Crimini contro le donne. Storie di violenza nel Mezzogiorno medievale

The essay aims, through the study of published and unpublished documentation of the peninsular and insular South, to focus the violence perpetrated against women in different contexts both urban and rural of the late Middle Ages. The use of violence appears to be frequent, especially in cases of treason and concubinage, that see also implicated other members of the families involved. Conjugal violence, with various facets, occupies most of the documentation examined: a violence often accepted socially to which women knew in some cases to react, turning to justice. The royal privileges, finally, show the lenient position of highest authority even than the heinous crimes in a scenery which confirms, with few exceptions, the limited protection of the lives of women of all ranks and social context.