The Moretti family : late marriage, bachelorhood and domestic authority in Seventeenth-Century Venice

Abstract

On his deathbed, Andrea Moretti (?–1633), a Doctor of Law, divided his estate equallyamong his children. Domenico (1600–1667) and his siblings were the children ofAndrea’s second marriage to Marietta (?–1644), the daughter of Paulo Genoa dellaCroce, a Venetian citizen. The daughters of his first marriage to Cornelia (?–1595),the daughter of Sebastiano Badoer, a patrician, were not included in the settlement asthey had already received their dowries and left home.2Badoera, his eldest daughter,was married to a citizen, Michiel Ariscola. Her sister, Zanetta, either by choice orpersuasion became a tertiary sister and prioress of the Ospedaletto dei Derelitti, oneof the charitable institutions established to look after orphans and women in need ofshelter.