banishment in early modern age

In the spring of 1583, Nicolò Cassich was killed in the field church in Murvica located in the vicinity of the town of Pag. Cassich had been banished in 1579 on the charge of having posted a libello famoso (defamatory leaflet) against a representative of Venice to the island. The investigation launched by the local authorities promptly revealed that the killing had been carried out by Zuanne Pastorcich, himself a bandit, who intended to avail himself of the benefits provided by law and request his release from the banishment penalty. To that end, Pastorcich presented the head of the bandit on the pietra del bando in the town square, so that it could be identified by some witnesses, who readily made themselves available. But as the authorities proceeded with such identification, a woman stepped out from the crowd that had flooded the square. She removed Cassich’s head from the stone and took it to the main church in town. The authorities’ efforts to recover it were futile, and the incident evinced that the killing of Nicolò Cassich in that small church had created a deep rift within the community. And although Pastorcich eventually obtained the bounty he had claimed, the killing was deemed a genuine desecration, and that sacred place was interdicted from divine worship for several years.

Nella primavera del 1583 Nicolò Cassich venne ucciso nella chiesa campestre di Murvica, posta nelle vicinanze della città di Pago. Il Cassich era stato bandito  nel 1579 con l’accusa di aver affisso un libello famoso contro il rappresentante veneziano dell’isola. Il processo avviato dalle autorità locali rivelò da subito che l’uccisione era avvenuta ad opera di Zuanne Pastorcich, pure bandito, il quale, avvalendosi dei benefici previsti dalle leggi, intendeva ottenere la propria liberazione.
A tal fine egli presentò la testa del bandito nella piazza della città, perché fosse identificata da alcuni testimoni, resisi presto disponibili. In realtà, mentre le autorità procedevano a tale riconoscimento, dalla folla accorsa numerosa in piazza, si staccò una donna, che sottrasse la testa del Cassich, portandola con sé sino alla chiesa principale della città. A nulla valsero i tentativi delle autorità di recuperarla, in quanto l’episodio dimostrò come l’uccisione di Nicolò Cassich in quella piccola chiesa avesse creato una forte spaccatura all’interno della comunità. E, nonostante il Pastorcich ottenesse infine i premi richiesti, l’uccisione venne considerata come una vera e propria profanazione; e quel luogo sacro fu interdetto per alcuni anni al culto divino.

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.

The essay focuses on the events surrounding the young Venetian noblewoman Franceschina Orio between 1587 and 1591. On 30th November 1587 Sebastiano Valier, Franceschina's husband, was killed at Oriago by Vettor Calergi in an armed clash caused by previous enmities. The sentence passed by the Council of Ten on the following 8th January outlawed Calergi from all the territories of the Republic, sentencing him to capital punishment and offering a bounty of one thousand ducats. However, he would be set free within ten years if he made peace with the offender's relatives. Endowed with considerable wealth and, above all, related by his mother's side to the influential Emo noble family, Vettor Calergi tried in the following years to make peace with the family of the murdered. The Valiers at first refused to do so, despite his attempts made with the assistance of influential members of the Venetian aristocracy. Finally, thanks above all to the mediation of the Emo family, Sebastiano Valier's brothers and mother agreed to grant peace. But they only agreed if Calergi was willing to pay the huge sum of five thousand ducats for the construction of the new prisons. This was a paradoxical proposal, even underlined by the explicit statement that they demanded no personal compensation. The final outcome of the quarrel took place before the Council of Ten, where the tensions between the Valier brothers and the young widow became evident. Franceschina Orio opposed the proposal, claiming her rights and above all those of her son Giulio, born of her union with Sebastiano Valier. Her resilience finally prevailed and she succeeded in persuading the Council of Ten to assign the large sum to her son.

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.