Disputes and courts in Lombard and Carolingian central Italy
Marios Costambeys
This study examines the relationship between judicial courts and societies in which they operated as revealed by documents of abbey Farfa duchy Spoleto. In a series case studies it is shown that disputants judges could draw on wide range norms enabled them to manipulate settlement process tailor their own social advantage. Unlike many disputes central northern Italy early Middle Ages, here weight given those aspects disputing took place outside court. It an approach casts fresh light transition from Lombard Carolingian rule Italy. also challenges binary line ‘private’ ‘public’ dispute settlement. This, turn, has implications for how we view so‐called ‘feudal transformation’ public was supposedly eclipsed private. 1
Early Medieval Europe