Monograph

Storie di vita e di malavita. Criminali, poveri e altri miserabili nelle carceri di Milano alla fine del medioevo

  • Marina Gazzini,

The volume deals with an uncommon theme in medieval history: the prison and its inhabitants. In the medieval prison, the prisoners - waiting for their sentence, or imprisoned for debts, or because socially dangerous or found guilty of a crime - were not abandoned to themselves; families, the Church, devout lay people and public authorities took charge of their needs. In the case of Milan, the prison system and the relationship between prisoners, justice and mercy takes on particular nuances. Prisons (including private ones) are numerous and scattered throughout the city: the largest is a prison-hospital, which certainly imprisons, but suggests that it is useful (for economic reasons) to help the survival of the offender and their return to society. The citizens of Milan in the 15th Century are also aware of the risks of abandoning prisoners (men and women) to a justice that, for its costs, only protects the strongest. Here are the Protectors of prisoners: useful not only to the weak ones in prison, but also to the Dominus, who supports them. The duke, interested in correcting the system excesses, is also (and perhaps above all) eager to show himself merciful, and as such superior to the law. Investigating the condition of prisoners thus proves to be a way to grasp not only the dynamics of social exclusion and inclusion relevant to the control of deviance, but also the mechanisms of relationship between rulers and subjects in the late Middle Ages.

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Marina Gazzini

University of Parma, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0001-7100-1244

Marina Gazzini (Milan, 1965) teaches medieval history at the University of Parma. Her scientific interests focus mainly on the history, religion and economics of medieval society. Her publications include the monographs "Dare et habere". Il mondo di un mercante milanese del Quattrocento, (The world of a fifteenth-century Milanese merchant) Florence 2002, and Confraternite e società cittadina nel medioevo italiano, (Confraternities and town society in the Italian Middle Ages) Bologna 2006; she also edited Studi confraternali: orientamenti, problemi, testimonianze, (Confraternity studies: orientations, problems, testimonies) Firenze 2009, and with A. Olivieri, L’ospedale, il denaro e altre ricchezze (The hospital, money and other wealth). Scritture e pratiche economiche dell’assistenza in Italia nel tardo Medioevo, (Writings and economic practices of assistance in Italy in the late Middle Ages) in “Reti Medievali - Rivista”, 17/1 (2016).
PDF
  • Publication Year: 2017
  • Pages: 224
  • eISBN: 978-88-6453-615-6
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2017 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2017
  • eISBN: 978-88-9273-139-4
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2017 Author(s)

PRINT
  • Publication Year: 2017
  • Pages: 224
  • ISBN: 978-88-6453-614-9
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2017 Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Storie di vita e di malavita. Criminali, poveri e altri miserabili nelle carceri di Milano alla fine del medioevo

Authors

Marina Gazzini

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

224

Publication Year

2017

Copyright Information

© 2017 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6453-615-6

ISBN Print

978-88-6453-614-9

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-6453-615-6

eISBN (xml)

978-88-9273-139-4

Series Title

Reti Medievali E-Book

Series ISSN

2704-6362

Series E-ISSN

2704-6079

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