Table Of ContentThe Place of the Social
Margins, 1350–1750
This interdisciplinary volume illuminates the shadowy history of the dis-
advantaged, sick and those who did not conform to the accepted norms of
society. It explores how marginal identity was formed, perceived and repre-
sented in Britain and Europe during the medieval and early modern periods.
It illustrates that the identities of marginal groups were shaped by their
place within primarily urban communities, both in terms of their socio-
economic status and the spaces in which they lived and worked. Some of
these groups—such as executioners, prostitutes, pedlars and slaves—
performed a significant social and economic function but on the basis of this
were stigmatized by other townspeople. Language was used to control and
limit the activities of others within society such as single women and for-
eigners, as well as the victims of sexual crimes. For many, such as lepers and
the disabled, marginal status could be ambiguous, cyclical or short-lived
and affected by key religious, political and economic events. Traditional
histories have often considered these groups in isolation. Based on new
research, a series of case studies from Britain and across Europe illustrate
and provide important insights into the problems faced by these marginal
groups and the ways in which medieval and early modern communities were
shaped and developed.
Andrew Spicer is Professor of Early Modern European History at Oxford
Brookes University and a Literary Director of the Royal Historical Society.
Jane Stevens Crawshaw is Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in His-
tory at Oxford Brookes University.
Routledge Studies in Cultural History
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
40 The Holocaust in the Twenty-First Century
Contesting/Contested Memories
Edited by David M. Seymour and Mercedes Camino
41 Jesuits at the Margins
Missions and Missionaries in the Marianas (1668–1769)
Alexandre Coello de la Rosa
42 Travelling Notions of Culture in Early Nineteenth-Century Europe
Edited by Hannu Salmi, Asko Nivala and Jukka Sarjala
43 Language as a Scientific Tool
Shaping Scientific Language Across Time and National Tradition
Edited by Miles MacLeod, Rocío G. Sumillera, Jan Surman and
Ekaterina Smirnova
44 Transnational South America
Experiences, Ideas, and Identities, 1860s–1900s
Ori Preuss
45 Enlightenment and Political Fiction
The Everyday Intellectual
Cecilia Miller
46 Madness in Cold War America
Alexander Dunst
47 Minor Knowledge and Microhistory
Manuscript Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon and Davíð Ólafsson
48 The Place of the Social Margins, 1350–1750
Edited by Andrew Spicer and Jane L. Stevens Crawshaw
The Place of the Social
Margins, 1350–1750
Edited by Andrew Spicer and
Jane L. Stevens Crawshaw
First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Taylor & Francis
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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CIP data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-1-138-79072-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75646-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction 1
JANE L. STEVENS CRAWSHAW
PART I
Health 19
2 Marginal Bodies and Minds: Responses to Leprosy and
Mental Disorders in Late Medieval Normandy 21
ELMA BRENNER
3 ‘Not So Deformed in Body as Debauched in Behaviour’:
Disability and ‘Marginality’ in Late Seventeenth- and Early
Eighteenth-Century England 39
DAVID M. TURNER
PART II
The Law 57
4 Medieval Singlewomen in Law and Practice 59
SARA M. BUTLER
5 Aliens, Native Englishmen and Migration: William
Herbert’s Considerations in the Behalf of Foreiners (1662) 79
ANDREW SPICER
vi Contents
PART III
Work 101
6 Down but Not Out: A Case Study in Early Modern
Social Mobility From the Margins 103
JOEL F. HARRINGTON
7 The Place of African Slaves in Early Modern Spain 117
CARMEN FRACCHIA
8 The Margins in the Centre: Working Around
Rialto in Sixteenth-Century Venice 135
ROSA M. SALZBERG
PART IV
Morality and the Home 153
9 Cleaning up the Renaissance City: The Symbolic and
Physical Place of the Genoese Brothel in Urban Society 155
JANE L. STEVENS CRAWSHAW
10 Child Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault:
Compromised Chastity, Marginalized Lives? 181
SARAH TOULALAN
11 Afterword: Constructing Marginality in the
Early Modern European City 203
FABRIZIO NEVOLA
Contributors 211
Index 213
Figures
1.1 Vittore Carpaccio, Due Dame Veneziane © Museo
Correr, Venice (inv. Cl. L n.0046) x
1.2 Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, about 1460–1526) Hunting
on the Lagoon (recto); Letter Rack (verso), about 1490–
1495, Oil on panel 75.6 × 63.8 cm (29 3/4 × 25 1/8 in.).
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image
courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. 2
7.1 Diego Velázquez, Juan de Pareja, 1650. Image © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, Fletcher
and Rogers Funds, and Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de
Grot (1876–1967), by exchange, supplemented by gifts
from friends of the Museum, 1971 (1971.86). 118
7.2 Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus. Artist: Diego
Velázquez. Spanish, 17th century, c.1617–1618. Oil on
canvas. Unframed: 55 × 118 cm. Photo © National Gallery
of Ireland. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland. 125
7.3 Juan de Pareja, The Calling of St Matthew, 1661,
© Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. 128
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