Grace from Above: Petitions and Appeals in Farnese Parma, 1631-1727

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the system of petitions and appeals in the early modern Italian state of Parma, from 1631-1727, considering the role of petitioning in the state under three Farnese dukes. Employing the sciences of ethology and social psychology, it argues that petitions both created and solidified the entrenched hierarchy of ducal rule. It analyzes who the petitioners were and for what they petitioned, and the role of and benefit to the dukes in this system. It uses a random sample of petitions as well as administrative documents to analyze the arrangement of the system, concluding that because of the disparate nature of the petitioners' identities and the issues for which they petitioned, as well as the careful attention paid by the dukes to certain cases and the symbolically important income they received, petitioning was a non-zero-sum game that served to cement structures of authority in the Farnese state.