This paper will investigate and analyse the court of the Esecutori contro la bestemmia (Magistrates against blasphemy), which became part of the Venetian constitutional framework in 1537 as a consequence of a particularly disastrous period for the Republic. The initial purpose of the court was to suppress blasphemy, which the Venetians used extensively: it was seen not only as an act of moral depravity but also as a threat to public order and social cohesion. Over time, the magistracy was entrusted with many other crimes, turning it into an instrument of social discipline. The sources used for this analysis are the verdicts of the court, collected in the State Archive of Venice, which provide valuable information about the crimes committed, the methods of intervention, the punishments, and the lives of the individuals involved, both men and women, who mostly came from the lower social classes. This paper draws conclusions about the difference between blasphemy and heresy, the importance of public space, the concept of deviant behaviour, and its instrumentalization.
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Caterina Caverzan holds a B.A. in History (2015) and an M.A. in History from the Middle Ages to the Present (2018) from Ca' Foscari University. Her undergraduate thesis in Early Modern History focused on the archival reconstruction of a late-sixteenth-century trial involving the betrayal of a Venetian nobleman. In 2022, she earned her PhD from the University of Florence, with a dissertation on the phenomenon of defamatory libels in the Republic of Venice during the 16th century. She has worked as an independent researcher on several projects. Currently, she is a postdoc at the University of Verona, contributing to the PRIN project Cursing God: Blasphemy and its Repression in Early Modern Italy (15th-19th century).
