Swearing the custom. Social practices and memory of power in rural Italy (1000c.-1250c.)

Abstract

Aim of this work is to explore the world of oral custom in rural Italy, during the high Middle Ages, using evidence (until now quite neglected) from central and northern Italy, with a special focus on the area of Verona. In a social space characterized by the centrality of ritual and of oral word, the local custom was tightly connected with the placitum generale, the local village assembly, of Carolingian origin. During the placitum, three (o more) jurors swore the local norms in front of the assembly of the men of the village and of the lord and his retinue (a ritual very similar to the well-known German Weisungen). It was a crucial moment, in which the local balance of power and the local set of rights was confirmed, contested or denied. We can also observe a complex interaction between the oral custom, connected with the performances of the jurors, the (often partial) registrations of these performances and other documents about local rights (franchises, pacts between lords and subjects, etc.). With the half of thirteenth century the rural rules were increasingly written up in statuta, following the urban example; this marked the end of the ceremony of the swearing of custom.