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About
In the summer of 1785, in the city of Venice, a wealthy 60-year-old man was arrested and accused of a scandalous offense: having sexual relations with the 8-year-old daughter of an impoverished laundress. Although the sexual abuse of children was probably not uncommon in early modern Europe, it is largely undocumented, and the concept of "child abuse" did not yet exist. The case of Paolina Lozaro and Gaetano Franceschini came before Venice's unusual blasphemy tribunal, the Bestemmia, which heard testimony from an entire neighborhood-from the parish priest to the madam of the local brothel. Paolina's Innocence considers Franceschini's conduct in the context of the libertinism of Casanova and also employs other prominent contemporaries-Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Carlo Goldoni, Lorenzo Da Ponte, Cesare Beccaria, and the Marquis de Sade-as points of reference for understanding the case and broader issues of libertinism, sexual crime, childhood, and child abuse in the 18th century.
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Reviews
"Larry Wolff's account of an eighteenth-century trial of a wealthy Venetian for the sexual abuse of a servant girl is unique for its vivid evocation of social context, its exploration of the phenomenon of libertinage, its identification of a turning point after which the exploitation of the innocent would not be officially tolerated, and, not least, its fluid, jargon-free narrative style."
City University of New York
"Paolina's Innocence is written in a lovely, accessible style and its subject is one of both historical and popular interest. Its value derives in part from the richness of the court records of the case, and extensive excerpts are reproduced from the testimony of all the principals, including both Paolina and Franceschini . . . [I]n linking this obscure but dramatic case to broader cultural curren
American Historical Review
"With the lively eye and deft pen of the successful microhistorian, Larry Wolff takes an exceptional document about a rare transgression and craft a nuanced commentary on a larger cultural transition . . . Using the child's own mouth, this book contributes to the relatively sparse field of early modern girlhood studies . . . This very readable book recovers a small, eighteenth-century story and he
Journal of Social History