| Habitual Offenders: A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy Contributor(s): Monson, Craig A. (Author) |
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ISBN: 022633533X ISBN-13: 9780226335339 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $42.57 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2016 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - Italy - History | Women - Religion | Christian Church - History |
| Dewey: 364.152 |
| LCCN: 2015039579 |
| Physical Information: 1.1" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (1.30 lbs) 344 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Italy - Religious Orientation - Catholic - Religious Orientation - Christian - Sex & Gender - Feminine - Chronological Period - 17th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In April 1644, two nuns fled Bologna's 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 Italy's 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Monson, Craig A.: - Craig A. Monson is Paul Tietjens Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught for thirty years. He also taught at Yale University and Amherst College. He has authored or edited many books. |