An old legal distinction, still visible in the language of wills today, is between that which is immoveable—land and property passed down within a family—and that which is moveable: everything that is small enough to keep “à son corps” (on one’s body), to give away, to sell, or to lose. Dresses, cups, and coats belong to this category, as do jewelry and linens. Because moveables used by women were exempt from being passed only through the male line of inheritance, they feature prominently in female wills. In Martha Howell’s study of female gift-giving through inheritance in Medieval Flanders, we find in the will of one Maroie Le Grand such eclectic items as a richly decorated bed, a cloak to be worn indoors, an ivory pot, a white stitched coverlet, a frying pan (the biggest she owns), a silk purse, an amber rosary, a headscarf (her best), and a rabbit-fur coat. A moveable is worth, strictly speaking, whatever someone else is willing to pay for it. Fungibility is the whole point of the…