Ancient complaint boxes - Verona, Italy
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T-Team!
N 45° 26.585 E 010° 59.900
32T E 656280 N 5034115
The territory of the ancient Republic of Venice was full of these boxes and, if one pays attention, many can still be found scattered on the walls of the cities. They are the snapdragons for secret denunciations, called "Boche de leon".
Waymark Code: WM177TH
Location: Veneto, Italy
Date Posted: 12/31/2022
Views: 2
"They usually depict the head of a lion, symbol of the Republic of Venice (hence the name) or the face of a man with a mean expression, with a slot instead of a mouth to be able to insert the sheets containing the secret complaints made by the citizens .
The complaints were indeed secret, but they had to be signed and cite at least three witnesses, otherwise the magistrate was forced to burn them, unless the case reported was not so serious as to have to carry out a careful verification before proceeding.
Probably introduced in 1310 after an attempted coup d'état, they spread throughout the Republic in order to be able to report any kind of crime. Each mouth collected a different type of complaint and only the District Heads could open them with the keys kept by the magistrates. The investigations were very scrupulous and the magistrates were required to judge on the basis of concrete evidence and not on the basis of suspicions.
In Verona on the Palazzo della Ragione you can still see two of the most particular ones. The one on the side in via Dante and connected to the Dacio per Fornelli reads:
SECRET COMPLAINTS AGAINST
SMUGGLER HEADQUARTERS
AND WHO KEPT CAVALERI
OR STOVES
TO TIRAR SEDA WITHOUT BILL
In those times, silk was a state monopoly and high taxes favored its smuggling [the "cavaleri" are the silkworms while the "stoves" were used to work them]. This crime was considered so serious that the death penalty was instituted for offenders."
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