Longtemps laissé dans l’ombre historiographique, l’empoisonnement fait l’objet cesdernières années d’un intérêt renouvelé de la part des historiens. Dans le sillon de ces ultimes recherches, cette thèse propose une étude sur les crimes de poison à Bologne entre le XIVe et le XVIIe siècle. Si de nombreux chercheurs défendent l’idée que l’empoisonnement est un objet historique « transpériode », aucune étude n’a encore confronté explicitement le Moyen Age à l’époque moderne souvent présentés comme antagonistes. Or, l’analyse du phénomène criminel sur près de quatre siècles permet de mieux appréhender les évolutions et surtout les permanences de l’empoisonnement criminel, de ses modalités et des réactions de la société face à celui-ci. Les archives bolonaises se sont avérées être un terrain de recherches relativement dense, fournissant un corpus de près de 180 affaires dont un nombre important de sources judiciaires inédites. Bologne constitue à ce titre un véritable carrefour pour l’histoire du droit, de la médecine, du fait de son université prestigieuse, mais aussi en ce qui concerne l’étude de la société urbaine. Cette richesse documentaire permet d’envisager une réflexion à l’intersection de l’histoire de la criminalité et de la justice, de l’histoire de la médecine et de l’histoire sociale. Cette approche plurielle de la thématique donne l’opportunité d’élargir l’éventail des témoignages sur l’empoisonnement en confrontant tour à tour doctrines, représentations culturelles et mentales de l’empoisonnement et effectivité du crime et de ses conséquences dans les actes de la pratique. / Long left in the shadow of History, poisoning is subject of a renewed interest byhistorians for the last few years. Following theirs latest researches, this thesis offers a study of poison crimes in Bologna between the XIV and XVII centuries. While many researchers stand for the idea of poison crime as an historical "trans-period" object, no study has yet explicitly faced the middle-age and the modern era often presented as antagonist. But the analysis over nearly four centuries of this criminal phenomenon is insightful on the evolution and especially the persistence of criminal poisoning, its ways and means, and the society reactions to it. The Bolognese archives proved to be a relatively dense research field, providing a corpus of nearly 180 cases, of which a large number of unprecedented/unknown judicial sources. Bologna thus constitutes a true crossroads of legal and medical History, due to its prestigious university, but also on study of urban society. This documentary wealth leads a questioning at the interface of History of crime and justice, History of medicine and social History. This multifaceted approach of the topic is an opportunity to expand the range of testimonies on poisoning and confronts, by turns, doctrine, cultural and mental perception of poisoning and the effectiveness of the crime, and practical consequences.

This dissertation examines the intersection of the prosecution of criminal justice, sexual morality and the family at the parlement of Paris, which was the highest court of appeal in France, during the height of its power and influence in the kingdom from 1564-1655. This dissertation argues that in its adjudication of the crimes of seduction, infanticide, adultery, and bigamy the parlement of Paris interpreted the law according to a paternal theory of state by prioritizing family integrity and patriarchal honour in its decisions. In so doing, it presents a unique synthesis of statute and published legal opinion with a systematic survey of judicial decisions, based on archival findings, relating to these sex crimes in early modern France. It concludes that these judicial decisions were ensconced in the concepts of family, the king’s justice, and sovereignty, which were foundational to the interconnected theories of state and society in early modern France. The parlement tended to separate elite and modest appellants according to the socio-economic priorities of lignage and ménage, or the protection of the integrity of elite lineages and the stability of artisanal households within broader networks of family and community. Ultimately, this study exposes the expectations and values that gendered authority placed on men and women in early modern French society, reveals the ways that the most powerful judges in France interpreted the law according to these values, and unveils the narratives that women and men crafted when they confronted these expectations before these powerful judges. In so doing, this dissertation sheds new light on the relationships between gender and the law, gender relations in state and society, and the lived experience of marriage in early modern France. / Graduate / 2022-08-09