Nefarious Crimes, Contested Justice Ferraro, Joanne M. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press Ferraro, Joanne M. Nefarious Crimes, Contested Justice: Illicit Sex and Infanticide in the Republic of Venice, 1557–1789. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Project MUSE. doi:10.1353/book.60321. https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/60321 [ Access provided at 30 Sep 2021 06:50 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Nefarious Crimes, Contested Justice Nefarious Crimes, Contested Justice Illicit Sex and Infanticide in the Republic of Venice, 1557–1789 JOANNE M. FERRARO The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. © 2008 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2008 Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Ferraro, Joanne Marie, 1951– Nefarious crimes, contested justice : illicit sex and infanticide in the Republic of Venice / Joanne M. Ferraro. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-8018-8987-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-8018-8987-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Sex customs—Italy—Venice—History. 2. Fornication—Italy—Venice—History. 3. Unmarried mothers—Italy—Venice—History. 4. Illegitimate children—Italy— Venice—History. 5. Infanticide—Italy—Venice—History. 6. Criminal justice, Administration of—Italy—Venice—History. I. Title. hq18.i75f47 2008 306.73'6094531109031—dc22 2008006606 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Frontispiece: Artemisia Gentileschi (1597–1651), Susanna and the Elders (1610). Oil on canvas. 170 × 119 cm. Kunstsammlungen Graf von Schönborn, Schloss Weissenstein, Pommersfelden, Germany, Inv. No. 191. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or [email protected]. The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever possible. All of our book papers are acid-free, and our jackets and covers are printed on paper with recycled content. contents List of Illustrations vii Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii 1 Sex and Subjection in the Republic of Venice 1 2 Family Secrets: Father- Daughter Incest 27 3 Hidden Crimes in a Noble Household 86 4 Infant Deaths and Community Secrets 116 5 Defying Scandal: Priests and Their Lovers 158 6 Conclusion 200 Notes 207 Bibliography 229 Index 239 This page intentionally left blank illustrations The Church of Santa Maria della Pietà, Venice; site of the foundling home 8 The rotating cradle of Santa Maria della Pietà, Venice 9 Map of the Republic of Venice in the eighteenth century 16 Gabriele Bella, Sala della Quarantia Criminale 17 Gabriele Bella, Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci 17 Orazio Gentileschi, Lot and His Daughters (ca. 1622) 31 Guido Reni, Portrait of Beatrice Cenci 33 Facsimile of the bishop of Belluno’s request that the Venetian governors intervene in the alleged sexual abuse of Osvaldo de Vei’s daughters 72 Francesco Guardi, The Parlatory of the Nuns of San Zaccaria, Venice 98 Predrag Prtenjacˇa, Calle dei Groppi, Venice 119 Pietro Uberti, Portraits of Three Avogadori 121 Artemisia Gentileschi, The Penitent Mary Magdalen 167 vii This page intentionally left blank preface In Artemisia Gentileschi’s Susanna and the Elders (frontispiece), painted in 1610, when the Roman artist was still in her teens, two old men seek to pressure a young married woman to have sex with them. The woman is clearly saying no. The story was a popular subject in baroque painting, but Gentileschi (1593–1652 / 53) offers a unique portrayal of it.1 In the original narrative in the biblical apocrypha (Daniel 13 in the Vulgate; at the beginning of Daniel in the Greek Bible), the prowlers spring upon the bathing wife of Joachim and threaten to ruin her reputation if she does not grant them her sexual favors. Susanna refuses to submit, and the men retaliate by proclaiming that she has committed adultery with a fi ctitious young man. She is condemned to death, but is subsequently acquitted after the prophet Daniel determines that the Elders are lying. Her repu- tation remains intact, and the men are convicted of false testimony and executed.2 The narrative served baroque viewers on many levels. Many paint- ers used it as a pretext to depict a female nude. However, the story also warned against the iniquity of adultery and upheld the idea of chastity. Furthermore, in legal disputes, it was a model image for the ideal that jus- tice would discover the truth, which applied not just to women but also to men (see chapter 5). Artemisia’s Susanna makes a powerful statement about the values of her age. Repudiating the repugnant men, who tower over her, the distraught Susanna reminds viewers that a woman’s sex- ual reputation is an important determinant of her external social worth. Her inner anguish dominates her facial expression. The hovering sexual predators, on the other hand, expect to keep the indecent proposition a secret and to use lethal slander as a weapon of extortion. In their intimate relations with women, men of the baroque age, like these overly confi dent Elders, held both social and legal advantages. Like the story of Susanna and the Elders, the small dramas recounted in ix this study recall the teetering balance of power between women and men whose sexual behavior came before the courts. The gendered assumptions that ascribed both weakness and uncontrollable sexuality to women and patriarchal privilege to men reinforced women’s legal vulnerability. The judicial inquiries that unfolded in Venice and its regional dominions over the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries depict how a few ordinary people solved diffi cult problems that continue to stir heated controversy in our own age. Sex outside of marriage, abortion, infanticide, incest, and child abandonment raise questions of universal relevance. What are the roles of organized religion, the secular state, and neighborhood communities in defi ning morality and the public good? How does the physical body socially defi ne a woman? Who has the right to control a woman’s body? To regulate reproduction? To oversee the welfare of children? Every soci- ety has grappled with these issues, although the legal, social, and medical circumstances have, of course, differed. How did ordinary people in early modern Venice and its regional ter- ritories perceive sexual behavior and reproduction outside of marriage? The protagonists of these fascinating stories include state magistrates and functionaries; confessors and their supervising bishops; urban and rustic neighbors from the laboring classes; family and kin; and the trans- gressive men and women themselves. The archival documents afford the opportunity to hear them express their views in their own voices. Yet the texts must be interpreted with caution, for contemporary law and the complexities of the inquisitorial process shaped their rhetoric. More- over, the reconstructions of these lives have inevitably passed through my own fi lter. The characters’ plights frequently took me to the limits of the historian’s craft. Seeking to detect emotions where the historical record is silent, I was forced to keep watch over my own sentiments. The discourse in these archival texts is about external, social currency, not the psyche. It took considerable thought on my part to decide whether I wanted to write about the chilling sex crimes I discovered in the depositories of the Venetian State Archives. Incest and infant death are not pleasant subjects, either for postmodern detectives of the historical past or for readers. Nor are the dilemmas of abandoned expectant mothers. These were serious human problems; more often than not, too, they were well- kept family secrets. Today, they afford us an opportunity to refl ect on the impact of x Preface laws aimed at circumscribing sexual behavior and protecting patriarchy within the context of a family and inheritance system that restricted mar- riage. I hope that the cases I have translated and reconstructed in this book may further our understanding of the role culturally constructed laws and societal norms that hinge on gender play in our own life experi- ences, as well as in the lives of men, women, and infants of the past. Preface xi This page intentionally left blank acknowledgments I was richly supported throughout the many phases of this project. My frequent visits to the Venetian archives over the past three decades were funded through various sources, including San Diego State University, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through- out this time, I had the steadfast support and friendship of Michela Dal Borgo, a senior archivist in Venice whose fi eld of research is the docu- mentation of the Council of Ten. Michela introduced me to the Delegated Criminal Inquiries of this magistracy. As I pondered my readings, I turned to Claudio Povolo, professor of history at the University of Venice, who is an expert in the criminal laws