The Justice of Venice. Authorities and Liberties in the Urban Economy, 1550-1700

This ‘social history of justice in the urban economy’ is a rich work which intends to ‘bring economic and legal history together’, by studying the magistracy of the Giustizia Vecchia and the institutions of justice dedicated to the regulation and administration of the early modern Venetian market. James Shaw focuses on ‘low’ justice as it was experienced by ordinary people and takes into account mundane and petty market crimes instead of ‘serious’ ones. This is a convincing attempt to expand on previous studies of Venetian justice, especially the classic and influential works of Gaetano Cozzi. Shaw's intentions and methodological choices are clear: he criticises an historiographical tendency to misinterpret pre-capitalist economies, and he acknowledges his debt to new directions more concerned with practices, transactions and trust (from K. Polanyi to C. Muldrew). These flexible and practical categories illuminate the documents differently, here mainly the archives of the Giustizia Vecchia as well as documents produced by other important institutions (although unfortunately, the book does not provide a list of the sources used)

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