Habitual Offenders: A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeen

Description: Habitual Offenders by Craig A. Monson In April 1644, two nuns fled Bolognas convent for reformed prostitutes. A perfunctory archiepiscopal investigation went nowhere, and the nuns were quickly forgotten. By June of the next year, however, an overwhelming stench drew a woman to the wine cellar of her Bolognese townhouse, reopened after a two-year absence—where to her horror she discovered the eerily intact, garroted corpses of the two missing women. Drawing on over four thousand pages of primary sources, the intrepid Craig A. Monson reconstructs this fascinating history of crime and punishment in seventeenth-century Italy. Along the way, he explores Italys back streets and back stairs, giving us access to voices we rarely encounter in conventional histories: prostitutes and maidservants, mercenaries and bandits, along with other "dubious" figures negotiating the boundaries of polite society. Painstakingly researched and breathlessly told, Habitual Offenders will delight historians and true-crime fans alike. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Craig A. Monson is the Paul Tietjens Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University in St. Louis and the author of Nuns Behaving Badly and Divas in the Convent, also published by the University of Chicago Press. He lives in St. Louis. Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Cast of Characters Timeline Introduction Bologna 1 Airing Dirty Linen 2 A Tale of Two Sisters 3 The Soldier of Misfortune and the Tailors Son 4 A Grave Mistake 5 Pas devant les Domestiques 6 Novus Homo 7 Light at the Top of the Stairs Rome 8 Dragnet 9 Cat and Mouse Games 10 Home Court Advantage Bologna 11 "In This Town Theyre All Malicious Liars!" 12 "I Dont Know This Suor Laura Vittoria!" 13 "Se Sar Review "Craig Monsons most recent foray into the dalliances of early modern Italian nuns, Habitual Offenders, represents another remarkable feat of archival research and historical reconstruction. By combining court testimony and local gossip, high and low culture, Monson provides a detailed and carefully documented glimpse into the underbelly of Italian politics, religion, convent life, and intrigue."-- "Annali ditalianistica""Monsons Habitual Offenders is an enthralling amalgam of sex, violence, and scholarship. At the center of the story are the abduction and murder of two reformed prostitute nuns in Bologna in April of 1644. From this relatively banal event, the ramifications spread ever more widely, involving priests, nobles, cardinals, a king, and finally the pope himself. The most harrowing chapter of the story describes in detail the judicial murder of a prisoner by the illegal use of enhanced interrogation techniques. Plus ça change. . . ."-- "Frederick Hammond, author of Music and Spectacle in Baroque Rome""The authors meticulous archival documentation, however, reveals the intricate real life of the times, complete with bunglers, semi-innocent victims, common soldiers, shopkeepers, petty nobles, nuns, prostitutes, and priests, as well as members of the high nobility and church officials. . . . The books content might interest folklorists researching street culture, youth gangs, criminal organizations, fascist or other mushrooming political movements, evangelists, behind-the-scenes power mongers, and military or factional conflict of any kind." -- "Journal of Folklore Research""The book is finely evocative of matters of life on the streets of Bologna and much else at the time. . . . [It] offers countless insights into its characters and their actions in a carefully constructed historical context." -- "The Historian""The range of sources gives us an ever clearer sense of the contortions, conflicts, and contradictions of the early modern judicial process. . . . Monson details how diverse convent communities were, disrupting early modern prescriptions and modern assumptions alike." -- "Renaissance Quarterly""Unorthodox but engaging . . . . Habitual Offenders stands as an engaging and promising example of accessible scholarship that combines deep archival work with narrative panache." -- "Comitatus" Review Quote "Unorthodox but engaging . . . . Habitual Offenders stands as an engaging and promising example of accessible scholarship that combines deep archival work with narrative panache." Details ISBN022633533X Author Craig A. Monson Short Title HABITUAL OFFENDERS Language English ISBN-10 022633533X ISBN-13 9780226335339 Media Book Format Hardcover Year 2016 Imprint University of Chicago Press Subtitle A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy Place of Publication Chicago, IL Country of Publication United States Pages 344 Illustrations Yes Publication Date 2016-05-03 UK Release Date 2016-05-03 NZ Release Date 2016-05-03 US Release Date 2016-05-03 Publisher The University of Chicago Press DEWEY 364.15230945411 Audience Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly AU Release Date 2016-05-02 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161785489;

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