This book combines the interdisciplinary insights of history, anthropology, and computing to examine the interrelationships between politics, kinship, and marriage in a late-medieval city-state. At the heart of the study is a reconsideration of `office' and the ways in which ties of kinshipand marriage were mobilized to build electoral success. In fifteenth-century Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik) membership of the Great Council, which nominated and elected office-holders, was restricted to the legitimate male offspring of patrician brides and grooms. The patrician class was highlyendogamous, and the relationship between endogamy and electoral support is an important theme running through this book. A related theme concerns the age differences between spouses, which are shown to have important structural implications for the organization of the casata, kinship relations, andmarriage ties. These implications are investigated using a variety of innovative methods, including cohort analysis and computer simulation.
DIVERSI, Filippo (Philippus de Diversis de Quartigianis). - Nacque a Lucca da Giovanni negli ultimi decenni del sec. XIV. Le poche notizie sulla sua vita, ricavate quasi esclusivamente dai suoi scritti, ce lo presentano membro di un'antica famiglia, facente parte della consorteria dei Quartigiani, che aveva conosciuto l'esilio da più di una generazione: in una supplica dell'8 dic. 1444 lamenta infatti le vicissitudini toccate al bisnonno Giovanni, al nonno Nicolò e al padre, tutti scacciati per