The thesis presents a case of infanticide in a small Venetian town of Este, submitted to the Paduan court in 1754. Infanticide is placed within the broader European context of the era in order to aid in presenting both the incipient convergence of legal reform as well as specific divergence pertaining to penal law. The crime is also contextualized within Venetian law which is, unlike most other contemporary European legal systems, not based on Roman law. The main part is dedicated to the construction of the perpetrator of infanticide through court hearings on the two primary suspects. Special scrutiny is allotted to maidservants and their profession, to personal honor, to community relations, and to gossip and its role within the community. The chief aim of the thesis is to present the power of gossip to construct images of suspected infant killers, shed light on the multiplicity of layers to this specific type of crime, and list the main motivations behind the decision to perform an infanticide.
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