Now in its fifth edition, The Italian City Republics illustrates how, from the eleventh century onwards, many Italian towns achieved independence as political entities, unhindered by any centralising power. Until the fourteenth century, when the regimes of individual 'tyrants' took over in most towns, these communes were the scene of a precocious, and very well-documented, experiment in republican self-government. In this new edition, Trevor Dean has expanded the book's treatment of women and gender, the early history of the communes and the lives of non-elites. Focusing on the typical medium-sized towns rather than the better-known cities, the authors draw on a rich variety of contemporary material, both documentary and literary, to portray the world of the communes, illustrating the patriotism and public spirit as well as the equally characteristic factional strife which was to tear them apart. Discussion of the artistic and social lives of the inhabitants shows how these towns were the seedbed of the cultural achievements of the early Renaissance. The Bibliography has been updated to a list of Further Reading with the latest scholarship for students to continue their studies. Both students and the general reader interested in Italian history, literature and art will find this accessible book a rewarding and fascinating read.

Now in its fifth edition, The Italian City Republics illustrates how, from the eleventh century onwards, many Italian towns achieved independence as political entities, unhindered by any centralising power. Until the fourteenth century, when the regimes of individual 'tyrants' took over in most towns, these communes were the scene of a precocious, and very well-documented, experiment in republican self-government. In this new edition, Trevor Dean has expanded the book's treatment of women and gender, the early history of the communes and the lives of non-elites. Focusing on the typical medium-sized towns rather than the better-known cities, the authors draw on a rich variety of contemporary material, both documentary and literary, to portray the world of the communes, illustrating the patriotism and public spirit as well as the equally characteristic factional strife which was to tear them apart. Discussion of the artistic and social lives of the inhabitants shows how these towns were the seedbed of the cultural achievements of the early Renaissance. The Bibliography has been updated to a list of Further Reading with the latest scholarship for students to continue their studies. Both students and the general reader interested in Italian history, literature and art will find this accessible book a rewarding and fascinating read.

What is the difference between a stabbing in a tavern in London and one in a hostelry in the South of France? What happens when a spinster living in Paris finds knight in her bedroom wanting to marry her? Why was there a crime wave following the Black Death? From Aberdeen to Cracow and from Stockholm to Sardinia, Trevor Dean ranges widely throughout medieval Europe in this exiting and innovative history of lawlessness and criminal justice. Drawing on the real-life stories of ordinary men and women who often found themselves at the sharp end of the law, he shows how it was often one rule for the rich and another for the poor in a tangled web of judicial corruption.

This ambitious survey of lawlessness and legal retribution in medieval Europe ranges across the continent and Britain.

Providing much-needed synthesis of recent research and scholarship, Crime in Medieval Europe, 2e, presents case studies to open up areas for discussion and debate, draws attention to changing attitudes to and definitions of crime and examines social relations context in which crimes were committed. Trevor Dean uses court records to illuminate the lives of ordinary men and women, who often found themselves at the sharp end of law. Drawing on the proliferation of new sources now available on the subject, this is an original account of the creation, extension and aggravation of criminal law and its penalties, and the effects and responses they generated.

A collection that celebrates the research of Margaret Spufford, a "game-changing" historian who shifted the focus away from the political and social elite in urban communities to the "other 98%" in local and rural areas. This collection celebrates and evaluates the seminal research of Margaret Spufford, a leading historian of early modern English social and economic history. Spufford played a crucial role in the broadening of English social and cultural history, shifting the focus away from the political and social elite in urban communities to the "other 98%" in local and rural areas and challenging assumptions about the limited intellectual worlds of rural people. She was also an early historian of consumption patterns, whose work on the clothing trade remains the authoritative history of this industry and its consumers. Faith, Place and People in Early Modern England reassesses Spufford's contribution to the shape of historical study. Each chapter rethinks a key aspect of her work on local and rural communities: the value of particular historical records; the interactions between religious conformists anddissenters; social and religious change; credit and finance; clothing and consumption. Throughout, the contributors develop Spufford's model of integrating close community studies into a broader picture, while retaining an awareness of the singularity of individuals and localities. In doing so, the book indicates how far "Spuffordian" approaches can continue to shape the future direction of early modern history . TREVOR DEAN is Professor of History at the University of Roehampton; GLYN PARRY is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Roehampton; EDWARD VALLANCE is Professor of Early Modern British political culture at the University of Roehampton. Contributors: ADRIAN AILES, DAVID CRESSY, TREVOR DEAN, CATHERINE FERGUSON, HENRY FRENCH, STEVE HINDLE, CHRISTOPHER MARSH, GLYN PARRY, WILLIAM SHEILS, PETER SPUFFORD, DANAE TANKARD, EDWARD VALLANCE, PATRICIA WYLLIE

The towns of Italy in the later middle ages presents over one hundred fascinating documents, carefully selected and coordinated from the richest, most innovative and most documented society of the European Middle Ages. No other English language sourcebook has the same geographical or chronological range. This collection is carefully structured around the crisis of the fourteenth century and arranged in contrasting groups of texts. By connecting documents in translation to recent scholarship and debates, it addresses five key areas of medieval urban history: the physical environment, civic religion, economy, society and politics. Offers students well-translated and effectively contextualised documents along with some guidance to the secondary work of Italian scholars which is largely inaccessible to undergraduate students. -- .

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.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger PublishingA AcentsAcentsa A-Acentsa Acentss Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of intere

This book brings together challenging new essays from some of the leaders in Italian scholarship in three countries, to show the range of work that is currently being done not only on Florence but also on Naples, Ferrara and Lucca and on the relationship between cities and countryside.

It is rarely possible to write biographies of lay people who lived in the Middle Ages. While accounts of clerical, royal, and military life are many, the wider populace has remained in relative obscurity. In Clean Hands and Rough Justice: An Investigating Magistrate in Renaissance Italy, David S. Chambers and Trevor Dean present an extraordinary and previously unknown character from Renaissance Italy, Beltramino Cusadri (ca. 1425 1500). This judge was known as the ""terrible commissioner,"" and he spent most of his professional life acting as criminal investigator and legal adviser to two princely dynasties the Gonzaga of Mantua and the Este of Ferrara. The authors investigate and compare the judicial institutions and social conditions in which he worked, the criminal cases that he investigated, and his successes and failures. Their combined presentation of the figure and mentality of Beltramino amounts to something unprecedented in Italian Renaissance historiography: the portrait of a professional man, employed to combat rising crime but accused of corruption and tyranny by the entrenched interests that he faced. The book follows the major phases of Beltramino's career along with a broader exploration of the legal history of Renaissance Italy. In his long life Beltramino Cusadri wrote hundreds of letters to his employers, and it is upon these letters that this book is based. These letters, with their wry, colorfully worded expressions, are liberally quoted and provide unique insight into the career, activity, and attitudes of a major Renaissance bureaucrat. The letters of his employers in return, and of many other judges and officials, along with the evidence of legislation and prosecution, are also drawn upon to examine a variety of themes, from the progress of lawmaking and the pattern of criminality, to the problems of policing and the changing forms of punishment.

This collection of essays offers a unique contribution to the study of violence and justice in a late medieval and early modern Italy by combining a multivocal perspective with a case-study focus on the city-state of Bologna. Drawing on the city's singularly rich archival resources, the authors explore various facets of violence-ranging from the interpersonal to the less frequently studied typologies of blasphemy, rape, political rebellion, and student brawls-and set the institutions of the police and law courts into their socio-political and cultural contexts. They also apply a broad variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches-processual, microhistorical, legalism, comparative and criminological-to their assessments of the procedures and practices of criminal justice and the experiences of violent behavior, providing both short-term, in-depth analyses of specific events and over-arching reviews of long-term trends. Bologna itself, with its renowned university, economic innovations, strategic importance as a commercial and cultural crossroads, its political volatility and experiments with diverse constitutional structures, provides a rewarding laboratory for analyzing changes and continuities in late medieval and early modern violence and justice. From these studies emerges a narrative that challenges the traditional portrayal of those periods as eras when brutality and rage were "normal" in social relations and criminal justice was characterized mainly by punitive strategies of torture and repression.

In this important study, Trevor Dean examines the history of crime and criminal justice in Italy from the mid-thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth century. The book contains studies of the most frequent types of prosecuted crime such as violence, theft and insult, along with the rarely prosecuted sorcery and sex crimes. Drawing on a diverse and innovative range of sources, including legislation, legal opinions, prosecutions, chronicles and works of fiction, Dean demonstrates how knowledge of the history of criminal justice can illuminate our wider understanding of the Middle Ages. Issues and instruments of criminal justice reflected the structure and operation of state power; they were an essential element in the evolution of cities and they provided raw material for fictions. Furthermore, the study of judicial records provides insight into a wide range of social situations, from domestic violence to the oppression of ethnic minorities.

In this important new study, Trevor Dean examines the history of crime and criminal justice in Italy from the mid-thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth century. The book contains studies of the most frequent types of prosecuted crime such as violence, theft and insult, along with the rarely prosecuted sorcery and sex crimes. Drawing on a diverse and innovative range of sources, including legislation, legal opinions, prosecutions, chronicles and works of fiction, Dean demonstrates how knowledge of the history of criminal justice can illuminate our wider understanding of the Middle Ages. Issues and instruments of criminal justice reflected the structure and operation of state power; they were an essential element in the evolution of cities and they provided raw material for fictions. Furthermore, the study of judicial records provides insight into a wide range of social situations, from domestic violence to the oppression of ethnic minorities.

Marriage in the European past was a controlled social institution: parents arranged marriages, the interests of the family were put before those of the individual, and women were expected to be married. This book sets out to explore the consequences of the institution of marriage, especially for women, while also trying to suggest that it had limits. This more critical stance distinguishes this book from the few others available in English on marriage in the late medieval/early modern period, especially as regards Italy.

This volume puts crime and disorder in Renaissance Italy firmly in its political and social context. The contributors include English, Italian, American and Australian scholars. The volume focuses on new material and addresses all stages in the judicial process from the drafting of laws to the rounding up of bandits. The articles range geographically across most of the peninsula. This is the only single-volume treatment available on the subject in English.

Among the many states of late medieval Italy, one stands out for its unfamiliarity to an English audience and for its neglect in historical research: that of the Este family, lords (later Dukes) of the cities of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio in northern Italy. This book is the first modern attempt to provide a detailed analysis of the political structure of this state based on archive sources. Much of the book is concerned with the ways by which the Este used their vast landed resources in and around Ferrara to build up and reinforce their personal political authority both within and outside their dominions. Among the major themes examined are the continuing presence of political feudalism in the relations between the Este and their supporters, the place of the court in Ferrarese noble society, and the violent imposition of Este authority over the powerful nobles of the Apennine hills.

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.