This paper aims to explore a specific aspect of the laws regulating female appearance that were enacted in large numbers in Late Medieval Italy: the norms disciplining the décolletage of dresses. The analysis of those texts will enlighten the two principal aims of this kind of regulations: to safeguard familiar honour by im posing on women a modest appearance, in order to dispell any suspicion of inappropriateness of their sexual behaviour, and to make respectable ladies distinguishable by first sight from prostitutes, as to avoid unaccept able lacks of respect towards them.
«QUASI MORE VACCARUM»: FORBIDDEN BODIES AND SCANDALOUS CLOTHING IN THE LOCAL LEGISLATION OF LATE MEDIEVAL ITALY (14TH AND 15TH CENTURY) / Boldrini, Federica. - (2023), pp. 38-49.
«QUASI MORE VACCARUM»: FORBIDDEN BODIES AND SCANDALOUS CLOTHING IN THE LOCAL LEGISLATION OF LATE MEDIEVAL ITALY (14TH AND 15TH CENTURY)
federica boldrini
2023-01-01
Abstract
This paper aims to explore a specific aspect of the laws regulating female appearance that were enacted in large numbers in Late Medieval Italy: the norms disciplining the décolletage of dresses. The analysis of those texts will enlighten the two principal aims of this kind of regulations: to safeguard familiar honour by im posing on women a modest appearance, in order to dispell any suspicion of inappropriateness of their sexual behaviour, and to make respectable ladies distinguishable by first sight from prostitutes, as to avoid unaccept able lacks of respect towards them.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
