Material culture in hidalgo households in La Mancha. Ciudad Real, 1585-1610

Abstract

This paper tries to analyse the Castilian nobility lifestyle between the XVIth and XVIIth centuries observing the particular case of Ciudad Real hidalgos. In order to obtain the necessary information, marriage dowries and marriage settlements included in notary’s protocols of Archivo Histórico Provincial of Ciudad Real have been analysed. Its main goal is to notice hidalgos’ marital strategies and to observe how they preserved their external signs of public behaviour while they gradually changed their cultural practices and material culture.