The Barbou of Limoges : gender, family, and work in France, 1566-1786
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Over a continuous span of two hundred and twenty years members of the Barbou family in early modern Limoges, France maintained a livre de raison, or family journal, that both documented and helped to transmit a fascinatingly idiosyncratic family culture. Their work as printers, a cornerstone of their identity even as they gained noble status, earned them fabulous wealth and a prominent status in their industry thanks to their cultivation of multiple patrons, their reliance on widows to continue their husbands' work, and their creation of a family-run satellite workshop in Paris. When it came time to spend that wealth Barbou parents invested in land and offices to increase their social standing but never lost their focus on the world of work. Connections to both spheres allowed them to find elite husbands for their daughters and wealthy wives for their sons—a hypergamous marriage pattern that was only possible because of their commitment to sharing the patrimony among all of their children rather than practicing the strict primogeniture of many other ambitious families of the time. As sibling groups rose through the social hierarchy together they cemented their alliances through spiritual kinship, choosing godparents from among both parents' relatives and favoring horizontal relationships above all else. Throughout their history the Barbou benefitted from the geographical patterns that shaped their culture; from the important contributions of the many strong widows who guided the family's course; and from the liminal social position that enabled a wider variety of choices through the lack of strong ties to their community. Studying such a unique family supplies a counterexample for numerous historiographical generalizations and provides a glimpse of what was possible in early modern France.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Lichtenstein, Erin K |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of History. |
| Primary advisor | Findlen, Paula |
| Thesis advisor | Findlen, Paula |
| Thesis advisor | Kollmann, Nancy Shields, 1950- |
| Thesis advisor | Stokes, Laura, 1974- |
| Advisor | Kollmann, Nancy Shields, 1950- |
| Advisor | Stokes, Laura, 1974- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Erin K. Lichtenstein. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of History. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2014. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2014 by Erin Keaveney Lichtenstein
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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