Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Usage
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Police Power in the Italian Communes
- 2 Police Discretion and Personal Autonomy
- 3 The Logic of Third-Party Policing
- 4 External Threats: Policing Out-Groups and Criminality
- 5 Internal Threats: Policing Violence and Enmity
- 6 The Social Impact of Third-Party Policing
- Conclusion
- About the author
- Index
5 - Internal Threats: Policing Violence and Enmity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Usage
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Police Power in the Italian Communes
- 2 Police Discretion and Personal Autonomy
- 3 The Logic of Third-Party Policing
- 4 External Threats: Policing Out-Groups and Criminality
- 5 Internal Threats: Policing Violence and Enmity
- 6 The Social Impact of Third-Party Policing
- Conclusion
- About the author
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Chapter 5 shows how third-party policing worked to regulate and suppress interpersonal violence. The arms-bearing laws allowed the authorities to target feuding men and to intervene in volatile situations before enemies came to blows. Likewise, the arms permit system allowed the familia, through random stops, to discipline a broad swath of the male population that was likely to engage in feud. The chapter argues further that the regulation of arms-bearing was part of a broader legislative program that aimed to restrict the right to use violence to legitimate public collectives such as popular militias. Beyond suppressing feud-related violence, the communes’ preventive policing sought to prevent enmity itself, since local enmities were known to undermine political stability.
Keywords: vendetta, hatred, monopoly on violence, musical serenades, mourning laws, festivities
In April 1290, Bettino di Megliodeglialtri Ricci confessed in court that he had tried to frame his enemies from the Boattieri clan for assault. As described in his sentence, Bettino first bloodied his hand with a knife and then went into the Boattieri's neighborhood to pick a fight. He surprised Baldo and Giacomo Boattieri from behind, provoking one of them to shove him and say, “What are you doing in this neighborhood?” This was precisely the reaction Bettino was hoping for. Now that they had “come to words” and made physical contact, Bettino held up his bleeding hand and cried out that he had been wounded. From there it is unclear how Bettino landed in court, but evidently his ruse was not very convincing. He confessed that he had contrived this plot with one of Tommaso Ricci's sons after the notary Giacomo Biasmaltorti—later identified as a partisan (ex parte) of the Boattieri clan—had Bettino accused by Giacomo Boattieri and Corso Guglielmi of some unspecified crime. These details suggest that Bettino was pursuing a vendetta through criminal accusations instead of direct violence—a vendetta that involved family friends, not just blood relatives. In light of this confession, the podestà found Bettino guilty of attempting to frame his enemies “falsely, maliciously, and against the truth” and “against the good and peaceful state” of the commune.
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- Police Power in the Italian Communes, 1228–1326 , pp. 217 - 266Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019