ONE OF THE LAST EVENINGS OF CARNIVAL. HABSBURG CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN THE SMALL RURAL COMMUNITY OF LISIERA IN VENETO (1832)

March 1832. At Lisiera (Vicenza), on the second-to-last evening of Carnival, a procession of masquers paraded through the streets of the village, arousing the anger of the parish priest. It was an apparently "normal" event during that period of festivity. However, at the instigation of the curate, this very event would lead to the criminal charge known as "perturbation of religion" for two "countrymen" and would within the lapse of one month, involve action from firstly the "giudice relatore" in charge of investigation into the matter, then the Royal Imperial Provincial Tribunal of Vicenza and the Royal Imperial Court of General Appeals of Venezia which were called upon to interpret, to the final reaches of justice, one of the most representative manifestations of popular culture in the specific context of a small community.