This pioneering work explores the theme of women and violence in the late medieval Mediterranean, bringing together medievalists of different specialties and methodologies to offer readers an updated outline of how different disciplines can contribute to the study of gender-based violence in medieval times.
Building on the contributions of the social sciences, and in particular feminist criminology, the book analyses the rich theme of women and violence in its full spectrum, including both violence committed against women and violence perpetrated by women themselves, in order to show how medieval assumptions postulated a tight connection between the two. Violent crime, verbal offences, war and peace-making are among the themes approached by the book, which assesses to what extent coexisting elaborations on the relationship between femininity and violence in the Mediterranean were conflicting or collaborating. Geographical regions explored include Western Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world.
This multidisciplinary book will appeal to scholars and students of history, literature, gender studies, and legal studies.
Author(s): Lidia L. Zanetti Domingues, Lorenzo Caravaggi, Giulia M. Paoletti
Series: Studies in Medieval History and Culture
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 292
City: London
Cover Page
Half Title Page
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents Page
List of contributors Page
Acknowledgements Page
Introduction: Medieval and modern gender-based violence
Part I Women and war
1 ‘Both general and lady’: the 1135 defence of Gangra by its Amira
2 Representations of women’s violence in the epic: the female ‘furor’ in the old French Guillaume d’Orange Cycle, the Byzantine Digenis Akritis and the Persian Shahnameh by Ferdowsi
3 Reflections on women’s behaviour in war contexts in communal Italy (twelfth–thirteenth centuries)
4 À l’épreuve des guerres seigneuriales. Des rôles féminins dans la trame de l’Histoire de Corse (quinzième siècle)
Part II Women and criminal courts
5 Opportunities to charge rape in thirteenth-century Bologna
6 Legal regulation of sex crimes in medieval Serbia and the Mediterranean communes under its rule
7 Lascivious crimes and legitimate proofs: women and the juridical transformation of Norman and Staufen Sicily
Part III Violence and female social roles
8 La parrèsia comme expression de la violence féminine à Byzance
9 Slavery and violence against women in Renaissance Central Italy
10 ‘With her aid, direction, and fervor’: women and the politics of lordship in fourteenth-century Tuscany
11 Gendering crime in Byzantium: abortion, infanticide, and female violence
Conclusion: women and violence in the Mediterranean, ca. 1100–1500. A few conclusive reflections from the Medieval past to our days
Index
