Mapping Violence in Early Modern Italy, 1500-1700
The streets of Bologna, the canals of Venice, and the piazzas of Florence—once stages for political assassinations, family vendettas, domestic quarrels, neighborly conflicts and street brawls. This project investigates how violence was enacted, understood, and remembered in the spaces of early modern Italy.

Where Archives Meet Data
Early modern Italy presents a paradox: its towns and cities were governed by sophisticated criminal justice systems, yet experienced strikingly high levels of interpersonal violence. To explore this, our project draws on Italy’s exceptionally rich criminal archives. By digitally mapping and datafying thousands of criminal records, we convert qualitative sources into analyzable data, uncovering spatial patterns of conflict and previously unseen trends. This approach combines large-scale quantitative analysis with detailed qualitative insight into the human experiences recorded in the archives.

What We’re Discovering
Combining microhistory with digital history, the project examines the social and political functions of violence, offering new perspectives on social, cultural, and political spaces, justice, and state formation in early modern Europe. Follow our work to see how these patterns of conflict continue to shape our understanding of early modern cities and their histories.