Widows in Venice

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Motivation

This is not really a motivation of the project, but rather a project description.

Goal: The goal of this project is to analyze the socio-economic status and property dynamics of widows as recorded in two historical datasets, the Catastici and the Sommarioni. By comparing these datasets, the project aims to uncover patterns in property ownership, tenancy, and rent payments among widows and to investigate changes in their living conditions over time.

Who are the widows recorded in the Catastici and Sommarioni datasets? This phase will involve locating and identifying widows in both datasets, gathering key demographic information (such as name, property status, and rent details), and understanding their distribution.

Are widows more likely to be property owners (landlords) or tenants? This question focuses on determining the proportion of widows who owned properties versus those who rented them. Understanding this ratio will provide insights into their economic standing.

Do widows pay different rents compared to other tenants for similar types of properties? Here, the project will investigate whether widows receive any preferential treatment or experience discrimination in terms of rent compared to other demographic groups in the datasets.

How does the ownership or tenancy of widows change between the two datasets (Catastici and Sommarioni)? By comparing property ownership or tenancy records between the two datasets, this question aims to explore whether widows' economic positions (through property ownership or rent status) improve or decline over time. For example, do they acquire more properties, or is there evidence of downsizing?

What patterns emerge from comparing widows across the two years? By analyzing widows’ presence in both datasets, this phase will search for trends regarding widowhood and economic mobility. For instance, did certain social classes of widows fare better or worse in retaining or expanding their property holdings?

Extra: If time look at the Tassini and see if and how they mention widows

Historical background

Where do we want to find this information? What are good sources to use? --> Google Scolar?

When reading about the history, add knowledge here with references to the sources used.

Project Plan and Milestones

Workflow

Week	Task	Status
07.10 - 13.10	Define project and structure work	In process
14.10 - 20.10	Write code to extract widow data Read historical papers on widows and Venice ||
21.10 - 27.10	Autumn vacation
28.10 - 03.11	Who are the widows recorded in the Catastici and Sommarioni datasets?
04.11 - 10.11	Analysis: Property ownership Comparative rent analysis Prepare for the presentation ||
11.11 - 17.11	Midterm presentation on 14.11 Continue analysis (details to be specified) ||
18.11 - 24.11	To be determined
25.11 - 01.12	To be determined
02.12 - 08.12	To be determined
09.12 - 15.12	Finish writing wiki and prepare presentation
16.12 - 22.12	Deliver GitHub + wiki on 18.12 and final presentation on 19.12

Results

Should include graphs and plots of the data/ just some data visualisation

Interpretation of the data

it's essential to contextualize the findings within the broader political and economic shifts in Venice (e.g., Napoleonic occupation, decline of the Republic). How did these events impact inheritance patterns or gender roles in property ownership?

Deliverables

The GitHub page of this project can be found at the following address: Rich Widows

Limitations

what limitations did our analysis have, was the data lacking. How sure are we that the results presented are true?

Credits

Course: Foundation of Digital Humanities (DH-405), EPFL

Professor: Frédéric Kaplan

Supervisor:

Authors: Eglantine Vialaneix, Nathanaël Lambert, Lisa Marie Njå

Date: 18.12.2024