TY - EJOUR AU - Georgia Arrivo T1 - Sposarsi in tribunale. Sessualità e matrimonio nella Toscana del Settecento TT - AB - This article is based on the analysis of the documentation relating to rape trials held in the Florence Criminal Court at the end of the eighteenth century. Almost all of the defendants were accused not of sexual assault but of the deflowering of ‘honest girls’. If found guilty, defendants were usually sentenced to marry the girl or to provide her with a dowry. These documents have been used to reconstruct the path to marriage of couples from the lower social classes. For them, too, marriage is seen to be a complex construction which requires a significant investment in terms of time, money and resources by families and individuals. The dowry, the timing of the marriage and the couple’s future accommodation were sensitive issues which could lead to conflicts. Even sexual relations before marriage, pregnancies and the subsequent appeals to the court become pof this path towards marriage. AD - CY - Bologna DO - 10.1473/stor84