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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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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Association Mnémosyne
2016-02-01
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| Series: | Genre & Histoire |
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| 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. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-f1467b176891476f977c7249d0948f66 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2102-5886 |
| language | fra |
| publishDate | 2016-02-01 |
| publisher | Association Mnémosyne |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Genre & Histoire |
| spelling | doaj-art-f1467b176891476f977c7249d0948f662025-01-09T16:23:12ZfraAssociation MnémosyneGenre & Histoire2102-58862016-02-011610.4000/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 |