Regulating the private: Legal history between private and public in medieval and early modern times

Why in early modern Denmark could the sight of a woman with loose hair infuriate God, or a bridal veil shock respectable citizens, and why did the authorities ban wine drinking at weddings when it was perfectly in order to get drunk on schnapps? And in the medieval period, why would some choose not to follow the letter of the law and receive a large compensation for a slain kinsman but instead insist on humiliating the killer by public penance? These and other examples of the interplay between private and public will frame the lecture, which is ultimately concerned with the contribution that the concept of privacy can make to research in legal history. More specifically, I shall be asking how regulations of sexual conduct, festive cultures and codes of Dispute settlement, norms of honour, and conventions of celebrating and dressing were observed privately and publically in medieval and early modern Denmark.

Time: 22 May 2018, 15:30-16:30 followed by a reception

Place: Alf Ross Auditorium, 3rd floor, room 9A-3-01, Njalsgade 76, DK-2300 Copenhagen S

Programme and registration