© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/157006511X577032 Journal of Early Modern History 15 (2011) 367-384 brill.nl/jemh “Convenient to the Piety of Our Signoria and to the Honor of the Lord God”: Gender and Institutional Honor on the Early Modern Dalmatian Frontier* Eric Dursteler Brigham Young University Abstract Conversion was a common phenomenon in the early modern Mediterranean, and in most instances, individual apostasies from Islam or Christianity warranted minimal response. he conversion of women, however, and particularly women of status, elicited a more signiicant reaction. Both Ottoman and Venetian ruling elites attributed particular signii- cance to female spiritual peril, partly because of cultural assumptions about women’s weak- ness and lack of spiritual fortitude, but also because of the sexual peril that was assumed to accompany conversion. As a result, rulers responded to such threats institutionally in a much more determined fashion, in order to defend the woman’s virtue and the honor of her family, but also to preserve the reputation of the state and the honor of its male rulers. A close reading of a case from the Veneto-Ottoman frontier in Dalmatia demonstrates that just as the protection of wives and daughters was an essential measure of the honor of * Abbreviations: All archival sources are located in the Archivio di stato di Venezia (ASV) unless otherwise noted. APC Archivi propri—Costantinopoli BAC Bailo a Costantinopoli CollRel Collegio—Relazioni CRV Commissiones et Relationes Venetae. Vols. 2, 4, 6, 7, in Simeon Ljubić and Grga Novak, eds., Monumenta spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium (Zagreb, 1877-1972) NotAtti Notarile—Atti PSM Provveditor sopra li Monasteri PTM Provveditori di terra et mar SDC Senato Dispacci—Costantinopoli SDCop Senato Dispacci—Copie Moderne SDelC Senato Deliberazioni—Costantinopoli SMar Senato—Mar Per Whit.