Clean Hands and Rough Justice: An Investigating Magistrate in Renaissance Italy.

David S. Chambers and Trevor Dean. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.4 pls. + xii + 322 pp. $52.50. ISBN 0-472-10748-8.

Renaissance Italian judicial systems have been described from many angles: law codes, magistracies, criminals, punishments, and extra-judicial settlements. They have seldom been described from the point of view of the individual magistrates charged with enforcing the laws. David Chambers and Trevor Dean have here drawn on a wide range of letters, reports, legislation, and judicial and administrative records in order to offer a close look at the career of one such magistrate. Through him they assess where the judicial systems of fifteenth-century principalities fit within the current debate on the development of the modern state.

Beltramino Cusadri (ca. 1425-1500) was born in Crema and educated in Pavia. He served Ludovico and Federico Gonzaga of Mantua from 1458 to 1484, and Ercole d'Este of Ferrara from 1488 until his death in 1500. He was, variously, vice-podesta, auditor, commissioner, investigator, director of prosecutions - in short, whatever the prince and the time required. He served the Gonzaga in a host of places, and the Este in Modena and Reggio. This study is based primarily on the hundreds of letters which he wrote to his employers informing them of his progress in their campaigns against violent crime and their efforts to subordinate the judicial privileges of local communities and elites. The letters describe in detail the delicate dance between a ruler's judicial representative and local communities resentful of any intrusion into their privileges, profits, and vendettas. Beltramino was a particularly skilled dancer. His ruthless advancement of Gonzaga and Este interests won him the support of his employers, but gave his enemies ample reason and will to discredit him. Though his hands were cleaner than most (few bribes, but not unwilling to advance personal and family interest), his justice was rough indeed: increased use of torture, a frequent rush to judgement, harsh penalties with few avenues for commutation. His judgements reflected the tilt towards class and urban interests common for the time. Though he survived many challenges, he was in the end undone by aristocratic enemies in both the Gonzaga and the Este courts.

Chambers and Dean present their case systematically and document it thoroughly. Two opening chapters review the extent of crime in both states, with the particular challenges which local privileges posed to princes. Four chapters follow Beltramino through his various posts; there is some effort to address this thematically, but the weight of detail does at times stifle the narrative. Two closing chapters deal with Mantua after Beltramino.

Discussions of the rise of the early modern state usually locate its origins in the regional states of the sixteenth century. Giorgio Chittolini describes these states as pluralistic in that the prince's sovereignty and authority in financial, military, and judicial matters is recognized so long as it does not impinge on the rights and privileges of local social bodies and ruling classes. The successful magistrate knew the limits of his power. Harsh measures in the prince's service were dangerous both for the local reprisals they could stimulate and for the prince's willingness to make the magistrate a scapegoat when local families became too noisily restless. Most princes were happy with peace, quiet, and tax revenues. Chambers and Dean argue that Chittolini's picture is too static and one-sided, since the balance of power was constantly shifting even if it eventually swung to the center. Moreover the career of Beltramino shows this pluralistic dynamic already at work in fifteenth-century principalities. Yet they also recognize that these are modifications which adjust and confirm Chittolini's model rather than overturn it. Their close study of a key player in the political-judicial process is a valuable addition to the literature on the rise of the state in early modern Italy.

NICHOLAS TERPSTRA University of Toronto