Percorsi femminili attraverso le proprietà familiari a Genova nei secoli XII e XIII

International audienceThe essay reconstructs the stories of three aristocratic women by focusing on their role in managing their families’ estates. The first, Mabilia de Lecavelis, is a young widow who tries to reassemble the real estate property of her husband’s parental group with the aim of strengthening the position of her only son. Aimelina, daughter of Guglielmo Rataldo, whom we can observe in the same years, hails from a family of merchants and is given in marriage to Fulco de Castello, scion of an important consular family. The will of the latter, and other documents that show the two spouses acting in unison, suggest that the two were bound by sincere affection. The case of Simona comitissa Fieschi, is peculiar: attested as guardian of her grandchildren towards the end of the thirteenth century, she tries to fulfil her deceased son’s decision to deny one of his descendants, a Church man, his portion of the inheritance. These three cases show clearly how women played an active part in strengthening the patrimonial projects of the families they married into