Curia

Curia tells the social history of a late medieval criminal court, its users, and its operators. This court was a seigneurial possession of the Knights Hospitaller located in the Provençal town of Manosque.

The book is based on an exhaustive study of over 1,500 criminal inquest records from between 1340 and 1403. These documents preserve the detailed words and deeds of medieval townspeople. From them, the book presents ’history from below,’ to consider how people manoeuvred in society. It lays bare solidarities, enmities, passions, and lies. Between its tales of adultery, wife assault, child abuse, treason, theft, and arson, it stitches together the fabric of everyday life.

While the criminal records reveal how individuals navigated social spaces, they also highlight a pivotal moment in western juridical development. By the fourteenth century, court operators deliberately drew men and women into the workings of justice, and encouraged them to use courts as institutionalized fora for conflict resolution. At the same time, increased buy-in from subjects offered court operators renewed opportunities for traditional, top-down regulation.