ABSTRACT
In early modern Europe, patterns of transmission of properties and inheritance were based upon law, economy and relations between members of families. Of course, rules on transmission and inheritance do not only concern urban space. We can even say that they have mostly been studied and analysed for their consequences on land transmission and on relations between family systems and agriculture. 1 However, the urban context raises some specific problems in relation to the gendered transmission of immovable goods, particularly if we consider that these could include the family house, that is, a building representing the identity and continuity of the lineage. It also raises specific issues to do with the transmission of workshops in a context in which a woman’s right to run a business was generally limited by the guild’s rules, and also by the job opportunities offered by urban economies.
