The Seasonality of Marriages in Italy at the Beginning of 19th Century

Alessio Fornasin, University of Udine
Marco Breschi, Università degli Studi di Sassari
Matteo Manfredini, University of Parma
Gabriele Ruiu, Università degli Studi di Sassari

In this paper, we propose a study of the seasonality of marriages in Italy at the beginning of the 19th century, exploiting information collected at the municipal level. The objective of the research is to investigate the links between the seasonal distribution of marriages and the cultural, social and economic characteristics of the different areas of the country before the start of the demographic transition. We collected data from the Napoleonic civil registers for the years 1810, 1811, 1812 and for 719 municipalities spread across the country. A relevant feature of the dataset is the inclusion of numerous urban centers (Genoa, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Naples, etc.), which were usually excluded from studies that made use of parish registers. Descriptive analysis makes use of the standard seasonality index to describe and compare the marriage seasonal pattern across Italy. Moreover, a multinomial regression analysis is applied to single out some of the determinants of the seasonal pattern of marriage, such as geographical and political district, altitude, socioeconomic context (town vs countryside), and other potential elements. In this paper we describe the geography of marriage seasonality in Italy before the demographic transition and highlight the role of occupations and religious precepts.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 33. Marriage Patterns and Practices: New Historical Evidence