90033 - History of Justice from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Age (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module the student understands the plural character of justice and law from the late Middle Ages to the early modern age; he knows the systems of repression, the rites of justice and the categories of crimes and knows also how to evaluate the contribution of religious culture, of the classical legacy and of the growing state organization on the practices of justice of the ancient regime. The student is familiar with the juridical and theological vocabulary of the early modern age, knows how to place and compare his expressions in different European contexts and knows how to recognize the impact that the juridical tradition of the early modern age had on the following centuries. He is also able to critically organize his research work on sources and historiography using appropriate language

Course contents

The course aims to reconstruct the history of justice in the Western world from the late Middle Ages to the early modern age. Particular attention will be devoted to the history of criminal justice and the trials for so-called enormous crimes.

These are some of the topics that will be covered during the lessons:

Legal pluralism after the 11th century

Justice and the city

The justice of the Church and the crimes of heresy

The inquisitorial procedure

Enormous crimes, exceptional crimes

Political justice, "hegemonic" justice

The formation of State justice

Rituals and practices of peace

Rituals and practices of mercy

Rituals of condemnation

The birth of the centralized Catholic Inquisitions

Justice, honor and crime in the early modern age

The proof: law and medicine

The penalties: death, confiscation, infamy, galleys, prison

Representations of justice

Readings/Bibliography

All students, whether attending or not, should study the following texts:

Paolo Prodi, Una storia della giustizia. Dal pluralismo dei fori al moderno dualismo tra coscienza e giustizia,Bologna, il Mulino, 2000, capitoli I-VI

Marco Bellabarba, La giustizia nell’Italia moderna, XV-XVIII secolo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2008

Elena Brambilla, La giustizia intollerante. Inquisizione e tribunali confessionali in Europa, secoli IV-XVIII,Roma, Carocci, 2006

Students who do not attend should add one of the following texts:

1. Adriano Prosperi, Giustizia bendata. Percorsi storici di un’immagine, Torino, Einaudi, 2008

2. Brian Levack, La caccia alle streghe in Europa agli inizi dell’età moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012

3. Alessandro Pastore, Il medico in tribunale. La perizia medica nella procedura penale d'antico regime (secoli XVI-XVIII), Bellinzona, Casagrande, 2008

4. Ottavia Niccoli, Perdonare. Idee, pratiche, rituali in Italia tra Cinque e Seicento, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007

5. Michel Foucault, Sorvegliare e punire. Nascita della prigione, Torino, Einaudi, 1976

6. Diego Quaglioni, La giustizia nel medioevo e nella prima età moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014

7. Irene Fosi, La giustizia del papa. Sudditi e tribunali nello Stato pontificio in età moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007

8. Natalie Zemon Davis, Storie d'archivio. Racconti di omicidio e domande di grazia nella Francia del Cinquecento,Torino, Einaudi, 1992

9. Mario Sbriccoli,Crimen laesae maiestatis. Il problema del reato politico alle soglie della scienza penalistica moderna, Milano, Giuffrè, 1974

10. Leonida Tedoldi, La spada e la bilancia: la giustizia penale nell'Europa moderna (sec. 16-18), Roma, Carocci, 2008

Teaching methods

The teacher will use texts and images to get the students able to reading the sources and to understanding the representations in history. Any teaching materials will be made available online in the appropriate section of the University's website

Assessment methods

The oral examination will take place in the exam sessions provided at the end of the course.To evaluate the exam, the teacher will take into account the student's ability to master the contents of the course, to understand the historical concepts, to orientate himself in the bibliography, to know how to read a source, to connect the informations acquired, to expose what he has learned in a synthetic way and with an appropriate language. The student who will meet these demands will have an excellent mark. The student who will simply repeat the informations acquired in a mnemonic way and with a language not entirely adequate will have a discreet evaluation. The student who will show that he knows the contents superficially and with some gaps, using an inappropriate language, will have a sufficient evaluation. The student unprepared and incapable of orientation in the subject will have a negative evaluation.

Instead of studying the texts adopted for the exam, attending students can choose to write a paper (max 50,000 characters) on a topic covered in this part of the course or in the entire integrated course (in this case the topic must be agreed upon with the two teachers, Lavenia and Sofia). The evaluation of the essay will depend on its originality and its critical depth.

The vote of the integrated course "History of justice" (12 CFU) will result from the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in this module and in that of prof. Sofia

Teaching tools

Attendance of the course may also include participation in seminars promoted by the teacher and visits to archives and libraries to contact the sources on the subject kept in the city of Bologna and its surroundings. The Internet will be used to access sites that contain manuscript sources, images, texts and materials of interest.

Office hours

See the website of Vincenzo Lavenia