TY - BOOK ID - 78621146 TI - Mother and Sons, Inc. : Martha de Cabanis in medieval Montpellier PY - 2018 SN - 9780812249613 0812249615 0812294505 PB - Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press DB - UniCat KW - Women merchants KW - Widows KW - Guardian and ward KW - Guardianships KW - Tutelage KW - Wards KW - Domestic relations KW - Trusts and trustees KW - Conservatorships KW - Interdiction (Civil law) KW - Market women KW - Businesswomen KW - Merchants KW - Marital status KW - Women KW - History KW - Law and legislation KW - Cabanis, Martha de, KW - Montpellier (France) KW - Economic conditions. KW - Cabanis, de, Martha KW - Montpellier UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:78621146 AB - In the late 1320s, Martha de Cabanis was widowed with three young sons, eleven, eight, and four years of age. Her challenges would be many: to raise and train her children to carry on their father's business; to preserve that business until they were ready to take over; and to look after her own financial well-being. Examining the visible trail Martha left in Montpellier's notarial registers and other records, Kathryn L. Reyerson reveals a wealth of information about her activities, particularly in the area of business, commerce, and real estate. From these formal, contractual documents, Reyerson gleans something of Martha's personality and reconstructs what she may have done, and a good deal of what she actually did, in her various roles of daughter, wife, mother, and widow. Mother and Sons, Inc. demonstrates that while women were hardly equal to men in the fourteenth century, under the right conditions afforded by wealth and the status of widowhood, they could do and did more than many have thought. Within the space of twenty years, Martha developed a complex real estate fortune, enlarged a cloth manufacturing business and trading venture, and provided for the support and education of her sons. Just how the widow Martha maneuvered within the legal constraints of her social, economic, and personal status forms the heart of the book's investigation. ER -