Adultère, indices médicaux et recul de la torture à Genève (XVIIe siècle)

This article investigates how the practice of judicial torture was shaped by attitudes to sin, to gender, and to the testimony of medical experts in seventeenth-century Geneva. In 1645, Nicolarde Boeuf was found to have syphilis and was charged with adultery, a crime that, when proven, sometimes res...

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Main Author: Sara Beam
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Association Mnémosyne
Series:Genre & Histoire
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/2355
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author Sara Beam
author_facet Sara Beam
author_sort Sara Beam
collection DOAJ
description This article investigates how the practice of judicial torture was shaped by attitudes to sin, to gender, and to the testimony of medical experts in seventeenth-century Geneva. In 1645, Nicolarde Boeuf was found to have syphilis and was charged with adultery, a crime that, when proven, sometimes resulted in a sentence of execution in Geneva.  When she denied the charges, she was tortured repeatedly, found guilty, and ultimately hanged. Whereas other scholars have argued that growing reliance on medical experts reduced the need for torture in criminal trials, this analysis reveals that early modern assumptions about the seriousness of female marital infidelity and about the importance of females as vectors of sexually transmitted diseases led the judges to torture Nicolarde until she produced a confession of guilt.  The practice of torture declined in Geneva not because of increased reliance on medical experts but because Genevan judges eventually decided that sexual and moral crimes such as adultery did not warrant the death penalty.
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spelling doaj.art-7cae53e45e6e49baa581a734aac054402024-02-14T10:20:02ZfraAssociation MnémosyneGenre & Histoire2102-58861610.4000/genrehistoire.2355Adultère, indices médicaux et recul de la torture à Genève (XVIIe siècle)Sara BeamThis article investigates how the practice of judicial torture was shaped by attitudes to sin, to gender, and to the testimony of medical experts in seventeenth-century Geneva. In 1645, Nicolarde Boeuf was found to have syphilis and was charged with adultery, a crime that, when proven, sometimes resulted in a sentence of execution in Geneva.  When she denied the charges, she was tortured repeatedly, found guilty, and ultimately hanged. Whereas other scholars have argued that growing reliance on medical experts reduced the need for torture in criminal trials, this analysis reveals that early modern assumptions about the seriousness of female marital infidelity and about the importance of females as vectors of sexually transmitted diseases led the judges to torture Nicolarde until she produced a confession of guilt.  The practice of torture declined in Geneva not because of increased reliance on medical experts but because Genevan judges eventually decided that sexual and moral crimes such as adultery did not warrant the death penalty.https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/2355genderlegal medicinetortureadulteryGenevasex crimes
spellingShingle Sara Beam
Adultère, indices médicaux et recul de la torture à Genève (XVIIe siècle)
Genre & Histoire
gender
legal medicine
torture
adultery
Geneva
sex crimes
title Adultère, indices médicaux et recul de la torture à Genève (XVIIe siècle)
title_full Adultère, indices médicaux et recul de la torture à Genève (XVIIe siècle)
title_fullStr Adultère, indices médicaux et recul de la torture à Genève (XVIIe siècle)
title_full_unstemmed Adultère, indices médicaux et recul de la torture à Genève (XVIIe siècle)
title_short Adultère, indices médicaux et recul de la torture à Genève (XVIIe siècle)
title_sort adultere indices medicaux et recul de la torture a geneve xviie siecle
topic gender
legal medicine
torture
adultery
Geneva
sex crimes
url https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/2355
work_keys_str_mv AT sarabeam adultereindicesmedicauxetreculdelatortureagenevexviiesiecle