514 claudio povolo
act recording the peace he had made with the kin of the man he had
killed. the court therefore initiated the customary legal procedures by
publicizing del fabro’s request with a notice affixed to the public log-
gia of tolmezzo, a copy of which was also sent to the village where the
victim’s family lived. since no one was opposed, the judges pronounced
the final decision. adamo del fabro was absolved from the penalty of
banishment and was permitted to return to the entire territory of carnia.
however, a small fine was imposed, along with the requirement that he
reimburse the court for the trial costs. immediately after the sentencing,
adamo del fabro went to the city cathedral where he solemnly swore
before the altar of st Martin that he would respect the ancient laws of the
community regarding absolution from banishment. these laws provided
that, even after making peace with the offended parties, a banished per-
son could freely reenter the territories from which he had been forbidden
only after swearing a solemn oath that he would follow and respect the
values of the community.1
as these two episodes demonstrate, in the period between the end of
the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, there were forms of conflict
resolution still in active use that were pervaded by the cultural system of
kinship and by judicial mechanisms whose goals were defending ancient
communal jurisdictional privileges and keeping the peace between dif-
ferent social groupings. in these forms of justice, ancient rituals aimed
at regulating feuds between enemy lineages had combined with learned
practices developed by jurists who had been intellectually and cultur-
ally shaped in italian universities by formulas drawn from roman law.2
cultural values such as honor, reputation, charity, and enmity interacted
intensely with the many and varied aspects of violence as well as with the
community’s demands for social order and justice.3 this conception of
1 claudio Povolo, Retoriche giudiziarie, dimensioni del penale e prassi processuale nella
Repubblica di Venezia: da Lorenzo Priori ai pratici settecenteschi, in L’amministrazione della
giustizia penale nella Repubblica di Venezia (secoli XVI–XVIII), vol. 2: Retoriche, stereotipi,
prassi, ed. g. chiodi and c. Povolo (Verona, 2004), pp. 54–56, 132, 137.
2 on the relationship between the cultural aspects of feud and the concept of vendetta,
as it was used in the Middle ages and the early modern period, see stuart carrol, Blood
and Violence in Early Modern France (oxford, 2006), pp. 5–10; Marco gentile, La vendetta
di sangue come rituale. Qualche osservazione sulla Lombardia fra Quattro e Cinquecento,
in f. salvestrini and g.M. Varanini – a. Zangarini, eds., La morte e i suoi riti in Italia tra
Medioevo e prima età moderna (firenze, 2007), pp. 209–13. ‘feud and blood feud between
customs and legal process in medieval and early modern europe. a legal anthropological
approach’, forthcoming essay edited by the croatian academy of history of Zagreb.
3 for france in the medieval period, see esther cohen, esther cohen, The Crossroads of
Justice: Law and Culture in Late Medieval France (Leiden, 1993), pp. 70–73.