A Renaissance of Violence
Homicide in Early Modern Italy

This in-depth analysis of homicide patterns in seventeenth-century Italy explores the social contexts behind a sharp rise in interpersonal violence.

Colin Rose (Author)

9781108498067, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 October 2019

264 pages, 38 b/w illus. 2 maps
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'… Renaissance of Violence is not only an excellent study of homicidal violence, but also a useful model for future studies in the field …' Peter Sposato, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books (Rutgers)

Based on a close examination of more than 700 homicide trials, A Renaissance of Violence exposes the deep social instability at the core of the early modern states of North Italy. Following a series of crises in the early seventeenth century, interpersonal violence in the region grew to frightening levels, despite the efforts of courts and governments to reduce social conflict. In this detailed study of violence in early modern Europe, Colin Rose shows how major crises, such as the plague of 1630, reduced the strength of social bonds among both elite and ordinary Italians. As a result, incidents of homicidal violence exploded - in small rural communities, in the crowded urban center and within tightly-knit families. Combining statistical analysis and close reading of homicide patterns, Rose demonstrates how the social contexts of violence, as much as the growth of state power, can contribute to explaining how and why interpersonal violence grew so rapidly in North Italy in the seventeenth century.

1. Introduction
2. The tower of justice
3. Homicide in Bologna, 1600–1700
4. Gender and homicide in early modern Bologna
5. The days after no future: post-plague homicides in rural Bologna
6. It's good to have land: the defense of noble privilege through violence
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Violence in society [JFFE], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]