Amalia's Tale by David I. Kertzer

Author:David I. Kertzer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HMH Books

CHAPTER 14

Amalia’s Appeal

WHILE COUNT ISOLANI was doing his best, with his lawyer’s help, to unburden the hospital of the accumulated claims made by the syphilitic women, he was not especially worried about the reappearance of Amalia’s case. But Amalia’s lawyer was not yet willing to concede defeat, and two weeks after the Tribunal read its decision, he sent in his appeal to Bologna’s higher court.

Amalia herself knew nothing of the Court of Appeals and could not image how her case, which had already lasted so long and had been so solemnly decided in court, could still offer her any hope. Barbieri did his best to explain that she had a right to appeal, and he tried to lift her spirits by saying that she still had a chance to get justice.

After the court’s decision, another man might have sought to limit his losses and drop the case or try to cut a deal with the foundling home out of court. Neither solution appealed to Barbieri. Count Isolani felt vindicated by the Tribunal’s ruling and, offended by Amalia’s presumption in bringing him to court, was not likely to want to reward her now. Barbieri also knew that there would be little in it for him even if the count were willing to give something to Amalia. He would certainly not want to encourage the lawyer responsible for causing him so much aggravation, and if, having won at the Tribunal, the count were to pay him anything at all, Barbieri knew that it would be pathetically little.

But there was another reason that Barbieri did not give up. Through the newspaper coverage of the trial, along with the distribution of his briefs in published form and the comments in Bologna’s small community of lawyers, he had already attracted a certain amount of attention. Both his oratorical powers and his legal skills had already become better known, all in a context that cast him as a defender of the poor and downtrodden, a champion of modern science and enlightened government. Taking the suit to the higher level promised him even greater visibility. Proud of the closing arguments to the Tribunal, which he had recently published, he looked forward to being able to wax even more eloquently in his argument to the appeals court, an argument whose publication would advance his reputation even further.

Barbieri spent a great deal of time over the next three months preparing his brief. Following appeals court procedures, he had to submit it in writing, and when he took it to the court in late November, already printed by Azzoguidi, it was seventy-five pages long.

He did his best to cast the case as the story of a poor but virtuous young woman who was victimized by a powerful exploiter. A country woman of spotless reputation, the pride of her family, he wrote, was poisoned by one of the most hideous evils to plague humanity, all as the result of the foundling home’s negligence. Yet, tragically, the Tribunal had failed to see that justice be served.

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