Women, Bridal Girdles, and the Household in Renaissance Prague

Anna Parker

doi:10.1017/s0018246x21000108

Abstract

AbstractThis article addresses early modern women's power through an object study of the wedding girdle, a thickly embellished belt that was the most costly, emblematic, and intimate item in a Renaissance bride's trousseau, and which uniquely illuminates the lives of women. Building on the work that women's history has done to uncover how women navigated the patriarchal system, I propose that a focus on the household is vital to understanding the socially specific ways in which burgher women – members of the citizen class of Renaissance Prague – exerted agency in their daily lives. Burgher sensibilities, specifically the desire to display the prosperity, industry, and piety of their households, created distinct mechanisms for women to assert themselves. This article sets women's lives against the interwoven structures of the household, namely, gendered roles and expectations, the legal property system, and moral discourses surrounding marriage. By levering these structures, the same that constrained them, burgher women were able to express power.

Highlights

This article addresses early modern women’s power through an object study of the wedding girdle, a thickly embellished belt that was the most costly, emblematic, and intimate item in a Renaissance burgher bride’s trousseau
Hurrying back and forth between local traders and pawnbrokers, Smichlová ordered a grape-coloured cloak striped with black velvet, a marten-fur cloak lined with damask, a golden cap, a wreath of silver
Countless studies have argued that early modern women found freedom and companionship in home and work, that male authority was limited by law and custom, and that some women found themselves empowered by patriarchal frameworks.[2]

Summary

Introduction

This article addresses early modern women’s power through an object study of the wedding girdle, a thickly embellished belt that was the most costly, emblematic, and intimate item in a Renaissance bride’s trousseau, and which uniquely illuminates the lives of women.

Results

Conclusion