
This essay focuses on the right of correction as an institution of medieval and modern law. It is a mechanism used by the head of the family to govern the household and ensure its orderly functioning. It is also a mechanism whose public regulation defines the boundary between the legitimate use of force and its abuse. The analysis particularly examines how the ius corrigendi or castigandi is applied in the context of the relationship between spouses, reviewing criminal and civil sources from two distinct yet related periods in Italian legislative history: the medieval era of ius proprium and the codification phase at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.