Studi di storia medioevale e di diplomatica - Nuova Serie
The Journal welcomes essays on Medieval History, Palaeography and Diplomatics, with a preference for original research that make use of unpublished sources.
These pages celebrate the memory of the late Cosimo Damiano Fonseca and his crucial role in medieval studies
Copyright (c) 2025 Elisa Occhipinti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Marescalchi, Hippiatrists, and Treatise Writers. Equine Veterinary Medicine, Between Training and Transmission in Italy Between the 13th and 14th Centuries
Among the documents recording horse inventories of the Commune of Perugia between 1276 and 1292, there is a vast compendium of magagnae—diseases mostly designated by terms unknown to medieval Latin and of obscure meaning, suggesting a clinical vocabulary of veterinary pathologies. Cross-referencing these with the principal equine veterinary treatises circulating at the time confirms this interpretation, offering rare evidence of the actual application of what can be seen, beyond the written page of the treatises, as a genuine proto-veterinary medical science. Indeed, it is exactly from the mid-13th century onward, beginning with De medicina equorum by Giordano Ruffo, that veterinary medicine underwent a renewal marked by a practical and empirical character—a turning point from earlier traditions and classical auctoritates, which were characterized by a predominantly theoretical knowledge that had seemingly become, at least in part, obsolete. By using these two diverse types of primary sources—on one hand, the administrative records of a 13th-century commune, and on the other, the key treatises composed and circulating at the time—it becomes possible to enrich the narrative scope of both. What emerges is a deeper understanding of how veterinary knowledge was compiled and transmitted, as well as insights into the professional and para-educational dimension of mascalcia, a trade of considerable cultural significance in the society of the time.
Copyright (c) 2025 Irina Mattioli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Learning by Re-searching. The experience of the INTRADAMS Summer School at the Crossroads of Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Production
The INTRADAMS Summer School (University of Milan) combines traditional manuscript studies with advanced digital tools like multispectral imaging to analyze palimpsests. Students actively work on medieval manuscripts such as Dante’s Commedia (Triv. 1084), the Liber Primicerii, and the Fragmentum Calendarii Ambrosiani, uncovering hidden texts and documentary fragments. The program fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, enhancing both technical skills and historical knowledge.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ludovica Invernizzi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
«A new and broader investigation». Axel Goria between the Corpus Astense and 20th century medieval studies
«A new and broader investigation». Axel Goria between the Corpus Astense and 20th century medieval studies The critical edition of the Asti chroniclers and the essays completing it are the legacy of one of Turin’s leading medievalists of the 20th century, Axel Goria, a disciple of Giorgio Falco. This work was entrusted to him in 1937 by the Italian Historical Institute for the Middle Ages in Rome and accompanied Goria’s studies without, however, being published. It constitutes a synthesis of the itinerary of medieval studies in the first decades of the twentieth century and an opening to the developments that the University of Turin and the Roman Institute would later bring about. The sources edited by Goria testify to the political dynamics between the 13th and 15th centuries in the process of institutional experimentation within which the communal experience encounters supra-regional networks of relations. This crucial phase is investigated through the chroniclers’ lexicon without adhering to preconstituted models: the study does not actually adopt the dichotomy concord - discord, freedom - tyranny, but analyzes the relations between the Partes, the People and broader powers – Anjou, Church and Empire – without neglecting the socio-economic dimension. This encounter between diplomatics and historical research is at the origin of the enduring validity of Goria’s work.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ezio Claudio Pia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The chancellery of the Aragonese Kingdom of Naples reconstructed thanks to the great seal’s books of Antonello Petrucci
The paper reconstructs the personnel and budget of the Aragonese chancellery in Naples between 1456 and 1473, until now unknown to the literature, through the expenses of ten account books of the royal great seal. Secretaries and writers were paid from the seal rights paid by the beneficiaries of letters sent from the chancellery. The information contained in the seal books, which were destroyed in 1943 (except for a single book and some fragments), was reconstructed thanks to the insertions in the receipts (quietanciae) requested by Antonello Petrucci of Aversa, who was the recipient of the seal rights and later the first secretary of the kingdom, and the handwritten files of some scholars. We also focus on the operating of the chancellery of Alfonso the Magnanimous during his stay in the kingdom, with attention to its functional and physical dislocation into different scribanias. Thanks to the reconstruction of the chancellery's budget we can explain why in 1490 the humanist Giovanni Pontano, Petrucci's successor, submitted his resignation to King Ferrante of Aragon
Copyright (c) 2025 Francesco Senatore https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Lo spazio della paternità nei Carmina di Venanzio Fortunato
The article examines the space given by Venantius Fortunatus to the vast theme of fatherhood in his poetic sylloge. Starting from some general considerations on the figure of the pater and his authority in the centuries of transition from the Roman to the medieval world, it is possible to delineate the different types of paternal figures present in the Carmina: bishops, kings, ordinary parents. These protagonists of Venantius's verses fulfil their role in very different ways, now as shepherds of the people of God, now as rulers of a kingdom but also as fathers of future heirs to the throne, now as parents worried about the fate of their offspring. Venantius's poetic sensibility also allows us to grasp the range of significant emotions that underlie the bonds between patres and their children, whether carnal or spiritual.
Copyright (c) 2025 Emanuele Piazza https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Community archives and council proceedings in the Lombard mountains during the Late Middle Ages. A survey
The paper presents an overview of the community archives of the lombard alpine region, focusing in particular on the extant late medieval council proceedings. The research is part of the project Writing communities. Council records in the late medieval Alps (PRIN 2022). The survey sheds some light on the record-keeping tradition of many communities within a vast scenario, from Southern Swiss Alps to East Lombard Prealps. The paper adresses archival practices, registers’ material structure, authentication techniques and content organisation of the sources. It argues that council registers were not just simple collector devices, but also flexible tools for specific administrative purposes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Andrea Barsacchi, Pietro d'Orlando https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
ARMARIUM project. Study of Armorial Register Covers in Italian Communes: the Albertini Collection of Fondazione Perugia
From the mid-thirteenth century onward, Italian communal offices began transcribing the acts they produced into bound registers, whose parchment covers bore the coat of arms of the podestà or capitano del popolo, textual elements specifying the nature of the recorded acts, and the names of the notary and magistrate responsible, as well as spontaneous drawings and annotations. The Armarium project (Paris, EPHE-Saprat/IRHT) is dedicated to the study of this still little-known documentation. In this initial stage, the project will focus on the examination of the Albertini Collection, an unpublished corpus of over 1,700 register covers produced by the commune of Perugia between the 13th and 15th centuries, acquired in June 2024 by the Fondazione Perugia. Armarium aims to provide the scholarly community with a database containing full digital reproductions of these documents, together with data derived from their analysis. The project seeks to contribute to the study of the practices of representation of individuals and social groups in the Middle Ages, the reconstruction of recruitment networks and mobility of communal officials, and the broader understanding of the legal, literary, artistic, and heraldic culture of legal professionals.
Copyright (c) 2025 Matteo Ferrari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The project «Notariado y construcción social de la realidad, II: los registros notariales medievales» (NotFor II)
Notariado y construcción social de la realidad, II: los registros notariales medievales (NotFor II) is a three-year research project (from 01/09/2024 to 31/12/2027) which aims to study notaries public and the issuing of their charters as an essential component in the development of late medieval written culture. Its objectives are the identification and edition of medieval notarial registers; the study of their expedition, form, use and preservation; and the attempt to understand them from a European perspective, moving toward a general understanding of these books.
Copyright (c) 2025 Miguel Calleja Puerta, Pilar Ostos-Salcedo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The project «The age of the knights. Knightly pre-eminence, local societies and powers: new perspectives on the Italian countrysides (11th –13th century)»
The age of the knights. Knightly pre-eminence, local societies and powers: new perspectives on the Italian countrysides (11th – 13th centuries) is a two-year PRIN 2022 research project, funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU, which aims to fill the great historiographical gap on the pervasive presence of mounted fighters even in castle and village communities, where they often constituted the eminent social class. The aim here is to illustrate the project contents and objectives, but also the first results of the research path undertaken, which emerged during two seminar meetings held on September 27, 2024, and March 27, 2025.
Copyright (c) 2025 Federico Lattanzio https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The wills Of Carlo, Mastino, and Drusiana Visconti, heirs of Bernabò
The aim of this contribution is to analyse five unpublished wills of three exiles of the Visconti family – Carlo, Mastino and Drusiana – heirs of the Lord of Milan Bernabò, forced to flee after the coup in 1385 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Drawn up in Venice according to the meticulous local notarial practice, the sources offer a privileged insight into the management of the estate, the dynastic strategies and the roots in the Serenissima, which had become their new social and economic centre. The analysis reveals the use of the testamentary bequest as a political instrument and for consolidating family memory: the practices of heritage protection are intertwined with the desire to integrate into the institutional and financial circuits of Venice, whose city institutions assume a key role. What emerges is a profound transformation of wills, which marks the passage from dynastic ambition to the construction of a new urban identity, centred on the conservation of the Visconti prestige and on the decisive weight of the hereditary estate, testifying to the ways in which the nobility in exile acted in the late Middle Ages.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rossella Talerico https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Fragments of written memory: recovered sheets of lost 13th-century notarial registers from Sutri
This article examines three parchment leaves originally belonging to two 13th-century notarial registers. These leaves were reused in the 15th century as guard-leaves for two manuscripts preserved in the Vatican Library, namely Vat. Lat. 1469 and Vat. Lat. 1979. The three leaves contain fifteen imbreviatuarae written by the notary Giovanni Pandulfi in Sutri in 1262 and another year of the second half of the 13th century. The importance of these texts lies in the fact that they constitute the only extant testimony of 13th-century notarial protocols from Sutri. Furthermore, in Lazio, only two other fragments of notarial protocols from that period exist. Therefore, they contribute to the knowledge of notarial registration practices in the early phase, and their discovery also increases our understanding of reusing discarded documents.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cristina Carbonetti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Recycled documents in Apulia: seal cases from the archive of St. Nicholas of Bari
Thirty-two seal cases of royal and princely documents of the 13th-16th centuries made by recycling parchment and paper documents are preserved in the St Nicholas Basilica’s Archives. The paper speculates on the period and technique of manufacture and on the choice of materials to be reused. The cases were made during a restoration campaign promoted by the Chapter between the late 15th and early 16th century to improve the administration of the church. In organising the work, enclosures were made of different materials, and various, often drastic, operations were carried out to protect the seals. Documents, mainly private ones, that had no economic interest for the church were used to make the parchment cases, but documents were also used testifying to the recent domination of the Prince of Taranto in the city, which ended in 1463 and was to be consigned to oblivion. Written traces also remain in a cartulary that the canons commissioned from a Bari public notary in the late 16th century. It is a valuable aid in increasing knowledge about St. Nicholas’ history and the quantity of its documentary heritage, the technical archival vocabulary in use and the organisation of work in a notary office in a city of the Kingdom.
Copyright (c) 2025 Corinna Drago https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Cozroh’s Liber Traditionum and the Memory of the Agilolfing Era: the Case of Traditions nos. 49 and 50 and the References to Hagiography and Legislative Texts
The traditiones of the Cozroh Codex, the liber traditionum of the Church of Freising, produced between 824 and 848 approximately, were edited by Theodor Bitterauf in 1905. In the footsteps of Redlich's theories on the libri traditionum, this edition considers the traditiones as individual acts that are rearranged chronologically and in continuity with documents attested in other codices of the Freising archive. More recent research has however urged us to bring attention back to the codex itself and to the original arrangement of the documents. This article proposes to analyse the first two traditiones in the part of the codex dedicated to the episcopate of Arbeo of Freising (764-783) in the light of some lexical parallels with the Vitae Corbiniani and Haimhrammi and with the legislative texts of the Agilolfing era (primarily the lex Baiuvariorum and the Synod of Neuching): these clues allow us to hypothesise that the original arrangement of the documents in the codex may derive from Cozroh's desire to provide his audience with a precise interpretation of Arbeo’s episcopate, enhancing the role of the bishop both as the author of the hagiographical texts and as collaborator of duke Tassilo.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Möseneder-Frajria https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
From «indignus sacerdos» to «kancellarius curie Arborensis»: the scribe Pietro Pagano (1182–1195)
This study examines the evolution of the chancery of the Judicate of Arborea through the figure of Pietro Pagano, a cleric active between 1182 and 1195. Initially referring to himself as indignus sacerdos, Pagano later adopted the title of kancellarius curie Arborensis, and, based on currently available sources, emerges as the first and only formally attested chancellor within a Sardinian judicial chancery. His activity is notable for the diversity of the surviving documentary corpus - composed in both Latin and Sardinian vernacular - and for the use of both local and continental diplomatic formulas. The analysis of the seven acts attributed to him reveals a high level of scribal competence, in marked contrast with the widespread illiteracy of the contemporary Arborensian clergy. Pietro Pagano’s work represents a turning point in the institutionalization of Sardinian chanceries, marking the transition from an informal documentary practice - typically entrusted to occasional clerics - to a more structured and professionalized bureaucratic model.
Copyright (c) 2025 BIANCA FADDA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
«De lege sua subdiscendere». Tradition and uses of Liutprand’s Law no. 91 in the charters of the Kingdom of Italy
Unlike other legislative capitula – widely quoted in the documents of the regnum Italiae throughout the early Middle Ages – the extra-edictal tradition of King Liutprand’s Law no. 91 began suddenly and late, shortly after the year 1000, and just as abruptly, at the end of the 11th century, it disappeared from notarial practice. In that period, however, it proved to be a valuable resource at the service of the need to strengthen the firmitas of specific typologies and documentary events, both inside and outside the spaces in which legislation itself and the juridical exegesis had placed it. What were these spaces? To what precise needs for action and documentation was the recovery of a three-hundred-year-old law linked? What were the characteristics of its reuse and its actualisation in the charters of the two areas of the regnum (the Subalpine/Lombard territories and southern Marche) that preserve evidence of it?
Copyright (c) 2025 Gianmarco De Angelis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The consistory of the Church of Cadiz (14th-16th centuries): provisors, notaires and do- cumental praxis
In the Late Middle Ages, like the rest of the Hispanic and European dioceses, the Church of Cadiz had an office for the administration of ecclesiastical justice: the consistory. However, even though the Cadiz diocese traces its roots back to the Christian conquest of the city in the 13th century under the reign of Alfonso X the Wise, it wasn't until the end of the 14th century that the first documentary evidence of its functioning emerged. In this article, therefore, we will focus on the provisors who directed this office, as well as the notaries on whom they relied to formalize their scriptural needs.
Copyright (c) 2025 Javier E. Jiménez López de Eguileta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The finances of pastoral visits. Considerations based on the examples of Florence and Lucca
The essay employs an economic perspective to explore the late medieval pastoral visits. This practice was not only an act of episcopal governance, but also a matter of financial administration, as it generated significant revenues for the bishops and entailed costs for the visited, thus falling under the jurisdiction of diocesan taxation. These revenues were not merely ancillary to other assets; rather, they serve to underscore the profound interconnection between episcopal power and economic resources.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jacopo Paganelli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The concluding remarks examines the role of objects as commodities in the late Middle Ages through written and material sources, highlighting shifts in their social and economic perception. Historical documents such as customs records, account books, and inventories demonstrate the growing importance attributed to objects, both as status symbols and consumer goods. Following the 14th-century plague, there was a notable increase in consumption and the spread of luxury items, reflecting a more hedonistic mentality. Archaeological analysis complements historical research by linking artifacts to specific social contexts and uncovering often hidden economic and cultural dynamics. The comparative approach between material and written sources provides a multifaceted understanding of late medieval societies, revealing the complex social and economic relationships tied to objects, from production to consumption. The volume underscores the need for an integrated and critical interpretation of sources to fully grasp the role of objects in the material culture and society of the period.
Copyright (c) 2025 Enrico Basso, Sauro Gelichi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
In the Workshop of a Stationer in Florence, in the Year 1348
In this contribution, a document preserved in the Florence State Archives is presented, relating to a legal case recorded between July 1348 and January 1349, in which the stationer Orsello di Andrea Orselli filed a lawsuit against the heirs of Vieri di Giovanni for a debt of 13 gold florins. On September 17, 1348, the judge Vanni di Giovanni ordered the seizure of the goods in Vieri's shop to cover the claimed amount, following the judicial customs of the time. The goods were appraised by Filippino di Filippo Vannozzi, also a stationer, who listed and assigned a value to each item, including paper notebooks, parchment, and tools. A second creditor, the linen merchant Ristoro Niccoli, also obtained a seizure on the same goods for a debt of 9 florins. The total debt amounted to 22 florins and 50 soldi, while the value of the seized goods was 68 lire and 16 soldi, almost exactly matching the owed amount. At the end of the trial, the objects were awarded to Orsello as part of the debt settlement. This case provides valuable insights into the valuation of goods in a 14th-century stationer's shop in Florence and the high cost of paper compared to parchment.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bruno Figliuolo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Used goods and recycled objects in the late Middle Ages: a study of custom sources in Florence and Milan
Through the use of customs accounts the essay analyses the items used and recycled in the late Middle Ages. The two case-studies are the Florentine one, with two Stratti di Gabelle, and the Milanese one through the use of the Liber datii mercantie communis Mediolani:, between the second half of the 14th and the first half of the 15th century. Both rich and populous, and characterised by productions of different kinds and quality, the two cities were among the largest economic and commercial hubs in Italy and Europe. Legislation of a fiscal nature, enacted by the government of the Florentine Republic on the one hand and by the Visconti and later Sforza dukes on the other, placed great emphasis on the taxation of all goods entering and leaving the city gates and their respective territories. The list of merchandises also included second-hand goods, sometimes even cast-offs, as well as recycled and/or to-be-recycled objects. While Milan taxed indifferently all items in circulation, both used and new, applying a duty of 12 denari for every lira of value, Florence, on the other hand, issued specific measures to tax old and worn items differently from new ones, thus envisaging for the second-hand market and for the consumption of those who resorted to it a different economic treatment.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alessia Meneghin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
From the exotic vase on the table to the pot in the kitchen. Ceramics as a commodity in Sicily: some reflections for an overall analysis of ceramic consumption in the late Middle Ages
Ceramic vessels are often used in archaeological studies as a proxy for the reconstruction of trade routes, but several aspects of their role in the market have been underestimated. Based on the data collected as part of the European project Sicily in Transition during the study of the ceramic assemblages from the excavations in Mazara del Vallo and Castronovo di Sicilia, this text aims to propose a broader vision of the ceramic object as a commodity by evaluating the aspects linked to international flows, together with those relating to internal circulation, trying at the same time to consider the changes that occurred in the production and consumption of ceramic objects in Sicily during the 14th and 15th centuries. To do this, three classes of products were selected, showing an evolution that seems indicative of the more general trade dynamics of the period; that is, imported Iberian ceramics, regional ceramics decorated in brown/green and fire ceramics. The complexity that emerged in this study seems indicative of the changes that have occurred in international trade but also of the efficiency of Sicilian internal networks as well as of a great dynamism of the artisan reality of the island.
Copyright (c) 2025 Paola Orecchioni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Far and near: goods in the 14th-century workshop of Francesco Datini
The historiographical path that begins with the world-economy concept of Federigo Melis and Fernand Braudel has gradually explored the organization of markets and the connections between commercial circuits and economic actors. In the 1990s, interest shifted towards regional and local spaces, with increasing attention to institutions and economic conjunctures in the links between markets of different levels. In 2000, Horden and Purcell suggested that the medieval Mediterranean was fragmented into microcosms, but with a substantial unity guaranteed by port connections and local trade. Subsequent studies have deepened the role of politics in market expansion and the Mediterranean as a network of short- and medium-range trade. In 2018, the ‘Datini Foundation’ stimulated reflections on ports as nodes of international exchanges. This framework of studies provides a basis for investigating the functioning of the commercial networks of Francesco Datini’s workshop, which was more than a retail outlet in 14th-century Tuscany. It was integrated into the European trade system, playing a crucial connective role between local, regional, and international markets.
Copyright (c) 2025 Angela Orlandi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Artificial lights in the Middle Ages: enlightening social distinction
In the late Middle Ages, social distinction was expressed through the possession and consumption of rare and precious movable goods. In addition to exotic foods and high-quality wines, clothing, jewelry, and artistic objects played a crucial role in defining social status. However, an often overlooked aspect is the role of artificial lighting. Candles, lamps, and candelabras not only had practical functions but also served to enhance the social prestige of their owners. These objects, often made of precious metals such as gold and silver, illuminated domestic and religious environments, amplifying their splendor. Their presence and use during ceremonies and banquets were eloquent symbols of wealth and power. Analyzing these artifacts provides a deeper understanding of medieval material culture and the symbols of social distinction.
Copyright (c) 2025 Beatrice Giovanna Maria Del Bo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Inventaria bonorum, a privileged source for the study of material culture
Among the primary sources for the study of the material culture in the Middle Ages, the inventaria bonorum offer a series of fundamental data to support the digital restitution of living spaces. It is not a simple list of objects but, by specific tools and an appropriate methodology, a guide through which it is possible, centuries later, to join the notary in his journey and reconstruct the original spatial layout. On these bases, the Dipartimento di studi umanistici e del patrimonio culturale (DIUM) and the Laboratorio informatico per la documentazione storico-artistica (LIDA) of the University of Udine have created a 3D restitution of the interiors of Palazzo Vanni degli Onesti in Mercatovecchio in Udine as they appeared according to the inventory drawn up by the notary Matteo Clapiceo from 4 to 17 December 1437. This made it possible to recover the lost subdivision of the rooms, the typological redistribution of furniture and furnishings, the virtual relocation of the painted wooden ceilings that have now been dismantled, and the reconstruction of the related frescoed wall decoration. That allowed to obtain an immersive experience that enables to relive customs and habits, choices of taste and colours long-forgotten, proposing a possible fifteenth-century century living dimension.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maurizio d’Arcano Grattoni, Francesco Fratta de Tomas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The trade in ceramic products in an alpine area: the case of Quart Castle (AO)
The text discusses the trade of ceramic products in the Aosta Valley, specifically within the context of the Castle of Quart. Despite the challenges posed by the mountainous terrain, the region was an important commercial crossroads due to its location along the trade route connecting the passes of the Little and Great St. Bernard. This steady flow of goods included ceramics from various production centers, as evidenced by archaeological finds at the Castle of Quart. Excavations have uncovered ceramic materials from different periods, dating back both to the time when the castle was inhabited by the Lords of Quart in the 14th century and to the 15th-16th centuries when it was administered by castellans appointed by the Counts of Savoy. The study focuses on analyzing these ceramics, highlighting their diverse origins, ranging from the Piedmont region to Middle Eastern artifacts. The ceramics reflect the cultural exchange and variety of commercial trade routes that passed through this alpine region, emphasizing its historical role as a key hub for goods and cultural influences.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mauro Cortelazzo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
From the Market to the Home: Objects and Their Trade Between History and Archaeology (Northern Italy, 1275–1500)
This contribution aims to analyze the commercial landscape and the circulation of objects in northern Italy from the late 13th to the 15th century. The perspective presented here arises from the intersection of historical and archaeological sources. Lombardy is characterized by its vibrant commercial activity and favorable political conditions, such as the reduction of transaction costs under the Visconti. However, interpreting economic transformations requires careful consideration of the limitations of the available sources. Written sources, such as customs records, provide valuable yet partial data on the quantity and types of traded objects, often distorting the reality of daily consumption. Similarly, archaeological evidence, despite showing an exponential increase in material visibility between the 13th and 15th centuries, does not always allow for precise reconstruction of economic flows. An integrated analysis of written and material sources is therefore essential to understand the complexity of late medieval commerce. The research also focuses on Valtellina, a strategic area for trade between the Po Valley and Northern Europe. Archaeological data, particularly concerning ceramics, are crucial but do not always correspond to the information derived from customs records, highlighting the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches for an accurate study of medieval markets.
Copyright (c) 2025 Federico Zoni, Riccardo Rao https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
In & out: imports, exports and local production in Apulia between the 12th and 15th centuries
This study evaluates the role of Apulia as a cultural crossroads and trade centre during the Middle Ages, as a consequence of its strategic position between the eastern Mediterranean and the Adriatic. The region's prominence in trade is evidenced by the import of Byzantine and Arab ceramics under the Byzantine Empire and until the Norman conquest. With the formation of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, Apulian ceramic production, in particular Brindisi protomaiolica and glazed ceramics produced in Lecce, Taranto and the Ionian area, became the dominant form of pottery in the markets of Frankish Greece and the Crusader states in the Levant. The research focuses on the production and trade of Apulian ceramics between the 12th and 15th centuries. It demonstrates a notable shift in the composition of imports, accompanied by a surge in local production, which was shaped by the influence of Byzantine and Arab ceramics. During the 13th century, Apulia developed a multitude of ceramic production centres in order to meet the demands of the internal and external markets, exporting to Italy, Greece, and the Levant. From the fifteenth century onwards, the Ottoman occupation of the Balkans resulted in a contraction of trade. However, Apulian production adapted, focusing on the domestic markets and those of central and northern Italy. Active trade networks along the Adriatic coast were maintained until the modern age.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marisa Tinelli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Objects of desire: values, choices and consumption in 14th-century Sassari
Research in recent decades has highlighted the complexity of the relationship between objects and subjects in pre-capitalist societies. A relevant role plays written records, lists, and inventories. Inventories, an instrument of control and taking by those who prepare them, enter the sphere of material culture directly. They yield much information about the social life of objects, the circulation and levels of diffusion of consumer goods, and the similarities and differences between different social groups. However, the interaction between written documents and archaeological evidence makes it possible to approach the past more deeply. Using inventories and excavation data relating to objects that belonged to the Sassari community in the mid-fourteenth century, through the complementary nature of the data, this contribution explores the possibilities of recomposing the levels of consumption, the ideological and cultural aspects linked to the objects and the relationship of individuals with ‘things’ between signs of social distinction, economy, practical needs, and cultural practices.
Copyright (c) 2025 Pinuccia Simbula, Elisabetta Garau https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Bundling Values in Later Medieval Europe: the Case of Marseille
As the European economy became monetized over the course of the later Middle Ages, object values began to appear in an extensive array of sources, typically in the form of estimates or value appraisals. Using records from the city of Marseille as a case study, this contribution considers a widespread practice that involved bundling or grouping a set of two or more objects and supplying a single value estimate to that bundle. Some value bundles consisted of sets of identical object types. In other cases, objects that were dissimilar to one another were combined in value bundles. In some cases involving the bundling of identical object types, the resulting values arose from unit-price thinking, that is, estimating the value of the object type and multiplying by the number of objects. Close reading of some representative sources, however, indicates that some values were applied to whole bundles, a situation that is especially evidence in cases where dissimilar objects were bundled. This contribution argues that variations in habits of value estimation provide important clues for understanding patterns of mathematical cognition in medieval European societies.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Lord Smail https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0