Università Roma Tre

The Government of Justice in Early Modern Italy

After a methodological introduction focused on the use of sources for the study of the history of the early modern age, the course will examine the government of justice in early modern Italy by conceiving it not only as the privileged framework of the process modern State building but also as a fundamental ground of social mediation. Particular attention will be paid to the Papal States during the sixteenth and the seventeenth century.

M.P. Paoli (a cura di), Nel laboratorio della storia. Una guida alle fonti dell’età moderna, Roma, Carocci Editore
M. Bellabarba, La giustizia nell’Italia moderna. XVI-XVIII secolo, Roma-Bari, Laterza
Fosi, La giustizia nella città del papa. Sudditi e tribunali nello stato pontificio in età moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza.

Ecclesiastical Justice and the marriage between Social Practices and Cultural Constructions

The sixteenth century is a turning point in the history of marriage. Fully confirmed by the Catholic Church in its sacramental character following the Prostestant radical questioning, tridentine marriage and the consequent draft regulation deeply marked not only the social structures of Ancien Régime Catholic Europe but also the properly cultural dimension. After the criminalization of concubinage and of any other "deviant" form of personal relationship and sexual practice, the Church and the States sought, through their repressive apparatus but also by producing legislation and doctrine, to transform these hidden areas into objects of knowledge and, therefore, to control and regulate them. In this way these institutions could exert a "power" that varied in space and time. Purpose of the course unit will be to provide important insights on the action of the ecclesiastical justice in the matrimonial sphere (marital violence, concubinage, recognition of the marriage bond, separations, bigamy, etc.) within the Italian peninsula from the XVth to the XVIIIth century.

D. Lombardi, Storia del matrimonio. Dal Medioevo a oggi, Bologna, Il Mulino.
C. Cristellon, La carità e l’eros. Il matrimonio, la Chiesa, i suoi giudici nella Venezia del Rinascimento (1420-1545), Bologna, Il Mulino.
M. Cavina, Nozze di sangue. Storia della violenza coniugale, Roma-Bari, Laterza.