Episode Details

On October 24, 1588, the city of Bologna, Italy was shaken when a knight named Paola Barbieri stabbed his wife Isabella to death with a sword. He then fled, dressed only in a nightshirt, with his sword in hand, eventually escaping the city. Authorities were torn about his motivation. Did he murder Isabella out of anger or jealousy? Or did he suffer from serious mental illness?

My guest, Mònica Calabritto, addresses those questions in her book, "Murder and Madness on Trial: A Tale of True Crime from Early Modern Bologna."

More about the author here: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/monica-calabritto

Purchase the book through it's publisher here: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09508-0.html

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