This invaluable collection explores the many faces of murder, and its cultural presences, across the Italian peninsula between 1350 and 1650. These shape the content in different ways: the faces of homicide range from the ordinary to the sensational, from the professional to the accidental, from the domestic to the public; while the cultural presence of homicide is revealed through new studies of sculpture, paintings, and popular literature. Dealing with a range of murders, and informed by the latest criminological research on homicide, it brings together new research by an international team of specialists on a broad range of themes: different kinds of killers (by gender, occupation, and situation); different kinds of victim (by ethnicity, gender, and status); and different kinds of evidence (legal, judicial, literary, and pictorial). It will be an indispensable resource for students of Renaissance Italy, late medieval/early modern crime and violence, and homicide studies.
Author(s): Trevor Dean / Katherine J. P. Lowe (eds.)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: XIV+312
Illustrations page vii
Contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introducing Renaissance Killers / TREVOR DEAN AND KATE LOWE 1
Part I. Domestic Murder
1. The First Murder: The Representation of Cain and Abel in Bologna, Florence and Bergamo / SCOTT NETHERSOLE 15
2. Knives and Poisons: Stereotypes of Male Vendetta and Female Perfidy in Late Medieval Sicily, 1293–1460 / HENRI BRESC 41
3. A Daughter-Killing Digested, and Accepted, in a Village of Rome, 1563–1566 / THOMAS V. COHEN 62
Part II. Ordinary Murder
4. Eight Varieties of Homicide: Bologna in the 1340s and 1440s / TREVOR DEAN 83
5. Homicide in a Culture of Hatred: Bologna 1352–1420 / SARAH RUBIN BLANSHEI 106
Part III. Sensational Murder
6. Truths and Lies of a Renaissance Murder: Duke Alessandro de’ Medici’s Death between History, Narrative and Memory / STEFANO DALL’AGLIO 125
7. 'O Facinus Inauditum' (O Horrendous Crime): Anthropophagy in Renaissance Milan / SILVIO LEYDI 144
8. Murder Ballads: Singing, Hearing, Writing and Reading about Murder in Renaissance Italy / ROSA SALZBERG AND MASSIMO ROSPOCHER 164
Part IV. Unclassifiable Murder
9. Redrawing the Line between Murder and Suicide in Renaissance Italy / KATE LOWE 189
10. Violent Conflicts and Murder Involving Jews in Renaissance Italy / ANNA ESPOSITO 211
11. Poison and Poisoning in Renaissance Italy / ALESSANDRO PASTORE 228
Part V. Professional Murder
12. Mass Murder in Sacks during the Italian Wars, 1494–1559 / STEPHEN BOWD 249
13. Legal Homicide: The Death Penalty in the Italian Renaissance / ENRICA GUERRA 269
14. Butchers as Murderers in Renaissance Italy / C. D. DICKERSON III 289
Index 309
