Whipping block - Mucri - Criminology Museum

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Whipping block
used in the Papal State until 1870

Whipping, which was often combined with cutting off the ears, was mainly inflicted on beggars and vagrants, or pedlars who came from outside the city and competed unfairly with the local ones. In the case of the latter, the offenders were branded on their foreheads as a means of identification, as well as whipped.

Provenance: Rome, Museo di Castel Sant’Angelo, 1934

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