Hospitality and Registration of Foreigners in Early Modern Venice: The Role of Women within Inns and Lodging Houses

In the past few decades, interest on migrations and mobility in and out of early modern cities has greatly increased. In particular, the reception of newcomers has turned to be a precondition for cultural and economic growth. However, the attention to the history of migration has mainly focused on particular foreign communities and their collective assimilation within the city fabric. This contribution, instead, concerns the Venetian spaces for urban hospitality more broadly. We will analyse different ways in which an early modern port city managed migration and mobility within its urban spaces, questioning how institutions, legislations and policies affected social actors' residential patterns, and vice versa. The aim is to highlight the place of women within the hospitality industry, and to underline the role of gender relations in these spaces. The use of different types of sources and distinct approaches have allowed us to enrich the analysis of this complex subject, approaching the same phenomena from multiple perspectives.