Dowries and foreign influences in fashion and taste in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Malta

Abstract

One of the most complex endeavours which historians face is to recognise how seemingly silent voices may be identified to produce history. Women are often perceived as belonging to a segment of society with limited representation. However, their unique historical experiences occasionally emerge with considerable clarity illuminating other phenomena that have shaped society. This paper aims to conduct a microhistorical analysis of twenty notarial registers associated with twelve notaries, covering the period from 1712 to 1870. Through this analysis, the study seeks to explore whether marriage and dowry agreements can serve as a conduit for identifying foreign cultural influences on fashion within the Maltese society of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with a particular focus on the domain of jewellery.