In the early modern period, textuality was the preeminent aspect of law. However, legal texts contain numerous clues that suggest the existence of a visual dimension in early modern legal practice. Decoding a codified grammar of signs on the defendant’s body allowed to discover the defendant’s lies. But more importantly, it helped to read their inclination to crime. In this article, I argue that the «physiognomic mentality», which was widespread in the century of dissimulation and deceit, took on a special importance in the early modern courtrooms. Looking at the practicae criminales, and at Fisionomia Naturale (1606) by the Venetian jurist and bishop Giovanni Ingegneri († 1600), I make some hypotheses about the criteria that guided jurists and judges in performing the visual judgment in the early modern age.

Fisiognomica e diritto: il giudizio visivo nella prima età moderna / Bragagnolo, Manuela. - In: ANNALI DELL'ISTITUTO STORICO ITALO-GERMANICO IN TRENTO. - ISSN 0392-0011. - STAMPA. - 2021, 47:2(2021), pp. 93-113. [10.7387/102358]

Fisiognomica e diritto: il giudizio visivo nella prima età moderna

Bragagnolo, Manuela
2021-01-01

Abstract

In the early modern period, textuality was the preeminent aspect of law. However, legal texts contain numerous clues that suggest the existence of a visual dimension in early modern legal practice. Decoding a codified grammar of signs on the defendant’s body allowed to discover the defendant’s lies. But more importantly, it helped to read their inclination to crime. In this article, I argue that the «physiognomic mentality», which was widespread in the century of dissimulation and deceit, took on a special importance in the early modern courtrooms. Looking at the practicae criminales, and at Fisionomia Naturale (1606) by the Venetian jurist and bishop Giovanni Ingegneri († 1600), I make some hypotheses about the criteria that guided jurists and judges in performing the visual judgment in the early modern age.
2021
2
Bragagnolo, Manuela
Fisiognomica e diritto: il giudizio visivo nella prima età moderna / Bragagnolo, Manuela. - In: ANNALI DELL'ISTITUTO STORICO ITALO-GERMANICO IN TRENTO. - ISSN 0392-0011. - STAMPA. - 2021, 47:2(2021), pp. 93-113. [10.7387/102358]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/329002
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