History of Crime and Criminal Justice David R. Johnson and Jeffrey S. Adler, Series Editors

378 Pages·2007·7.4 MB·English

History of Crime and Criminal Justice
David R. Johnson and Jeffrey S. Adler, Series Editors

Politics of the Sword
Dueling, Honor, and Masculinity
in Modern Italy
Steven C. Hughes
The OhiO STaTe UniverSiTy PreSS
Columbus
Copyright © 2007 by The Ohio State University.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hughes, Steven C.
Politics of the sword : dueling, honor, and masculinity in modern Italy / Steven C.
Hughes.
p. cm.—(History of crime and criminal justice)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–8142–1072–7 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Dueling—Political aspects—Italy—History. 2. Fencing—Political aspects—Italy—
History. 3. Nationalism—Italy—History. I. Title.
CR4595.I8H84 2007
945.091—dc22
2007026537
This book is available in the following editions:
Cloth (ISBN 978–0–8142–1072–7)
CD-ROM (ISBN 978–0–8142–9149–8)
Cover design by James A. Baumann
Text design by Juliet Williams
Type set in Adobe Bembo
Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials. ANSI Z39.48–1992.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To
Sue Cornish
Gwyneth Retta Hughes
and
Curran F. Hughes,
who were all there when Rome was home.
Che bella famiglia!

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv

Introduction 1
Prologue From Primacy to Paucity 13
Chapter I Risorgimento del Duello—Duello del Risorgimento 21
Chapter II Honor and the Nation 53
Chapter III A Plague of Duels (1860–1914): Dueling and Elites 111
Chapter IV Institutions of Honor and the Search for Legal Sanction 177
Chapter V The Great Dueling Debate 213
Chapter VI The Duel and Fascism 267
Conclusion 315
Works Cited 335
Index 349

Illustrations
Images
Image 1 Cover of Cesare Alberto Blengini’s 1864 fencing manual 87
Image 2 Illustrazione italiana, duel of the Count of Turin in 1897 108
Image 3 Postcard (1902) from Italy’s official fencing academy in Rome 142
Image 4 Cover of Achille Angelini’s 1888 dueling manual 143
Image 5 Cover of Cesare Alberto Blengini’s 1868 dueling manual 184
Image 6 Cover of Ernesto Salafia Maggio’s 1895 dueling manual 185
Image 7 Mussolini’s Honor Guard 311
Image 8 Propaganda postcard for Fiume invasion 312
Image 9 Mussolini’s office with deathshead symbol 313
Image 10 Postcard, “Befana fascista anno XIX (1941)” 313
Charts
Chart 1 Reported duels in Italy arranged by weapon, 1879–99 89
Chart 2 Reported duels in Italy, 1879–95 261
Chart 3 Yearly averages of reported duels in Italy, 1879–1925 264
ix
x / Illustrations
Tables
Table 1 Military participants in reported duels arranged by rank,
1890–94 82
Table 2 Reported duels in Italy, 1879–95 115
Table 3 Reported duels in Italy arranged by motive, 1879–95 116
Table 4 Participants in reported duels arranged by profession,
1888–95 117
Table 5 Reported dueling offenses taken to trial, 1880–95 162
Table 6 Reported duels arranged by region, 1887–95 165
Table 7 Fifteen provinces with the lowest number of reported duels,
1887–95 166
Table 8 Percentage of reported duels per 100,000 population,
1887–95 167
Table 9 Fifteen provinces with the highest frequency of reported
duels, 1887–95 168
Table 10 Fifteen provinces with the highest number of reported duels
per 100,000 population, 1887–95 169
Table 11 Fifteen provinces with the lowest number of reported duels
per 100,000 population, 1887–95 170
Table 12 Yearly averages of reported duels in Italy, 1879–1925 261
Table 13 Reported duels per year in the Italian military, 1901–10 263