liturgies of violence 515
justice was widespread in most of europe,4 even if at the time of the two
episodes recounted above, other forms of justice that were more severe
and less inclined to accommodate kinship-based conflicts were emerg-
ing with force.5 in carnia and the feudal jurisdictions of friuli, partly
because of a lack of strong urban centers capable of asserting the author-
ity of their courts and laws, traditional forms of justice based on medi-
eval legal procedures and the values that underlay them persisted with
particular vigor.
Practices and Cultural Aspects of Justicethe administration of civil and criminal justice took highly varied forms
in the territories that had become part of the Venetian state, first in the
overseas dominion and, beginning in the 15th century, in the mainland
dominion. the articles of submission adopted by each mainland city that
had ratified Venice’s rapid territorial expansion had not substantially
altered the strong local autonomy and existing forms of government. the
Venetian patricians who were periodically appointed by the great coun-
cil to govern the numerous subject cities were bound for the most part
to observe local statutes and customs. the two patricians sent every 16
months to the most important cities as podestà and captain had legal,
civil, and military functions, but they worked within the existing institu-
tions and urban magistracies. and the judges who in the politically more
important cities formed their small retinue (corte pretoria) carried out
their activities within the various urban institutions and under the names
of ancient communal offices.6
Like other italian states, the Venetian state was thus a composite state,
heterogeneous and composed of large and small centers, each with its
own distinctive features. institutional historians have labeled it a stato
giurisdizionale, or “jurisdictional state.” this is a state in which the whole
had to take into account the existence of a large number of individual
4 bruce Lenman and geoffrey Parker, The State, the Community and the Criminal Law in
Early Modern Europe, in V.a.c. gatrell, b. Lenman, and g. Parker, eds., Crime and the Law:
The Social History of Crime in Western Europe since 1500 (London, 1980), pp. 11–16.
5 Pieter spierenburg, Social Control and History: An Introduction, in herman rooden-
burg and Pieter spierenburg, eds., Social Control in Europe, vol. 1: 1500–1800 (columbus,
2004).
6 gaetano cozzi, Repubblica di Venezia e stati italiani. Politica e giustizia dal secolo XVI
al secolo XVIII (turin, 1982), pp. 217–318. and for a general picture, see gaetano cozzi and
Michael Knapton, Storia della Repubblica di Venezia. Dalla guerra di Chioggia alla ricon-
quista della Terraferma (turin, 1986).