Women and Violence in the Late Medieval Mediterranean, ca. 1100-1500

Lidia L. Zanetti Domingues holds a DPhil in History from the University of Oxford. She is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Università di Milano Statale. She held research positions in the UK, Canada, and Italy. Her work focuses on the influence of Christian spirituality on the development of criminal justice in the late medieval Italian communes. Lorenzo Caravaggi completed his doctorate at Balliol College, University of Oxford, with a thesis on the dynamics of peacekeeping in late-medieval Italy. He is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at The University of East Anglia, with a project on the ethical and literary underpinnings of criminal law in fourteenth-century Europe. Giulia Maria Paoletti holds an M.St. in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies DPhil in Medieval and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford. She was awarded an Ernst Mach Grant to work at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Her work focuses on Byzantine poetry, monastic literature and more broadly on the Palaiologan period.

• Introduction: Medieval and Modern Gender-Based ViolenceLidia L. Zanetti Domingues, Lorenzo Caravaggi, Giulia M. PaolettiPart I: Women and War1. "Both General and Lady": the 1135 Defence of Gangra by its Amira Maximilian Lau2. Representations of women’s violence in the epic: the female ‘furor’ in the Old French Guillaume d’Orange Cycle, the Byzantine Digenis Akritis and the Persian Shahnameh by Ferdowsi Nina Soleymani Majd3. Reflections on Women’s Behaviour in War Contexts in Communal Italy (Twelfth-Thirteenth centuries) Alberto Luongo4. À l’épreuve des guerres seigneuriales. Des rôles féminins dans la trame de l’Histoire de Corse (quinzième siècle)Lucie ArrighiPart II: Women and Criminal Courts5. Opportunities to Charge Rape in Thirteenth-Century Bologna Carol Lansing6. Legal regulation of sex crimes in medieval Serbia and its Mediterranean communes under its rule Nina Kršljanin7. Lascivious crimes and legitimate proofs: women and the juridical transformation of Norman and Staufen Sicily Philippa ByrnePart III: Violence and Female Social Roles8. La parrèsia comme expression de la violence féminine à Byzance Élisabeth Malamut9. Slavery and Violence Against Women in Renaissance Central ItalyLoek Luiten10. ‘With her aid, direction, and fervor’: Women and the Politics of Lordship in Fourteenth-Century Tuscany Joseph Figliulo-Rosswurm11. Gendering Crime in Byzantium: Abortion, Infanticide and Female Violence Stephanie NovasioConclusion Annick Peters-Custot