Il buon nome delle donne. Matrimonio, professione e reputazione nella Roma dell’Ottocento

Abstract

This work is based on the trial documents of the Vicar and the Governor Courts (XVIII-XIX centuries). It is focused on the leading role of reputation in the lives of unmarried and atypical working women during the First Roman Republic (1798-1799). Referring to the recent studies on marriage, the attention is focused on both language and nomenclature used in trial documents to describe women. Moreover, it is underlined the importance of a bad reputation on the Criminal Court’s judgement in actions for seduction of unmarried women. Models earned by showing their naked bodies: a particular attention is reserved then to the role of their job as well as their marital status in both construction and judgement of their reputation.