Abstract

the article analyses the radical transformation of the status of women through the Bourbon's institutional regulations in Sicily during the mid-eighteenth century. Laws, jurisprudence and institutions oversaw the role of woman, as both wife and mother: ensuring the continuity of the legitimate offspring, the continuity of the family's heritage was also guaranteed. From this standpoint, the essay aims to highlight the debate and the regulatory, religious and political interventions in the field of rape and motherhood, examining the unpublished decisions of the principal Sicilian judicial organ, so called "Giunta dei Presidenti e Consultore".