In today's society, marriage and family life are considered the center of our social structure. Everything we do in life is influenced by our family relationships. This being the case, is it any wonder that the same could be said of medieval families? Indeed, in some ways marriage and family life were even more important then. A person's family has influenced every moment of an individual's life. Coming from a good family, with a respectable breeding reputation, greatly increased a woman's chances of a good marriage. For men, choosing a wife from a good family meant forming appropriate legal ties that would perpetuate the fortunes of his lineage and, in some cases, improve his lineage. However, as important as marriage was to life in the Middle Ages, very little documentation has been discovered from which we can learn about this important institution. The available documents come from the filter of those who have a particular vision of how things should have been, not necessarily how they actually were. Although tracing the actual history of the marriage is complicated; tracing the history of women's married life through their perspective is almost impossible. Information about women's lives comes through the filter of men, particularly members of the local clergy and aristocracy. In this article I have collected some of the available information on marriage and family life from the perspective of the medieval woman. As I mentioned earlier, the center of life in the Middle Ages was marriage and family. This was especially true for women. From birth, a young woman's only use of her father was in her potential as a reproductive wife. For this reason, the virtue valued by a young woman was her virginity, which...... middle of paper ......75. This book offers an easy-to-follow explanation of the lives of women in the Middle Ages, including information about the different social levels and their life at home.Houts, Elisabeth MC. Medieval memoirs: men, women and the past, 700-1300. Harlow, England: Longman, 2001.Jewell, Helen M.. Women in Medieval England. Manchester: Manchester University Press;, 1996.Lucas, Angela M.. Women in the Middle Ages: Religion, Marriage, and Letters. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983. This book goes into detail about life as a wife during the Middle Ages. Not specific to Italy, let alone Venice. Power, Eileen and M. M. Postan. Medieval women. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Offers a quick overview of the mentality towards women in the Middle Ages. Skinner, Patricia. Women in medieval Italian society 500-1200. Harlow, England: Pearson Education, 2001.