“Until Death Do Us Apart” and Even Longer: Demographic Constraints and Social Disapproval of Remarriage in 19th-Century Italy

Marco Breschi, Università degli Studi di Sassari
Matteo Manfredini, Università degli Studi di Parma
Alessio Fornasin, Università degli studi di Udine
Marianna Zacchigna, Università degli studi di Udine

The study focuses on the analysis of remarriage patterns in two 19th-century Italian populations, Casalguidi (rural Tuscany) and Treppo Carnico (Alpine area, Friuli). The use of individual-level data and the differences in the geographic localization, socioeconomic system, demographic regime, and household structure between the two communities offered us the opportunity to analyse the intimate mechanisms of the access to remarriage in two different contexts. The study provides evidence of the key roles played by socioeconomic status, land tenure and household composition on the chances to remarry. The paper discusses such relationships in light of the social norms in force, as well as, of the two different demographic systems that exist, high-pressure regime in Casalguidi and low-pressure regime in Treppo Carnico.