РЕАЛНОТО ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ НА ИМУЩЕСТВЕНИТЕ ПРАВА НА ЖЕНИТЕ В СРЕДНОВЕКОВНА БЪЛГАРИЯ (Bulgarian)

THE ACTUAL APPLICATION OF THE ECONOMIC RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN MEDIEVAL BULGARIA. (English)

The article poses particularly important issue about the ratio between the established property rights of women in medieval Bulgarian kingdom and her actual property status, between theoretical-legal and the women's actual capacity and possibility for material autonomy. For this purpose, collated is the information from the Bulgarian legislation collections, mostly the Slavic Eclogue and the sources containing information on the actual application of the legislature provided for the women's property rights. Analyzed is the attitude of the medieval legislature toward the material capacity of women, which is always considered in an integral connection with their place in the family, in other words, depending on whether they are daughters, wives, widows or mothers. Thoroughly discussed is the issue of women's rights over dowry, marriage gift and inherited property, obtained from parents or the death of the husband. An important part of the study is the question of the composition of assets that are owned by the wife or daughter of the average Bulgarian and in particular what part of it was real estate, especially land. Sources, although scarce indicate that both by law and in practice women had some proprietary rights over movable and real estate property, including land, received as dowry or inheritance. The next step in the research is to determine to what extent a woman had the right to dispose of and actually did dispose of her property. It was established that by law a woman could carry out absolutely any property transactions that were known in that epoch: to give, to donate, to sell and buy, to give loans, to bequeath her property. This im plies ample opportunities for economic activities of women who have the necessary funds for this. The preserved sources, however, discussed later on in this article do not speak even for a minimal conformity between those legal possibilities and the actual activities of the women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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