Using such primary documents as legal statutes and actual trial records, the author provides a step-by-step explanation of trial procedures and offers a rare glimpse into inquisition methods in the secular world. She explores links among the implementation of inquisition procedures, the development of the territorial state, and the struggle between republican institutions and the emerging oligarchy. The book deals with the medieval and Renaissance criminal law system in Florence primarily as a judicial institution and secondarily as part of the central government. In addition, philosophies of prosecution and profiles of criminality are historically reviewed. References, notes, and tables