Monks of honour : the Knights of Malta and criminal behaviour in early modern Rome

Abstract

Violence and criminal behaviour were pervasive features of social life in early modern Rome and they featured prominently in the penal code. The analysis that follows will demonstrate the frequent occurrence of violence among knights of the Order of St John as part of everyday interchange in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Rome, and will explore the associated meanings of violence for manhood. Violence will be defined in terms of the infliction of physical harm or humiliation for a wide variety of ends, through which a spectrum of cultural meanings were derived, contested and reinforced. This should help us evaluate the functions of violence as an expression of manliness and honour. As Peter Burke has clearly shown, 'honour was a much-debated subject in early modem Italy'. It is through the examination of routine outbreaks of violent behaviour that the links between criminal behaviour and masculinity can be explored.