Abstract: Widows were uneasy figures within a society that categorized women strictly on the basis of a male counterpart: as unattached figures, they were seen as socially disruptive and therefore in need of restraint. Giulio Cesare Cabei’s Ornamenti della gentildonna vedova prescribes the everyday behaviour of a good widow, an eloquent example of “vera viduità”, while offering, at the same time, useful information about the customs relating to widows and widowhood in sixteenth-century society.
