Amalias Tale A Poor Peasant an Ambitious Attorney & a Fight for Justice

"A compelling story masterfully told." --Peter D. Kramer, author of Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind and Listening to Prozac

"David Kertzer tells [a] riveting story . . . A fascinating episode." --Natalie Zemon Davis, author of The Return of Martin Guerre

This quintessential David-and-Goliath saga tells the story of a wholly unexpected triumph of the poor against the rich and of a crusading city attorney who fought on behalf of an impoverished peasant.

Amalia Bagnacavalli, an illiterate young peasant from the mountains near Bologna, is forced by poverty to take in a child from the citys foundling home to wet-nurse. When Amalia contracts syphilis from the sickly and malformed baby given to her, the city fathers callously dismiss her pleas for treatment and restitution.

Bewildered and frightened, she seeks out Augusto Barbieri, an ambitious attorney looking to make a name for himself. He takes up Amalias cause, fighting the case for years through the Italian courts before winning an unprecedented and stunning victory for his by now broken client. The unforgettable story of a landmark struggle for basic human rights, Amalias Tale is the moving drama of a rural woman whose life was ruined and the man from the city who would not stop -- or so it seemed -- until he had seen justice done.

David I. Kertzer is the author of, among other books, Prisoner of the Vatican, The Popes Against the Jews, and The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, winner of the National Jewish Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Award. He is provost of Brown University and professor of anthropology and Italian studies.

Prologue ix 1. An Unexpected Visitor 1 2. The Fateful Day 11 3. The First Signs 19 4. Suing the Count 31 5. The Mercury Treatment 42 6. The Trial Begins 48 7. Disputing the Doctor 55 8. The Parade of the Syphilitic Peasants 66 9. The Psychiatrists Attack 74 10. The Miserly Syphilologist 81 11. A New Champion 89 12. Conflicting Opinions 98 13. The Tribunal Decides 106 14. Amalias Appeal 116 15. The Loan 125 16. The Counteroffensive 132 17. Mixed News from the Supreme Court 138 18. A Split Decision 151 19. A Staggering Sum 157 20. Amalias Lawyer Submits His Bill 164 21. Lives Lost and Lives Saved 173 22. Aristocrats, Lawyers, Doctors, and Peasants: Amalia Looks Back 182

Postscript: Recovering Buried History 190 Acknowledgments 199 Notes 201 Sources 204 Index 228