Evidence, Crime, and Forensics in the Early Modern Mediterranean

Lu Ann Homza is a professor of history at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Her books include Religious Authority in the Spanish Renaissance (2000), The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614: an Anthology of Sources (2006), Village Infernos and Witches’ Advocates: Witch-Hunting in Navarre, 1608-1614 (2022), and The Child-Witches of Olague (2024).Amanda L. Scott is an associate professor of history and women, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State University. She has published articles in, among others, The Journal of Social History, Renaissance Quarterly, The Sixteenth Century Journal, and Church History. Her previous publications include The Basque Seroras: Local Religion, Gender, and Power in Northern Iberia, 1550-1800 (2020).

• IntroductionPart I: Legal and Intellectual FoundationsChapter 1On the Inquisition in SpainGretchen D. Starr-LeBeauChapter 2On the Roman Inquisition: Uncertainty and DiscretionVincenzo LaveniaChapter 3On Forensic Medical EvidenceBradford A. BouleyPart II: Urban ViolenceChapter 4On Homicide in BolognaColin RoseChapter 5On homicide, forensic practice, and forensic discourse in MadridBlanca Llanes ParraChapter 6On Feuding in VeniceAndrew VidaliPart III: Gendered ViolenceChapter 7On Spousal Murders and Honor Killings in SpainEdward Behrend-MartínezChapter 8On Infanticide in SpainJodi CampbellChapter 9On Miscarriage and Assault in Early Modern RomeJohn ChristopoulosPart IV: Special VictimsChapter 10On Children in SpainLu Ann HomzaChapter 11On Sex Crimes in ItalyCeleste I. McNamaraChapter 12On the Blind and Disabled in SpainAmanda L. ScottChapter 13On the UndeadFrancesco Paolo de Ceglia

‘A beautifully nuanced yet incisive overview of the cultural and social dimensions of law and courts in the early modern Mediterranean. The highly original chapters maintain an impressive balance between theory and practice and offer many valuable insights on the very nature of early modern law in the real world’ - Joel F. Harrington, Vanderbilt University.‘Where ordinary folk crossed paths with the tribunals, both the men and women of early modern Spain and Italy and the men of law themselves developed canny ways of gathering, reading, and deploying evidence to deal with crimes and to navigate delinquency's great web of social and institutional concerns. Legal matters had their subtle epistemologies and rhetorics, both official and lay. In this book, skilled scholars explore those modes of legal knowing and disputing, engaging, inter alia, the abuse of children, the authority of disabled witnesses, the credibility of midwives as expert witnesses where miscarriages were provoked by violence, the growing authority of medical expertise, plus awkward peace-making between unequals, seduction and abandonment, infanticide, spousal murder, the Inquisition's evolving take on witchcraft, the elaborate procedures of Bologna's highest court, and, in an Eastern European excursion, villagers' panicky responses to their ungrateful un-dead. This lively collection, rich and varied, is an open-minded, handy tour of current work and an entry point to the many lines of investigation of an archival record as rich and varied as it is piquant and beguiling’ - Thomas V. Cohen, York University, Toronto (emeritus).