The extensiveness of Bologna’s unindexed criminal court archive has necessitated the taking of samples. The impact of the plague during the 1630s, the political turmoil of the early 1650s as well as the changing organisation of record keeping around the same time have been convincing arguments to select 1655 as a first sample year, followed by the less tumultuous years of 1675, 1705, 1725 and 1755, stopping just before the economic crisis fully impacted the city. For these sample years I have selected three datasets. The first dataset consists of 910 processi and represents all extant urban investigation dossiers for the five sample years. The data collected for these cases is less detailed than for the other samples and serves primarily to reveal representative, quantitative patterns of criminal prosecution and possible developments throughout time. The second dataset consists of one or more casebooks by a notary for each of the sample years. This resulted in a collection of 1,070 denunciations and 207 processi that were kept either in the back of these casebooks or later in its second, accompanying volume. The qualitative analyses in this book are based on these sources, as well as on a third data collection of 77 additional processi. These processi were selected at random for years surrounding the sample years, the only criteria being that a woman was named on the front sheet as one of the defendants.
1 Sample 1: Exhaustive and Representative Sample of Extant Processi for Urban Bologna for the Years 1655, 1675, 1705, 1725 and 1755
Archivio di Stato di Bologna, Tribunale del Torrone, Atti e processi, Book 6653 to 8179.
Number of cases and defendants within the samples
| Type | Cases | Defendants | ||||
| Women | Men | Total | Unidentified | |||
| Sample 1 | Processi | 910 | 70 | 1287 | 1357 | 62 |
| Sample 2a | Denunciations | 1070 | 241 | 903 | 1144 | 214 |
| Sample 2b | Processi | 204 | 20 | 287 | 307 | 7 |
| Sample 3 | Processi | 77 | 91 | 61 | 152 | – |
This first dataset consists of 910 processi collected from 81 books and represents all extant urban investigation dossiers for the five sample years that I was able to locate in the archive. The data collected for these cases is less-detailed than for the other samples and serves primarily to reveal representative, quantitative patterns of criminal prosecution and possible developments throughout time.
2 Sample 2a: Non-exhaustive Sample of Urban Denunciations Derived from Several Notaries’ Casebooks Centring around the Years 1655, 1675, 1705, 1725 and 1755
Archivio di Stato di Bologna, Tribunale del Torrone, Atti e processi, Book 6609, 6620, 6653, 7028, 7044, 7608-1, 7869-1, 8171-1.
The second dataset consists of a random sample of eight notaries’ casebooks centring on the sample years. This has resulted in a collection of 1,070 denunciations. They have been examined in detail and have also been used for qualitative analyses of the sources.
3 Sample 2b: Non-exhaustive Sample of Urban Processi from Several Notaries’ Casebooks Centring around the Years 1655, 1675, 1705, 1725 and 1755
Archivio di Stato di Bologna, Tribunale del Torrone, Atti e processi, Book 6596, 6609, 6620, 6653, 7028, 7044, 7055, 7077, 7608-2, 7869-2, 8171-2.
This second part of the second dataset consists of 204 processi found in the same notaries’ casebooks as in sample 2a. They were either kept in the back of the casebooks in which the denunciations were written or were recorded in their accompanying, dedicated volumes (for example referred to as part 2). These processi have received the same treatment as the aforementioned denunciations, allowing for a qualitative analysis.
4 Sample 3: Non-exhaustive Sample of Additional Urban Processi from 1654 to 1757
Archivio di Stato di Bologna, Tribunale del Torrone, Atti e processi, Book 6526 to 8179-2.
The qualitative analyses in this book are also based on a third data collection of 77 additional processi. These processi were collected from 42 books for years surrounding the sample years, with the only criteria that a woman was named on the front sheet as one of the defendants. They were examined in the same in-depth way as sample 2.