Homicide in North Italy: Bologna, 1600–1700 by Colin Samuel Rose A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Colin Rose (2016) Homicide in North Italy: Bologna, 1600 – 1700 Colin Rose Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2016 Abstract The North Italian Papal State of Bologna suffered high and at times increasing rates of interpersonal homicide throughout eleven sampled years of the seventeenth century. The powerful criminal court of Bologna, the Tribunale del Torrone, prosecuted homicides as capital crimes through the deployment of inquisitorial process and a public image of impartial justice; but its officers remained unable to overcome deep impulses to revenge and vendetta among the various populations of the city and hinterland. In sentencing homicides, judges erred on the side of exile over execution, and when judges attempted to condemn participants in vendetta to death, they found themselves made party to revenge violence. The court’s inability to effectively police interpersonal violence was indicative of a developing state whose institutions and social structures were failing. Socio-economic crises of the early-seventeenth century contributed to this deteriorating situation. In particular, the Great Plague of 1630 overturned social norms and, in the “world upside down” that followed, ordinary Bolognesi of the contado committed more homicides in pursuit of ii gain or in protection of fragile resources. The stresses of endemic rural poverty bore heavily on rural violence. From rural bases, republican and oligarchic factions of urban nobility launched a renewed assault on papal authority in the mid-sixteenth century. A civil war broke out in the city’s streets, and homicide rates peaked at levels exceeding any thus far documented in early modern Europe. Officers of government bodies and of the criminal court were killed on multiple occasions. This dissertation contextualizes these trends through interdisciplinary approaches to the history of violence and homicide in the west, and by qualitative analysis of patterns emerging from quantitative data collection. By combining these two approaches, the massive wave of mid- century violence is placed into a long history of Bologna’s failure to establish a meaningful civil society. iii To Sarah Blanshei, maestra in archivio. iv Acknowledgments Homicide would not have happened without the support and assistance of a great number of friends, family and funding bodies, all of whom have contributed in various material and immaterial ways. I received financial support in the form of a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a Michael J. Smith Travel Supplement from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The University of Toronto provided various small conference and travel grants over the years. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Dr. Edward Muir supported my attendance at the Academy for the Advanced Study of the Renaissance and were more than generous. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation provided a final-year Dissertation Fellowship that gave me the luxury of time to write and think. My sincere gratitude for the generosity of all of these bodies. Agli archivisti e funzionarii dell’Archivio di Stato di Bologna: tante grazie e ogni debito. Questa tesi non sarebbe mai cominciata, ne finita senza l’inesauribile entusiasmo e assistenza di tutti voi. Spero che il risulto vi piace. Many thanks in particular to Giancarlo and Laborio. Long may North Americans receive such kind welcomes in your care. Grazie anche a Prof. Giancarlo Angelozzi. Many thanks to the Rose family: my parents David and Patricia, my sister Rebecca and my brother Simon. Just as many thanks to the Robins family: Brad and Andrea, in-laws-extraordinaire; Brittny, Kayla, Sierra, Molly and Rhodora. Family was invaluable in providing all kinds of support throughout the writing of this dissertation. To my colleagues in the GHS at the University of Toronto: so long, and thanks for all the fish. To the myriad colleagues made through the DECIMA project: this has been a lot of fun, and we’re not done yet. Stay tuned! To the staff and fellows of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, for long friendships and collegiality. To the staff of the History Department at the University of Toronto, who are always helpful and happy to be so. Many, many thanks to Drs. Edward Muir and Regina Schwartz, and the entire membership of the Academy for the Advanced Study of the Renaissance, for friendship and for critical readings of chapters and arguments along the way. To Drs. John Christopoulos and Vanessa McCarthy, for friendship and guidance through the PhD. Couldn’t have done it without you two! v To my dissertation committee: thank you for careful reading and gentle criticism. It has been a pleasure working with you all and I look forward to continuing conversations. To Dr. Stuart Carroll for external review. To Dr. Gregory Hanlon, who deserves much credit for pushing me towards this project in the first place, and for teaching me the skills and habits of an effective archival historian. To Madison: for the next project, I promise to listen to your suggestions the first time. Thank you for being by my side these past five years. To Dr. Sarah Blanshei, to whom I dedicate this work. She deserves more gratitude than can be offered here. She is a mentor and a friend and I am utterly in her debt. Finally, to Dr. Nicholas Terpstra, maestro and doktorvater. I introduced myself to Nick by asking him out-of-the-blue for a summer research job in 2006. I still look fondly on his very tactful refusal to employ a nineteen-year-old who read no Italian. He suggested instead that I might be interested in an independent study on Renaissance executions, and ten years later, here we are. Grazie, Nick. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................. v List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................................... x List of Appendices .......................................................................................................................................... xiv 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Interpreting Early Modern Violence .............................................................................................. 4 1.1.1 Counting the Dead: The Long-Term Decline ............................................................... 5 1.1.2 Civilizing Process ................................................................................................................. 8 1.1.3 Social Strategists ................................................................................................................. 10 1.1.4 Ritual and Performance .................................................................................................... 14 1.1.5 Cultures of Violence and Peacemaking........................................................................ 19 1.1.6 Gender and Masculinity ................................................................................................... 24 1.2 The Scene of the Crime: Seventeenth Century Bologna ......................................................... 31 1.3 Defining and Prosecuting Homicide ............................................................................................ 39 1.4 Method and Sources ........................................................................................................................ 48 1.5 The Shape of Homicide in Early Modern Bologna ...................................................................56 2 The Tower of Justice .................................................................................................................................. 61 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 61 2.2 Origins and Structure .......................................................................................................................65 2.3 Procedure ............................................................................................................................................ 74 2.4 The Public Trust: Reforming the Torrone ................................................................................... 87 2.5 The View from 1620: The Torrone Ascendant ........................................................................... 98 2.6 Reform ................................................................................................................................................. 99 vii 2.7 State Homicide: Executions 1600-1700 ...................................................................................... 104 2.8 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 115 3 Homicide in Bologna, 1600-1700 ........................................................................................................... 117 3.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................