Paraphernalia is a term that in Roman law was used to define a married woman's personal or private assets that were not included in her dowry. According to its etymology, this word is derived from the Greek "para" which means "near" and "pherne" refers to "dowry". However, its real concept historically comes from Roman law.
The dowry was a special donation that was made to the husband on behalf of the bride's family, this in order to help with financial burdens, product of the wedding celebration.
In the Roman marriage specifically to the marriages " sine manu ", the husband was not recognized the traditional power over the woman, there was no fusion of his patrimony; Paraphernal goods were those that the woman preserved with total property, like any person who owns the domain, without the husband having any power. In fact, the women could give said goods to the husband so that he could administer them, in this case the husband was considered the agent and had to legalize a libellus cautio depositionis in support of its reception.
The woman, for her part, could exercise in relation to these assets, the actions that are her responsibility as the owner. These goods generally consisted of: furniture, clothing, jewelry, Greek sources, household utensils and even credits. The husband, in the event of exercising the role of administrator of his wife's assets, had the power to take actions on behalf of his wife without providing surety; he had to use the money in the usual expenses of both spouses and was responsible for said administration up to the slight fault in concrete.
With respect to the other laws, it is known that in Germanic law it did not recognize the creation of paraphernalia; Spanish legislation does not legalize or define them until the law of the seven items, which accepted the Roman thesis to introduce it to the legal system of Spain. However, there are discrepancies, especially in some rights such as Aragon who did not accept this kind of property, otherwise to Catalan law, which was totally under the influence of Roman law.
