This article argues that Renaissance legal culture provided a robust means of evaluating the epistemological status of rumour, informed by the Roman law of proof. In order to do so, the article explores the meaning of hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings from late Renaissance France, focusing on a major series of interrogations for homicide in the Parlement of Paris. It contributes to legal history by demonstrating how the inquisitorial procedures employed by the Parlement’s magistrates exemplified the sophisticated Roman law of witness evidence concerning hearsay. And it contributes to social and cultural history by revealing how effectively people throughout the social hierarchy understood the significance of hearsay in all its forms, so that witnesses, the accused, and the magistrates leading their interrogations knew well how to manipulate hearsay evidence to achieve their ends in the courtroom. Ultimately, this approach reinforces the growing consensus among recent histories of communication concerning the continued primacy of oral culture in the new age of print, but it does so from a new perspective that emphasises the fundamental role that oral evidence played in creating legal knowledge.

中文翻译：

---

法国文艺复兴晚期刑事诉讼中的传闻证据

本文认为，文艺复兴时期的法律文化提供了一种根据罗马证明法评估谣言认识论地位的有力手段。为此，本文探讨了法国文艺复兴晚期刑事诉讼中传闻证据的含义，重点关注巴黎高等法院对凶杀案的一系列主要审讯。它通过展示高等法院治安法官采用的审讯程序如何体现了有关传闻的证人证据的复杂罗马法，为法律史做出了贡献。它通过揭示整个社会等级制度中的人们如何有效地理解各种形式的传闻的重要性，从而为社会和文化历史做出贡献，因此证人、被告、领导审讯的地方法官很清楚如何操纵传闻证据来达到他们在法庭上的目的。最终，这种方法加强了近期传播历史中关于口述文化在新印刷时代的持续首要地位日益增长的共识，但它是从一个强调口述证据在创造法律知识中所起的基本作用的新视角这样做的。