Crime and Justice in Late Medieval Italy
Trevor Dean, Roehampton University, London
Cambridge University Press, August 2007, ISBN-13: 9780521864480 (Also available in eBook format), £58.00
Présentation éditeur
In this important new study, Trevor Dean examines the history of crime and criminal justice in Italy from the mid-thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth century. The book contains studies of the most frequent types of prosecuted crime such as violence, theft and insult, along with the rarely prosecuted sorcery and sex crimes. Drawing on a diverse and innovative range of sources, including legislation, legal opinions, prosecutions, chronicles and works of fiction, Dean demonstrates how knowledge of the history of criminal justice can illuminate our wider understanding of the Middle Ages. Issues and instruments of criminal justice reflected the structure and operation of state power; they were an essential element in the evolution of cities and they provided raw material for fictions. Furthermore, the study of judicial records provides insight into a wide range of social situations, from domestic violence to the oppression of ethnic minorities.
- Includes evidence from the whole of Italy and therefore avoids the dominant historiography’s focus on Florence and Venice
- Combines factual and fictional, judicial and narrative sources
- Contains some interesting and colourful cases such as skilful thieves, sacrilegious sex and inventive tricksters
Contents Introduction; 1. Trial records; 2. Chronicles; 3. Fiction; 4. Statute law; 5. Consilia; 6. Insult and revenge; 7. Sex crimes; 8. Poisons and potions; 9. Violence; 10. Theft.
Source: http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521864480
