Giustizia e crimine nel Mantovano del tardo Settecento

Justice and Crime in Late Eighteenth-Century Mantua This essays starts with a general survey of the radical reforms of justice carried out in Austrian Lombardy during the reign of Joseph II, including the restructuring of courts and the adoption of a new regulation for criminal trials (the Norma interinale del processo criminale, published in 1786). It then focuses on the functions and activities of the Appellation and other Courts in the province of Mantua, a territory comprising 218.000 inhabitants. On the basis of rich archival sources, the author depicts the range of crimes brought to trials and of the punishments inflicted; he also illustrates the working of criminal procedure in a short, but eventful stretch of time (1789-1796). The analysis of individual criminal cases and of the statistical tables periodically drawn up by judges directs our attention to the underlying social and economic problems, magnified by the difficulties of the time both in Lombardy and in Europe as a whole. Offenses against property tend to grow in number; they are usually committed by poor peasants, handworkers or vagrants and are invariably dealt harsh sentences; begging is more and more widespread, violence is rife in families and communities; riots are not infrequent, especially against Jewish minorities. In spite of the shortage in 210 EMANUELE PAGANO ASL11 - 07 Pagano:ASL08 - 0x 8-11-2011 10:43 Pagina 210 bureaucratic and police personnel, the Mantual magistracy swiftly deals with a growing number of trials (thousands of trials in a few years) and succeeds in coping with crime repression without giving up respect for procedure and for the basic rights of defendants