol. 24, fol. 64v.

38 54 of 259, from a random sample of registers dating between 1311 and 1350. On the methodology of random sampling, see Ifft Decker, Fruit of Her Hands, 12–13.

39 Ifft Decker, Fruit of Her Hands, 101–28.

40 Ifft Decker, Fruit of Her Hands, 74–77.

41 Arxiu Capitular de Barcelona [henceforth ACB], vol. 17, fols. 15v–18r.

42 In some families, siblings jointly inherited all property, rather than the deceased dividing up his assets (equally or not) amongst his or her children: Bensch, Barcelona, 259.

43 ACB, vol. 62, fols. 30v–31r.

44 ACB, vol. 19, fols. 30v, 33v–34v.

45 Smail, Legal Plunder, 1, 61–62.

46 Kelleher, Measure of Woman, 51–52.

47 Lansing, Passion and Order, 14, 173–75.

48 ACB, vol. 18, fol. 70r–v.

49 que teneo et possideo omnia bona dicti mariti mei quondam pro dote mea et sponsalicio meo iuxta consuetudinem Barchinone: ACB, vol. 31, fols. 183v–184r.

50 ACB, vol. 32, fols. 34r–35r, 210r–211v.

51 ACB, vol. 31, fols. 98r–106v; ACB, vol. 33, fols. 86v–102v.

52 Smail, Legal Plunder, 1.

53 Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 47–51.

54 ACB, vol. 31, fol. 98r.

55 Guilleré, Diner, poder, i societat, 34–36.

56 Vinyoles, Barcelonines, 36–39; Comas, Muntaner, and Vinyoles, “Elles no només filaven,” 27–29, 31–35; Comas-Via, Entre la solitud i la llibertat, 183–87; Ifft Decker, Fruit of Her Hands, 109–10.

57 Arxiu Històric de Girona [henceforth AHG], Gi-4, vol. 14, fols. 93v, 134r; AHG Gi-5, vol. 38, fols. 126v, 137v; AHG Gi-4, vol. 12, fol. 114v.

58 For establishment of societas, see AHG Gi-6, vol. 16, fols. 99v–101v. Reyerson, Mothers and Sons, Inc., 90–108, 129–47, has extensively studied the approximately contemporary case of Martha de Cabanis, a businesswoman from Montpellier who began as guardian of her minor children and later formed a partnership with her adult sons.

59 AHG Gi-5, vol. 34, fols. 6v, 35v, 41v, 42r, 43r, 75r; AHG Gi-5, vol. 20, fols. 28r–v, 35r, 47r, 47v, 75r, 75v, 114r. On similar limitations in Paris, see Farmer, “Merchant Women,” 100.

60 Comas-Via, Entre la solitud i la llibertat, 177–79.

61 Elisenda, widow of Joan Benet of Vic and guardian of her minor children, in 1311 appointed her brother Pere de Cuspineda as her agent to collect a debt: ACF, vol. 53, fol. 6r.

62 In 1346, Bonanata, widow of Berenguer Cervera of Girona and guardian of her minor children, sold off a plot of rural agricultural land owned by her late husband: AHG Gi-5, vol. 15, fols. 146r–147r.

63 Inventories drawn up by widowed guardians: ACB, vol. 48, fol. 13r–v; ACB, vol. 29, fols. 16r–20r; ACB, vol. 33, fols. 86v–102v; AHG Gi-5, vol. 6, fols. 37v–38r; AHG Gi-5, vol. 14, fol. 1.17r–v; AHG Gi-6, vol. 13, fols. 30v–31v; AHG Gi-6, vol. 23, fol. 46v; AHG Gi-6, vol. 30, fols. 105r–107v.

64 ACF 4595, fol. 11v.

65 Assis, Golden Age, 145–60; Klein, Jews, Christian Society, and Royal Power, 45–50; Ray, Sephardic Frontier, 136.

66 On Jewish Latinate wills, see Burns, Jews in the Notarial Culture, 22–31.

67 Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 69a–b; Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Nakhalot 1:1–2.

68 Ifft Decker, Fruit of Her Hands, 92–94.

69 Ifft Decker, “Public Economic Role,” 58–63.

70 Klein, “Public Activities,” 48–50, 60–61.

71 Ibn Adret, She’elot u-Teshuvot, V.287.

72 Nirenberg, Communities of Violence, 141; Ray, Sephardic Frontier, 165–74; Furst, “Captivity, Conversion, and Communal Identity,” 202–11; Barton, Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines, 45–75; Safran, Defining Boundaries, 128–33, 139–40.

73 Baskin, “Dolce of Worms,” 436–37.

74 Einbinder, No Place of Rest, 112–36.

75 AHG Gi-5, vol. 6, fol. 86v.

76 For Vidal as agent, see AHG Gi-5, vol. 9, fols. 9v–10r, 25v, 39v–40r, 51v–52r.

77 AHG Gi-5, vol. 37, fol. 7r–v.

78 Ifft Decker, “Between Two Cities,” 494–95.

79 Ifft Decker, Fruit of Her Hands, 45–47.

80 On affective relationships between Jewish couples, especially as revealed in husbands’ wills and donations to their wives, see Rich Abad, Comunitat jueva, 94–95; Ravera and Rich Abad, “Benedictus’ Summer’s Night Dream,” 465–67.

81 Bonadona’s first action as a widow: AHG Gi-6, vol. 9bis, fol. 33v.

82 Rich Abad, Comunitat jueva, 83; Perry, “Hatpasah,” 172.

83 Roth, “‘My Precious Books and Instruments’,” 558–60.

84 One daughter, Bonafilla, had been widowed by 1327 and remarried by 1334: AHG Gi-5, vol. 7, fols. 97v–98r; AHG Gi-6, vol. 9bis, fol. 33v; Ester had married the man she would later divorce by 1332: Roth, “‘My Precious Books and Instruments’,” 551. Although a 1339 contract referred to Bonafilla and Ester as their fathers’ heirs, their mother received the bulk of the estate in practice: AHG Gi-5, vol. 20, fol. 22r–v.

85 Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 124–25.

86 E.g., AHG Gi-5, vol. 29, fol. 78r–v. See also Rich Abad, “Able and Available,” 76–79.

87 Ibn Adret, She’elot u-Teshuvot, I.1140; Klein, “Widow’s Portion,” 149–53.

88 Lopez de Meneses, “Una consecuencia de la peste negra,” 97–106; Einbinder, After the Black Death, 117–47.

89 ex scripta consuetudine Barchinone confiteor possidere bona que quondam fuerunt dicti mariti mei pro dote mea et sponsalicio meo: AHPB 18/1, fol. 8r–v.

90 Sautter, “Women, Dance, Death, and Lament,” 93–113.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Medieval Academy of America; Social Sciences Research Council.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Ifft Decker

Sarah Ifft Decker is Assistant Professor of History at Rhodes College. She is a historian of the medieval western Mediterranean, with a particular focus on intersections between gender and religious difference. Her publications include The Fruit of Her Hands: Jewish and Christian Women’s Work in Medieval Catalan Cities and Jewish Women in the Medieval World: 500–1500 CE. Currently, she is working on two new book projects, one on how Jews in the western Mediterranean participated in a multi-lingual contractual culture when shaping family economic strategies, and one on the relationship between gender and anti-Judaism in medieval Europe.