liturgies of violence 537
the provisions for order and safety decided by the community. back in
1754, during the festivities for the patron saint of the village, disorder had
led to the death and injury of some of the inhabitants. the community
had thus decided to prohibit public celebrations held in private houses.
the only person who had broken this rule was Pietro englaro, who in
1770 and again in 1775 not only openly violated the prohibition but even
attacked the community leaders who rebuked him and enjoined him not
to continue the practice on pain of punishment. but it had been no use.
to the contrary, englaro showed a stubborn inclination to fight, accom-
panied by more generally libertine and insolent behavior. he furthermore
lodged in his house vagabonds and idlers who were generally thought to
be responsible for the numerous thefts that had been taking place in the
village. the community representatives held that this state of affairs had
to end and decided to ask the Venetian representative at udine to inter-
vene and take vigorous steps against Pietro englaro.53
events like these in Paluzza in september 1775 also occurred in other
settlements in the Veneto and Lombardy plains, and from across the
region the authorities received requests for intervention against individu-
als, particularly young men, who had proven unable to follow the rules
established to ensure public tranquility or who displayed attitudes anti-
thetical to community values. these requests finally compelled the Vene-
tian senate to take action against these so-called malviventi, those who,
according to the resulting law, were reluctant to work to obtain their daily
bread and were instead given over to vice and loose living. the law thus
channeled the demands for a social and public order hostile to attitudes
that might threaten the tranquility of the community.54 these entreaties
evidently came from groups of notables who were no longer willing to
tolerate the irreverent or threatening behavior that had long been a part
of communal rituals and festivities. this was an irruption of the private
53 claudio Povolo, “uno sguardo rivolto alla religiosità popolare: l’inchiesta promo-
ssa dal senato veneziano sulle festività religiose (1772–1773),” in s. Marin, ed., Il culto dei
santi e le feste popolari nella Terraferma veneta. L’inchiesta del Senato veneziano (1772–1773)
(Vicenza, 2007), pp. lv–lix.
54 on a new perception of certain youthful attitudes in england beginning in the last
decades of the 18th century, see Peter King, Crime and Law in England, 1750–1840: Remak-
ing Justice from the Margins (cambridge, 2006), pp. 106–08. for Venice, see francesca
Meneghetti casarin, I Vagabondi: La società e lo stato nella repubblica di Venezia alla fine
del ’700 (Milan, 1985); and for germany, hans Medick, “Village spinning bees: sexual cul-
ture and free time among rural Youth in early Modern germany,” in h. Medick and
d. w. sabean, eds., Interest and Emotion: Essays on the Study of Family and Kinship (cam-
bridge, 1984).