ABSTRACT
Modern Italy has had an image as a particularly violent society, by western European standards, since the late 1960s. This fits the image of the Italian Renaissance, as conceived by Jacob Burckhardt in the nineteenth century, or fostered by the eminently readable Autobiography of the goldsmith-sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71), that features violence and bisexuality as well as great artistic and political tensions in Rome and Florence.1 Previous chapters have already exemplified tensions, strife and problems of control. This chapter will explore some causes and examples further, consider the extent to which conflicts were modified if not controlled, and note areas where social control, by governments, elites and the reformed church, increased.2
