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Scholarly Works (5 results)

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UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2010)

Abstract

Courtship, Violence, and the Formation of Marriage in the Early Modern Italian Novella Tradition

by

Sara Elizabeth Christina Russell

Doctor of Philosophy in Italian Studies

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Albert R. Ascoli, Chair

This dissertation examines the intersection of courtship, violence, and the formation of marriage in early modern Italian legal and fictional narratives. My investigation begins with the marriage causae of Gratian's Concordia discordantium canonum, more commonly known as the Decretum, then moves on to a selection of novellas from Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron and culminates in a series of close readings from Bandello's Novelle. My analysis of these texts reveals complexity and ambiguity in the representation of all stages of courtship and marriage formation in addition to depicting conflict between parents and offspring in the formation of marriage. Emphasizing the role of storytelling within canon law and the intrusion of legal systems (both real and fictional) into storytelling, my reading of coercion and violence is grounded in the broader historical context of courtship and marriage formation.

This study comments on the changes in canon law on marriage between 1140 and the Council of Trent; during this span of time, the increasing attention paid to the will of both the man and the woman involved in a potential courtship or marriage called for the differentiation between forced sex and clandestine relationships. The works of Gratian, Boccaccio, and Bandello, written in the twelfth, fourteenth, and sixteenth century, respectively, suggest a movement toward a growing acceptance of the definition of marriage based on consent and an increasing differentiation between consent and coercion to sex, abduction, and marriage.

Whereas other scholars have focused on identifying the narrators' or authors' attitudes or perspectives about women in general or violence more specifically, my dissertation undertakes the innovative task of analyzing the function of violence in relation to courtship and marriage. More specifically, I discuss the significance of Gratian's, Boccaccio's, and Bandello's depiction of the slippage between consent and coercion, which struggle against each other in these texts, yet remain so tightly interwoven that it is often difficult to untangle them. In the works of Gratian, Boccaccio and Bandello, the representation of coercion and violence underscores the importance of consent.

    Cover page: Courtship, Violence, and the Formation of Marriage in the Early Modern Italian Novella Tradition
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    UC Davis Previously Published Works (2023)
    Studies of material returned from Cb asteroid Ryugu have revealed considerable mineralogical and chemical heterogeneity, stemming primarily from brecciation and aqueous alteration. Isotopic anomalies could have also been affected by delivery of exogenous clasts and aqueous mobilization of soluble elements. Here, we show that isotopic anomalies for mildly soluble Cr are highly variable in Ryugu and CI chondrites, whereas those of Ti are relatively uniform. This variation in Cr isotope ratios is most likely due to physicochemical fractionation between 54Cr-rich presolar nanoparticles and Cr-bearing secondary minerals at the millimeter-scale in the bulk samples, likely due to extensive aqueous alteration in their parent bodies that occurred [Formula: see text] after Solar System birth. In contrast, Ti isotopes were marginally affected by this process. Our results show that isotopic heterogeneities in asteroids are not all nebular or accretionary in nature but can also reflect element redistribution by water.
      Cover page: Water circulation in Ryugu asteroid affected the distribution of nucleosynthetic isotope anomalies in returned sample.
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      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Davis Previously Published Works (2022)
      The extraterrestrial materials returned from asteroid (162173) Ryugu consist predominantly of low-temperature aqueously formed secondary minerals and are chemically and mineralogically similar to CI (Ivuna-type) carbonaceous chondrites. Here, we show that high-temperature anhydrous primary minerals in Ryugu and CI chondrites exhibit a bimodal distribution of oxygen isotopic compositions: 16O-rich (associated with refractory inclusions) and 16O-poor (associated with chondrules). Both the 16O-rich and 16O-poor minerals probably formed in the inner solar protoplanetary disk and were subsequently transported outward. The abundance ratios of the 16O-rich to 16O-poor minerals in Ryugu and CI chondrites are higher than in other carbonaceous chondrite groups but are similar to that of comet 81P/Wild2, suggesting that Ryugu and CI chondrites accreted in the outer Solar System closer to the accretion region of comets.
        Cover page: Oxygen isotopes of anhydrous primary minerals show kinship between asteroid Ryugu and comet 81P/Wild2
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        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Davis Previously Published Works (2023)
        Preliminary analyses of asteroid Ryugu samples show kinship to aqueously altered CI (Ivuna-type) chondrites, suggesting similar origins. We report identification of C-rich, particularly primitive clasts in Ryugu samples that contain preserved presolar silicate grains and exceptional abundances of presolar SiC and isotopically anomalous organic matter. The high presolar silicate abundance (104 ppm) indicates that the clast escaped extensive alteration. The 5 to 10 times higher abundances of presolar SiC (~235 ppm), N-rich organic matter, organics with N isotopic anomalies (1.2%), and organics with C isotopic anomalies (0.2%) in the primitive clasts compared to bulk Ryugu suggest that the clasts formed in a unique part of the protoplanetary disk enriched in presolar materials. These clasts likely represent previously unsampled outer solar system material that accreted onto Ryugu after aqueous alteration ceased, consistent with Ryugus rubble pile origin.
          Cover page: Abundant presolar grains and primordial organics preserved in carbon-rich exogenous clasts in asteroid Ryugu.
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC Davis Previously Published Works (2024)
          The isotopic compositions of samples returned from Cb-type asteroid Ryugu and Ivuna-type (CI) chondrites are distinct from other carbonaceous chondrites, which has led to the suggestion that Ryugu/CI chondrites formed in a different region of the accretion disk, possibly around the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. We show that, like for Fe, Ryugu and CI chondrites also have indistinguishable Ni isotope anomalies, which differ from those of other carbonaceous chondrites. We propose that this unique Fe and Ni isotopic composition reflects different accretion efficiencies of small FeNi metal grains among the carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies. The CI chondrites incorporated these grains more efficiently, possibly because they formed at the end of the disks lifetime, when planetesimal formation was also triggered by photoevaporation of the disk. Isotopic variations among carbonaceous chondrites may thus reflect fractionation of distinct dust components from a common reservoir, implying CI chondrites/Ryugu may have formed in the same region of the accretion disk as other carbonaceous chondrites.
            Cover page: The Ni isotopic composition of Ryugu reveals a common accretion region for carbonaceous chondrites.
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