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Black Widows of the Eternal City : The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous Poi...
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Located in: Castle Donington, United Kingdom
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eBay item number:196322205566
Item specifics
- Condition
- ISBN
- 9780472132041
- Publication Year
- 2020
- Type
- Textbook
- Format
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- Book Title
- The Black Widows of the Eternal City: the True Story of Rome's Most Infamous Poisoners
- Item Height
- 229mm
- Publisher
- T.H.E. University of Michigan Press
- Genre
- Biographies & True Stories
- Topic
- True Crime, History
- Item Width
- 152mm
- Number of Pages
- 258 Pages
About this product
Product Information
The Black Widows of of The Eternal City offers, for the first time, a book-length study of an infamous cause celebre in seventeenth-century Rome, how it resonated then and has continued to resonate: the 1659 investigation and prosecution of Gironima Spana and dozens of Roman widows, who shared a particularly effective poison to murder their husbands. This notorious case has been frequently discussed over 350 years, but the earliest writers concentrated more on fortifying their reading constituency's shared attitudes than accurately narrating facts. Subsequent authors remained largely content to follow their predecessors or keen to improve upon them. Most recent writers and bloggers were unaware that their earlier sources were generally unconcerned with a correct portrayal of real events. In the present study, Craig A. Monson takes advantage of a recent discovery-the 1,450-page notary's transcript of the 1659 investigation. It is supplemented here by many ancillary archival sources, unknown to all previous writers. Since the story of Gironima Spana and the would-be widows is partially about what people believed to be true, however, this investigation also juxtaposes some of the alternative facts from earlier, sensational accounts with what the notary's transcript and other, more reliable archival documents reveal. Written in a style that avoids arcane idioms and specialist jargon, the book can potentially speak to students and general readers interested in seventeenth-century social history and gender issues. It rewrites the life story of Gironima Spana (largely unknown until now), who has dominated all earlier accounts, usually in caricatures that reiterate the tropes of witchcraft. It also concentrates on the dozen other widows whose stories could be the most recovered from archival sources and whom Spana had totally eclipsed in earlier accounts. Most were women of a very ordinary sort (prostitutes; beggars; wives of butchers, barbers, dyers, lineners, innkeepers), the kinds of women commonly lost to history. The book seeks to explain why some women were hanged (only six, in fact, most of whom may not have directly poisoned anyone), while dozens of others who did poison their husbands escaped the gallows and, in some cases, were not even interrogated. It also reveals what happened to these other alleged perpetrators, whose fates have remained unknown until now. Other purported culprits, about whom less complete pictures emerge, are briefly discussed in an appendix. The study incorporates illustrations of archival manuscripts to demonstrate the challenges of deciphering them and illustrates scenes of the crime and other important locations, identified on seventeenth-century, bird's eye-perspective views of Rome and in modern photographs. It also includes GPS coordinates for any who might wish to revisit the sites.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
T.H.E. University of Michigan Press
ISBN-13
9780472132041
eBay Product ID (ePID)
5046597662
Product Key Features
Book Title
The Black Widows of the Eternal City: the True Story of Rome's Most Infamous Poisoners
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Topic
True Crime, History
Publication Year
2020
Type
Textbook
Genre
Biographies & True Stories
Number of Pages
258 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
229mm
Item Width
152mm
Additional Product Features
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
Item description from the seller
Business seller information
Value Added Tax Number:
- GB 307932304
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:196322205566
Shipping and handling
Item location:
Castle Donington, United Kingdom
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| Shipping and handling | To | Service | Delivery*See Delivery notes |
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| GBP 15.99 (approx US $20.25) | United States | Standard Shipping (Standard Int'l Postage) | Estimated between Thu, Jun 27 and Tue, Jul 16 to 43230 |
| Handling time |
|---|
| Will usually ship within 2 business days of receiving cleared payment. |
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Seller feedback (82,143)
h***x (2932)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past month
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Excellent, exactly as described. Very promptly sent and well packed. Great seller communications! A******
r***c (1950)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
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Pros - polite communication, low prices, generous discount offered for damaged book.
Cons - very slow communication which tends to be generic and promises much but delivers little, heavy book was sent in a jiffy bag and arrived damaged, had to get Ebay involved to action the promised partial refund.
Summary - 'pile it high and sell it cheap' organisation which is unable to provide efficient customer service and makes the mistake of not packaging books correctly. Will not buy from them again.
a***5 (41)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
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Great item, exactly as described. The packaging was very poor but item arrived undamaged. Communications and dispatch time were also poor but overall a successful transaction.
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