Property Crimes

Introduction

Some of the most frequently committed crimes in early modern Europe involved property. In this seminar we will divide into groups looking at theft, banditry, and piracy. We will compare these different crimes across early modern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic World.

Seminar Questions

What were the forms and natures of property crimes in early modern Europe?
What were contemporary attitudes and responses to these crimes?

Required Reading

Each student should read the documents relevant to the crimes they are investigating in Andrew Barrett and Christopher Harrison, eds, Crime and Punishment in England: A SourcebookLink opens in a new window (London, 1999), The crimes are listed under offenses in the index. For banditry, see highway robbery under offenses.
Each student should choose and read two relevant items below for the crimes they are investigating. Your choice of texts should cover more than one country.

Theft

Aleman, Matheo, The rogue, or, The life of Guzman de Alfarache written in Spanish by Matheo AlemanLink opens in a new window (London, 1622)

B.E., A new dictionary of the canting crewLink opens in a new window (London , 1699)

Dean, Trevor, Crime and Justice in Late Medieval ItalyLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2007), Chapter Ten.

Dionne, Craig, and Steve Mentz, eds, Rogues and Early Modern English CultureLink opens in a new window (Ann Arbor, 2004)

Gotti, Maurizio, The Language of Thieves and Vagabonds: 17th and 18th century Canting Lexicography in England (Tübingen, 1999)

Head, Richard, The canting academyLink opens in a new window (London, 1674)

Heijden, Manon van der, Women and Crime in Early Modern HollandLink opens in a new window, trans. David McKay (Leiden, 2016), Chapter Four.

Liapi, Lena, Roguery in Print : Crime and Culture in Early Modern LondonLink opens in a new window (Woodbridge, 2019)

MacMillan, Ken, (ed.), Stories of True Crime in Tudor and Stuart EnglandLink opens in a new window (London, 2015)

Smith, Alexander, The History of the Lives, of the Most Noted Highwaymen, Foot-pads, Shop-lifts and Cheats of Both Sexes, in and about London and Other Places ... for Fifty Years Last PastLink opens in a new window AND The Second Volume of the History of the Lives, of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Foot-pads, and Other Thieves and Murderers of Both Sexes, in and about London and Other Places ... for Fifty Years Last PastLink opens in a new window, 2nd ed. (London, 1714) [Read the Prefaces to both volumes and three lives of your choice]

Walker, Garthine, Crime, Gender and Social Order in Early Modern England Link opens in a new window(Cambridge, 2003), Chapter Five.

Banditry

Belenguer, Ernest, 'Bandits, Banditry and Royal Power in Catalonia between the 16th and 17th centuriesLink opens in a new window', Catalan Historical Review 8 (2015), 45-57

Danker, Uwe, 'Bandits and the State: Robbers and the Authorities in the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries', in The German Underworld: Deviants and Outcasts in German HistoryLink opens in a new window, ed. Richard Evans (London, 1988), pp. 75-107.

Durston, Gregory J., Whores and Highwaymen: Crime and Justice in the Eighteenth-Century MetropolisLink opens in a new window (Hook, 2012)

Gioia, Cristina, 'Aristocratic Bandits and Outlaws: Stories of Violence and Blood Vendetta on the Border of the Venetian Republic (16th-17th Century)Link opens in a new window', in Steven G. Ellis and Lud’a Klusáková (eds), Imaging Frontiers, Contesting Identities (Pisa, 2007), pp. 93-107.

Kamen, Henry, ‘Public Authority and Popular Crime: Banditry in Valencia, 1660-1714', Journal of European Economic HistoryLink opens in a new window 3 (1974), 654-688.

Laven, Peter, 'Banditry and Lawlessness on the Venetian Terraferma in the Later Cinquecento', in Trevor Dean and K. J. P. Lowe, eds, Crime, Society, and the Law in Renaissance ItalyLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 221-248.

Piracy

Amirell, S. E., et al. (eds), Persistent Piracy: Maritime Violence and State-Formation in Global Historical Perspective Link opens in a new window(Basingstoke, 2014)

Appleby, John C., Women and English Piracy, 1540-1720: Partners and Victims of CrimeLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2013)

Chet, Guy, The Ocean is a Wilderness: Atlantic Piracy and the Limits of State Authority, 1688-1856Link opens in a new window (Amherst, 2014)

Johnson, Charles, A General History of the PyratesLink opens in a new window (London, 1724; fourth ed. 1726) [Read the Preface and the lives of Captain Teach/Blackbeard, Mary Read, and Anne Bonny]

Jowitt, Claire, The Culture of Piracy, 1580-1630: English Literature and Seaborne CrimeLink opens in a new window (Farnham, 2010)

Jowitt, Claire, ed., Pirates? The Politics of Plunder, 1550-1650 (Basingstoke, 2006)

Klarer, Mario, ed., Piracy and Captivity in the Mediterranean 1550-1810Link opens in a new window (London, 2018)

Lunsford, Virginia W., Piracy and Privateering in the Golden Age NetherlandsLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2005)

Thomson, Janice, E., Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns: State-Building and Extraterritorial Violence in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window (Princeton, N.J, 1994)

Department of History