Clavis Libri

Theme

Justice and Law

Justice and law, and the clash between them: crime and punishment, trial, court, natural law against written law.

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

the ecclesiastical court and the punishment of conscience (ch. V of Book II), the supreme justice that Alyosha sees violated (ch. II of Book VII), the second ordeal of the inquest (ch. IV of Book IX), the arrest record (ch. IX of Book IX), the judge who can only judge one who recognizes himself as a criminal (ch. III of Book VI), Madame Khokhlakova's affekt (ch. II of Book XI), the prosecutor and the Karamazov mirror (ch. VI of Book XII), the defense (ch. X of Book XII, ch. XII of Book XII) and the verdict (ch. XIV of Book XII).

Inferno

Dante Alighieri

the gate that says it was made by justice, by power, by wisdom, and by love (canto III), the formula "it is so willed there where what one wants can be done," said to Charon and repeated to Minos (canto V), Fortune as the minister set by God (canto VII), the classification of canto XI, the will from on high before the Malebranche (canto XXI), and the contrapasso of Bertran de Born (canto XXVIII).

Paradise

Dante Alighieri

the eagle that Justinian hands over to the judgment of whoever appropriates it and whoever fights it (canto VI), the cross measured by the nature assumed and by the person (canto VII), the Eagle that denies mortals the judge's seat (canto XIX), Trajan and Rhipeus as a surprise to the wandering world (canto XX), and the sword from up here that cuts neither in haste nor late (canto XXII).

Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes

the knight who sees the suffering and does not look into the fault (chapter XXII of Part One, chapter XXX of Part One), the warrant of the Holy Brotherhood and the privileges of knight errantry (chapter XLV of Part One), the counsels of mercy to one who is about to judge (chapter XLII of Part Two), the sentences of the stick and the purse (chapter XLV of Part Two), the law of the bridge (chapter LI of Part Two), and the justice among thieves of Roque Guinart (chapter LX of Part Two).