Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T20:21:55.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The Uses of the Law

from Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2023

Stuart Carroll
Affiliation:
University of York
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores the ways in which law and violence were co-ordinates in the pursuit of everyday enemies. Contrary to what we might expect from Europe’s most civilised region, early modern Italy experienced rates of violence that were far higher than its neighbours. The problem was not due to lawlessness. Italy’s highly developed legal systems and bureaucratic mechanisms of state control were widely admired by contemporaries. There was not too little bureaucracy and litigation but rather too much. It remains commonplace to ascribe the early modern Italian problem of violence to a variety of cultural reasons, a hangover from the Middle Ages, a consequence of the climate or the product of so-called ‘Mediterranean’ values. But vendettas were neither inevitable nor interminable. Late medieval cities developed a panoply of judicial and extrajudicial forums for settling disputes and the ideals of police and good government were medieval in origin. This chapter takes a closer look at how the law and legal system shaped vendetta.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Uses of the Law
  • Stuart Carroll, University of York
  • Book: Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe
  • Online publication: 12 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009287319.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Uses of the Law
  • Stuart Carroll, University of York
  • Book: Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe
  • Online publication: 12 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009287319.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Uses of the Law
  • Stuart Carroll, University of York
  • Book: Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe
  • Online publication: 12 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009287319.003
Available formats
×