Women and Violence in the Late Medieval Mediterranean, ca. 1100–1500: conference to book
What began as a two-day conference in 2019 has now developed into an edited volume exploring the relationship between women and violence in the middle ages.
Dr Lidia Zanetti Domingues, Dr Giulia Maria Paoletti and Dr Lorenzo Caravaggi have consolidated the themes of the original conference, which was supported by TORCH, Oxford Medieval Studies, the Maison Française d’Oxford, the UMR Orient- Mediterranée Monde Byzantin, and the Royal Historical Society, in a new book published by Taylor and Francis.
The book explores the theme of women and violence in the late medieval Mediterranean, bringing together medievalists of different specialties and methodologies to offer readers an updated outline of how different disciplines can contribute to the study of gender-based violence in medieval times.
Building on the contributions of the social sciences, and in particular feminist criminology, the book analyses the rich theme of women and violence in its full spectrum, including both violence committed against women and violence perpetrated by women themselves, in order to show how medieval assumptions postulated a tight connection between the two. Violent crime, verbal offences, war and peace-making are among the themes approached by the book, which assesses to what extent coexisting elaborations on the relationship between femininity and violence in the Mediterranean were conflicting or collaborating. Geographical regions explored include Western Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world.
In addition, Dr Lidia Luisa Zanetti Domingues, who worked as TORCH’s International Officer whilst completing her DPhil, has recently published her thesis monograph with OUP. Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy: Siena, 1260-1330 also investigates themes of violence and criminality in the middle ages.
We are delighted to have been able to support Dr Domingues, Dr Paoletti and Dr Caravaggi in what proved to be a hugely fruitful conference, and would like to congratulate them on their exciting new work.
