Prigionia di guerra nel medioevo. Un’altura in mezzo alla pianura: l’Italia dell’’ ‘incivilimento’, by Hannelore Zug Tucci
Guy Geltner
Tens of thousands war captives were integral to medieval Europe’s history, but from a markedly vulnerable position. Yet these ubiquitous marginal figures are usually absent the historiography on era’s ‘others’, which tends focus inmates physical institutions (hospitals, prisons, mental asylums, almshouses, leprosaria, women’s reformatories), or semi-segregated groups such as prostitutes and Jews, with occasional glances at (often foreign) soldiers-turned-brigands who turned their swords locals. Hannelore Zug Tucci’s vivid study, situated mostly in world Italian city-republics twelfth fourteenth centuries, offers major—if somewhat inadvertent—corrective. The book richly illustrates captives’ experiences, demonstrating how familiar common they were, regular item political elites’ agendas, target organised charity object local entrepreneurs. can be divided into two main sections. first three chapters deal criteria for, debates about, status prisoners hostages Middle Ages. category those could legally ‘given quarter’ was strikingly broad, very few exemptions, namely for pilgrims official ambassadors, not women clergy. Here, throughout book, author marshals broad range sources moves ably carefully between chronicles, letters, jurisprudence, administrative records, prose fiction poetry Latin, (Middle) French, German course Italian. (For documents out print, she draws predominantly Venetian archives.) Her recourse secondary literature is similarly impressive, expanding coverage beyond Italy engaging modern approaches war. Rare omissions include work Jean Dunbabin (2002), Jarbel Rodriguez (2007) Megan Cassidy-Welch (2011).
The English Historical Review