engleski

At the Edge of the Law: Socially Unacceptable and Illegal Behaviour in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

The publication contains selected papers from a conference held in Zagreb (in the Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb) in 2009, dealing with social aspects of law and illegal behaviour in the medieval and early modern period. The main goal was to gather papers on a topic that has not been researched enough amongst Croatian historians, that is, the socially unacceptable and illegal behaviour of individuals who were “walking at the edge of the law.” The general idea was also to present various research questions at the intersection of social and legal history, from the problem of feuding in medieval society to the various types of delinquency by pilgrims. The emphasis was put on the Croatian territory in the Middle Ages (from Slavonia to Istria and Dalmatia) and set in a broader (East) Central European context. The articles follow a chronological sequence, starting from the High Middle Ages, with a particular focus on the late medieval and early modern period. This collection of articles tries to popularise the topics for one plain purpose, that is, to erase the border between history and legal studies, since until now one cannot actually speak of “interdisciplinarity, ” but only of looking at many research problems from various reference points. The first paper is by Damir Karbić, who deals with the use of violence as a means of obtaining justice and re-establishing order, which was one of the peculiarities of the medieval legal system when compared with Roman law. After presenting different cases of feuds in Croatian sources, he discusses, how medieval communal legislation treated feuds as a separate legal institute, using the example of the city statutes of Split. Marija Karbić concentrates on the ways in which women from the medieval urban settlements of the Sava and Drava interamnium came into conflict with the law by various criminal actions, from insults or brawls to abortion and murder. She connects those problems with the economic situation of these women, basing the analysis mainly on theft and prostitution cases. The women were sometimes punished severely, but sometimes pardoned or punished minimally. The problem of gambling along the eastern Adriatic coast is the research subject of Sabine Florence Fabijanec. She analyses the urban statutory regulations stretching from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. She deals with the adoption of legal provisions against gambling and shows the diversity of approach to gambling from city to city. Gerhard Jaritz analyses the interdependence between late medieval material culture, human behaviour, religious discourse, and legal culture using the example of actions connected with superbia that played a role in public urban arguments. The secular authorities emphasized moral, national, and religious components, highlighting the necessity of averting God’s wrath. The perception of the behaviour of pilgrims is the topic of Zoran Ladić’s contribution. He shows, in contrast to the idealized vision of pilgrimages and pilgrims, that pilgrimages made by average medieval or early modern believers were also considered superstition and that the pilgrims often engaged in fights, robberies, prostitution, and other forms of delinquent behaviour. Paul Freedman offers an article on late medieval and early modern public acts of torture and execution, which were carefully choreographed events whose solemnity and meticulous preparation made the infliction of mutilation and death horrifyingly impressive. He also concentrates on the various topoi of peasant rebellion as described by literate contemporaries, such as rape, murder, cannibalism, the roasting of victims, and so on. Lovorka Čoralić deals with Croats accused in the records of the Venetian Inquisition. Four types of accusation can be recognized: conversion to Islam, Protestantism, the use of magic, and conduct considered improper for clergymen (priests and other members of religious orders). The last article is by Slaven Bertoša, dealing with poor social conditions in Istria in the early modern period that led to hunger, poverty, depopulation, and general insecurity, which in turn provoked dangerous behaviour, robbery, and murder. Capital crimes were under the jurisdiction of the Potestà and Captain of Koper or, respectively, the Captain of Rašpor with his seat in Buzet. The village communities were also starting to organize themselves by introducing patrols, although in a modest way.

social history; legal history; gender history; crime; extrajudicial settlement; social unrest; Croatia; the Middle Ages; the Early Modern Period

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