IMC 2023: Sessions
Session 1509: Law after Rome: Networks and Connections in the Leges barbarorum, II - Social Life of Law and Documentary Practices in Early Medieval Italy
Thursday 6 July 2023, 09.00-10.30
| Organiser: | Thomas Gobbitt, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Christopher Heath, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University |
| Paper 1509-a | From Birth to Wedding (Language: English) Index terms: Anthropology, Charters and Diplomatics, Daily Life, Law |
| Paper 1509-b | Merry Widows in Lombard and Post-Lombard Italy?: Law, Legislation, and Documentary Evidence, 774-900 (Language: English) Index terms: Anthropology, Charters and Diplomatics, Law, Literacy and Orality |
| Paper 1509-c | Margins of Freedom: Documentary Visibility and Legal Action of Non-Free Individuals in Early Medieval Italy (Language: English) Index terms: Archives and Sources, Charters and Diplomatics, Law, Social History |
| Abstract | With approximately 15,000 notarial charters preserved between the mid-7th and mid-11th centuries, most of which have been transmitted in their original form, Italy has a documentary heritage that is unique in Europe. The richness of its holdings should make it possible to study the most concrete aspects of legal practice. The point of view chosen, in the perspective of a collective work on the theme of this panel, is that of individuals and families, based on the following question: to what extent does diplomatic documentation make it possible to follow the course of a life, from birth to death? What are the moments that give rise to the drafting of a charter? What is ordinary and what is not? Does the documentation give a faithful picture of everyday transactions? While the regions north of the Alps benefit from formulars, which show a great variety regardless of the conservation of the charters, Italian notaries do not have such guides. This does not mean, however, that documentary practice is not able of taking into account the vagaries of life. |