What was the purpose of marriage in 15th century Italy?
Marriage was solely a business transaction. The great majority of people in the Renaissance were married so as to bring greater fortune to each others’ respective families. Similar to a business merger today, each party in the marriage brought economic or political interests to the deal. Two families might wed their son and daughter so as to create a unified and more powerful family business. A popular occurrence during the Renaissance was the marriage of a daughter of a wealthy merchant family into a politically powerful, but impoverished noble family. The combination of political connections from the nobles with the new and immense wealth of the merchants made a powerful alliance, and meant the children that resulted from the marriage would be receiving the best aspects from both social classes. Peace!
