Civic Identity, ‘Juvenile’ Status and Gender in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Italian Towns

This chapter aims to explore the forms of civic identity of individuals excluded from full citizenship based on their gender identity. Through a focus on the political participation of craftsmen who were not domini, that is, owners of their own businesses, and thus did not enjoy any form of civic existence, it presents a study of seventeenth-century Rome, examining how these extremely unstable professional and geographical categories were able to enjoy some forms of civic identity and political existence.