This book explores the intersection of medieval literature and the early conceptualization of crime, justice, and legal theory. Drawing on canonical texts such as Dante’s Divine Comedy, Boccaccio’s Decameron, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and court-case fiction from China and the Middle East, the authors trace the emergence of proto-criminological thought embedded within narrative traditions.
Through a rigorous interdisciplinary lens, the book examines how theological notions of sin gradually evolved into secular understandings of criminal culpability, legal responsibility, and forensic reasoning. It argues that medieval literature served as a crucible for the development of legal consciousness—anticipating modern jurisprudential concepts such as mens rea, proportionality of punishment, and restorative justice.
Combining literary analysis, legal theory, and criminological insight, this volume offers a compelling re-evaluation of the Middle Ages as a formative period in the genealogy of criminal law. It is essential reading for scholars of law and literature, criminology, medieval studies, and intellectual history.

Marcel Danesi is Professor Emeritus of linguistic anthropology and semiotics at the University of Toronto. He has published extensively in the areas of semiotics and linguistics, and was editor of Semiotics for more than a decade. He also was director of the Program in Semiotics at the University of Toronto.

Antonio Nicaso is an internationally-renowned researcher on organized crime and a prolific author on matters concerning criminology. He is Professor at Queen's University in Kingston Ontario.