Zanzanù

The book is published at the initiative of Tignale Municipality (Brescia) to commemorate the 4th centenary of the cruel battle which took place on the 17th August 1617 in the mountains above. A day which was soon recorded in the majestic ex-voto describing the death of the great outlaw Giovanni Beatrice (Zanzanù), which occurred between the two streams in the Monible valley, and today preserved in the Madonna di Montecastello sanctuary-

Il libro è pubblicato su iniziativa del comune di Tignale (Brescia) per ricordare il quarto centenario della cruenta battaglia svoltasi il 17 agosto 1617 nei monti soprastanti. Un giorno che, di lì a poco, venne ricordato nel maestoso ex-voto ancor oggi esistente nel santuario della Madonna di Montecastello, in cui è descritta la morte del grande fuorilegge Giovanni Beatrice (Zanzanù), avvenuta tra i due ruscelli che scendono lungo la valle delle Monible.

The story of Zanzanù is symbolically the history of the birth of  outlaw imagine in early modern age. Zanzanù firstly became a 'bandit' because he received a banishment penalty owing to the killing of a member of a rival family. But then, unable to establish a peace with his enemies, he couldn't return to his village and he followed a vengeance for his father killing. Survived to several ambushes of his enemies and of bounty killers who chased him, he soon entered the  dimension of myth until he died the 17th of august 1617 in a bloody battle which lasted a full day.

La breve e lunga esistenza di Giovanni Beatrice fu contraddistinta da fasi che, in successione, possono essere considerate paradigmatiche nella costruzione del mito del fuorilegge. La prima, caratterizzata dalla serie cruenta di vendette si concluse nel 1607 con l’uccisione dello storico nemico Riccobon Sette. Pur personalmente colpitoda numerose sentenze di bando, in realtà Giovanni Beatrice si era sempre mosso all’interno della cosiddetta banda Zanoni, guidata dallo zio Giovan Francesco.
L’agguato di Riva, nel febbraio del 1609, lo isolò e lo spinse probabilmente a
cercare un rifugio e delle protezioni che lo allontanarono dai luoghi in cui era nato e vissuto; anche se, tra il 1610 e il 1611, di seguito all’abbattimento della sua casa di Gargnano, compì gli ultimi e clamorosi atti di sfida.
Gli anni successivi al febbraio del 1609 sono però comprensibili solo se vengono considerati alla luce di quanto si era svolto nel periodo che va dal giugno del 1607, contrassegnato dall’uccisione di Riccobon Sette, all’agguato notturno da cui Giovanni Beatrice riuscì a sfuggire tuffandosi nelle acque del lago dall’imbarcazione che si stava avvicinando a Riva del Garda. Un periodo breve, ma intenso, durante il quale la banda Zanoni si mosse spavaldamente sul bacino del lago dedicandosi apertamente all’attività di contrabbando, ma anche contrapponendosi a irriducibili e pericolosi nemici. Nel corso di quei diciannove mesi l’azione repressiva delle istituzioni veneziane contribuì all’affermazione di una nuova narrazione, che fu probabilmente decisiva nel determinare non solamente il sanguinoso agguato di Riva, ma pure la successiva biografia del bandito Giovanni Beatrice. Una biografia che,
entrando nella dimensione del mito, sarebbe stata successivamente raccontata avvalendosi di un codice interpretativo complesso e contraddittorio

The book is published at the initiative of Tignale Municipality (Brescia) to commemorate the 4th centenary of the cruel battle which took place on the 17th August 1617 in the mountains above. A day which was soon recorded in the majestic ex-voto describing the death of the great outlaw Giovanni Beatrice (Zanzanù), which occurred between the two streams in the Monible valley, and today preserved in the Madonna di Montecastello sanctuary. Giovanni Beatrice, similarly to his uncle Giovan Francesco Beatrice
called Lima, can be considered a symbolic figure of banditry, which was widespread in many Mediterranean countries in modern history. The strong repressive actions carried out against him contributed somehow
to further foster his bandit fame, which over his lifetime had grown so much that allowed him to go down in myth. The humblest people on the Western cost of Lake Garda found in him a steady beacon.

First of all, the banishment penalty reflected the political and constitutional European polycentrism and its interrelations with a society for a long time animated by conflicts between factions and family groups. To reach a lasting peace between the opponents was indeed an essential moment of the vendetta system, as much as ensuring tranquillity and the safekeeping of the community’s values. The system was endowed with a pronounced juridical dimension and it interacted, on the constitutional level, with the role played by the courts and, in particular, trial and customary rites. These were aimed to manage conflicts between opposite groups by pulling away the one who broke social stability through banishment, if necessary.
During the Sixteenth century, a series of important social, demographic and economic problems sensibly reshaped the conception of social control and order, and the long-established management of penal justice as well. The banishment penalty, no longer embedded in its traditional constitutional dimension and harshened both in its repressive and rewarding aspects, became an efficient instrument to impose a different political legitimacy. Faced with these transformations, bandits quickly took the physiognomy of actual outlaws, painted as political opponents and, as such, to be dealt with any repressive instrument available.

The paper dwell upon the ambush that some vicious merchants of the Lake of Garda organized in the night of february 13rd 1609 against the bandit Giovanni Beatrice (Zanzanù) and his companions at Riva del Garda. The story is narrated in the dossier kept in the Venetian archive of Frari and instructed by the bounty killers recruited by Alberghino Alberghini and other merchants of Salò and Desenzano.

First of all, the banishment penalty reflected the political and constitutional European polycentrism and its interrelations with a society for a long time animated by conflicts between factions and family groups. To reach a lasting peace between the opponents was indeed an essential moment of the vendetta system, as much as ensuring tranquillity and the safekeeping of the community’s values. The system was endowed with a pronounced juridical dimension and it interacted, on the constitutional level, with the role played by the courts and, in particular, trial and customary rites. These were aimed to manage conflicts between opposite groups by pulling away the one who broke social stability through banishment, if necessary.
During the Sixteenth century, a series of important social, demographic and economic problems sensibly reshaped the conception of social control and order, and the long-established management of penal justice as well. The banishment penalty, no longer embedded in its traditional constitutional dimension and harshened both in its repressive and rewarding aspects, became an efficient instrument to impose a different political legitimacy. Faced with these transformations, bandits quickly took the physiognomy of actual outlaws, painted as political opponents and, as such, to be dealt with any repressive instrument available.

Giovanni Beatrice peut être considéré, à bon escient, comme une figure emblématique du monde du banditisme que l’on retrouve dans de nombreux pays du bassin méditerranéen à l’Époque moderne. La forte action répressive menée contre ce personnage contribua, dans un certain sens, à faire grandir son image de hors-la-loi dont il finit, déjà de son vivant, par incarner le mythe. Un mythe qui traversa les siècles. La preuve en est le majestueux ex-voto conservé au sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de Montecastello à Tignale, le long de la rive occidentale du lac de Garde.