Murder and Madness on Trial
eBook - ePub

Murder and Madness on Trial

A Tale of True Crime from Early Modern Bologna

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Murder and Madness on Trial

A Tale of True Crime from Early Modern Bologna

About this book

On October 24, 1588, Paolo Barbieri murdered his wife, Isabella Caccianemici, stabbing her to death with his sword. Later, Paolo would claim to have acted in a fit of madness—but was he criminally insane or merely pretending to be? In this riveting book, Mònica Calabritto addresses this controversy by reconstructing Paolo's life, prosecution, and medical diagnoses.

Skillfully combining archival documents unearthed throughout Italy, Calabritto brings to light the case of one person and his family as insanity ravaged their financial security, honor, and reputation. The very notion of insanity is as much on trial in Paolo's case as the defendant himself. A case study in the diagnosis of insanity in the early modern era, Barbieri's story reveals discrepancies between medical and legal definitions of a person's mental state at the time of a crime. Murder and Madness on Trial bridges the micro-historical dimensions of Paolo's murder case and the macro-historical perspectives on medical and legal evidence used to identify intermittent madness.

A tragic and gripping tale, Murder and Madness on Trial allows readers to look "through a glass darkly" at early modern violence, madness, criminal justice, medical and legal expertise, and the construction and circulation of news. This erudite and engaging book will appeal to early modern historians and true crime fans alike.

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Yes, you can access Murder and Madness on Trial by Mònica Calabritto in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Geschichte & Frühneuzeitliche Geschichte. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. List of Illustrations
  7. List of Actors
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. List of Abbreviations
  10. Introduction
  11. 1. Prologue to a Murder
  12. 2. Medicine and Law on Trial
  13. 3. Insanity on Trial
  14. 4. Witnessing and Chronicling
  15. 5. The Aftermath
  16. Conclusion
  17. Notes
  18. Bibliography
  19. Index