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4. One community's secret : incest and infanticide in the late sixteenth-century VenetoJoanne Marie Ferraro, 2007, original scientific article Abstract: For six years one small community of rustics working on a Venetian patrician's landed estate in the province of Padua kept a horrible secret: one of the field workers was fathering children with his daughter and then murdering them. A bounty hunter, hungry for a cash reward, turned the village gossip to his advantage, denouncing the affair to the Venetian Podestà, who set out to punish the "monstruous delinquents and abominable sinners" and restore Divine Law. This article analyzes the criminal inquiry, highlighting the testimonies of the accused, their neighbors, and their kin to reveal the ambiguities surrounding deviant behavior. The Venetian Podestà could not comprehend why no one, including the village priest, had denounced such obviously grave crimes to the state. Community members, on the other hand, were intent on keeping the incest and infanticide a secret because cohesion was more important to their collective livelihood and reputation than abuse and sin Keywords: family secrets, infanticide, gossip, community solidarity, perceptions of behaviour Published in RUP: 10.07.2015; Views: 3246; Downloads: 13 Link to full text |
5. L'amaro caso della signora di Carini : rappresentazioni di un delitto d'onore del XVI secoloEnza Pelleriti, 2007, original scientific article Abstract: The atrocious murder of Laura Lanza La Grua, Lady Carini, during the evening of 4 December, 1563, was rapidly shrouded with mystery and concealed truths, and thus rapidly transformed into a legend. The course of popular fantasy accompanied the official memory in a kind of common conspiracy of silence in protection of the reputation of one of the most important families of the Sicilian dominant class. The event happened at the Carini Castle when Sicily was under the rule of Spanish viceroys and their feudal lords. The actors were: don Cesare Lanza, his son-in-law Vincenzo La Grua Talamanca, and wife of the latter, Laura, who seemed to have given her heart to her cousin Ludovico Vernagallo, a rich landowner. The murder of Laura Lanza can undoubtedly be described as a crime of honour. According to the old law of marital honour, which can be traced in the famous "Lex Iulia de adulteriis" of Roman law, and, as well - borrowed from the constitution of Federico II - in the rules of Ruggero II: "Si maritus uxorem in ipso actu adulterii depraehenderit tam uxorem quam adulterum occidere licebit, nulla tamen mora protracta". Therefore, a husband who surprised his wife and her lover in an obvious act of adultery could kill them both. These were the texts that Cesare Lanza, Laura's father, relied on in a statement made to King Phillip II when admitting his act. Concurrently, the story of Lady Carini also depicts the complex nature of family relations in the Sicilian society during the old regime. Examining a variety of sources that have delineated its historiographic profile, here the story will be visited again. Not only will the interpretations that followed the tragic event be presented, but the importance of judicial, literary, and visual representations, whose integrated analysis can supplement missing information in the construction of a never ascertained truth, covered with a veil of family honour and interpretations produced by a kind of anthropological romanticism will also be researched. Keywords: crime of honour, family Sicily, 16th century Published in RUP: 10.07.2015; Views: 2927; Downloads: 38 Link to full text |
6. Il notaio, la società e la mediazione in età moderna nelle storiografie francese e italiana : un confrontoLucien Faggion, 2008, original scientific article Abstract: Il notaio, la societa e la mediazione in eta moderna nelle storiografie francese e italiana Keywords: anthropology, arbitrator, consent, culture, family, notary, mediation, negotiation, exchange Published in RUP: 10.07.2015; Views: 2328; Downloads: 10 Link to full text |
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