If You Won't Give Us Freedom, We'll Find It by Ourselves

To confront a violent husband, and reclaim your freedom, what better way than poison? Simona Feci and Manuela Soldi consider this question, with Marcello Bortolato painting a fuller picture of the legal context of yesteryear and today.

It's 1659. Rome is marred by a string of mysterious deaths during the summer. Scores of men. Eventually, five women are arrested and hanged in public, accused of manufacturing and distributing a lethal poison.

The poison's name was Acqua Tofana, a mix of water, arsenic, antimony, and lead. It owes its name to a Sicilian artisan and courtesan of Spain's Philip IV, Giulia Tofana. Chief among her accomplices was Girolama Spana, who'd provide women with the poison to escape abusive relationships when every other route proved ineffective.

Was it for profit? Sure it was, but solidarity came first. Simona Feci meticulously traces this history of sisterhood, drawing on her analysis of more than 700 documents chronicling the investigations. Marcello Bortolato compares the trial leading to Girolama's hanging to today's legal context, where domestic violence is still endemic and legal tools remain insufficient, unavailable, ineffective. Besides, media attention surrounding crimes committed by women was - and still remains - disproportionate compared to their frequency.

Ultimately, re-discovering the Acqua Tofana trials is about giving women a voice, amidst the clamours and silencing operated by old and new patriarchal violence - in the home, courts, and their narration.