engleski

The ritual executions of penalties and the criminal’s body as alternative media of communication in medieval European towns

It is obvious that a penalty is not only a retribution for the crime committed, but also a complex message about crime, justice, efficiency of the judiciary, penance, etc. which is expected to have a clear impact on the community. Because the message is formulated by the state institutions, the communication by penal ritual is extremely good documented in historical sources (law books, penal registers, chronicles, etc.). The mutilation of the criminal’s body or the disfiguration of his or her face by cutting off the nose or lip, pulling out the eyes, by branding mark, etc. can be interpreted as a very particular form of communication as—the mark on the body being permanent—the message is “auto-generated” in any new social occasion, and “readable” in a broad area of medieval Europe. Because of that, we can envisage the criminal’s body as an alternative medium of communication with specific features.

Dubrovnik; Europe; communication; punishment; mutilation

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