On the evening of July 29 1605 the young notary Mariano Pasqualone, a native of Accumoli, shows up with a head wound at the offices of the criminal court in Rome to file a complaint.  What he tells is that while walking in Piazza Navona “son stato assassinato da Michelangelo da Caravaggio pittore. Mi sono…

It must have been very cold that January 31 1632 in Amsterdam when Adrian Adrianeszoon, known in the slums as “Het Kindt”, was hanged for yet another robbery attempt. Adrian Adrianeszoon had behind him a respectable criminal career made of theft and violence and in the past the Dutch justice had already made him amputate…

“Ho trovato una città di mattoni, ve la restituisco di marmo”Ottaviano Augusto in Svetonio, Vite dei Cesari, Aug., XXVIII, 3 “Quante Città vedevamo noi mentre eravamo fanciulli fatte tutte di asse, le quali hora sono state fatte di marmo?”Leon battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria, VIII, 5 The serene dream of the ancient, with its pacifying regularity,…