Late Medieval History

Ellen Widder: Herzog Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1378-1402). Die Machtentfaltung Mailands gegen die italienischen Signorien, in: Nur eine finstere Krisenzeit? „Das dramatische 14. Jahrhundert“ – Ereignisse und Trends, hg. v. Florian Schuller, München 2016 (Zur Debatte [Zeitschrift der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern] 7, Sonderheft), S. 9-11.

LAND AND PEASANTS IN MEDIEVAL CRETE. XIIIth – XIVth c.

The conquest of Crete by the Venetians and the new state of affairs imposed by Venice soon led to a new social and economic order for the island. If, on a social level, the changes that ensued were not entirely radical, on the economic level they were decisive for the future development of Crete.
The new system of land ownership imposed by the Venetians was founded on the general principle that the land belongs to the state, and the state disposes of the land as it sees fit, always with a view to serving best its interests and maintaining security both in its overseas domain and at home. The Venetian settlement of the island was conducted on a systematic basis, and the greater part of the island was divided up among the Venetians who were sent there as the feudal, landowning cast. A portion of the land was held by the Latin Church, by monasteries and churches (both Catholic and Orthodox), while the state retained a large region for itself -Paracandia, containing numerous villages in the area around the Cretan capital, Candia. The first major changes to take place on the island were not completed until the end of the thirteenth century, mainly on account of the slow progress made in the face of resistance from the indigenous landowning classes who delayed not only the redistribution of land but also the full conquest of the island. These longestablished, noble families were to profit from their resistance by succeeding in carving out for themselves a right to the land they had fought for. Indirectly, their resistance paved the way for less well-placed Greek families to acquire property rights through various means.
By the late thirteenth century the political situation had stabilized and land distribution and ownership had become established. The island held two large social groups, the feudal lords and the peasants, bound to one another by the land. The peasant class was composed of two clearly defined groups: those who were, and those who were not, subject to their lords. The larger of the two groups was composed of villeins, the successors to the Byzantine paroikoi, subject to a rigorously defined dependency on their masters. The villeins in turn were composed of two main categories: those who were bound to the land itself, and thence to the feudal lord, and those who belonged directly to the feudal lord, regardless of the land. In contrast to the villeins, free peasants were not subject personally to their lords, farming the land while being economically dependent on its owners.
Although the land was divided into fiefs, cavallarias and serventarias, all serving to assist the state in its task of collecting taxes from the feudal lords, economic life in the countryside was based on the village, whose unity was assured irrespective of the regime of landownership. The peasants lived in the village, they cultivated the farmland roundabout, and they rendered their dues to its owners.
While many features of society and daily life in the countryside remained little changed since Byzantine times, the colonial characteristics that the Cretan economy started to acquire as a result of the Venetian conquest led to a number of important changes. More intensive exploitation of the land and the development of city ports that gradually grew into major export and transit centres of, principally, agricultural produce, were the most obvious results of these changes. During the first two centuries of Venetian rule the agrarian economy played a key role. The island's agricultural production was dominated by cereals and vines, while livestock breeding was also important, contributing to the island's export market.
Tilling the land (divided into small and medium-sized plots) was based on family-scale labour, as in Byzantine times. The direct cultivation of large areas of land owned by the feudal lords, whether by means of the system of compulsory communal labour (angarie) or by the employment of paid workers -as was the case in western Europe- does not appear to have been the practice in Crete. The Venetians interfered very little in the operations of rural life on the island; rather, their principal objective was to maximise agricultural production. Thus, all those who owned land -feudal lords, the state, the Church and monasteries- made their land available for longer or shorter lengths of time for cultivation by the peasants, under various terms, according to the kind of cultivation undertaken. Thanks to long-term grants of land-cultivation rights (gonico, renting for 29 years), peasants were able to secure practically a lifelong right to the land, to the extent that they were often able to pass on land to their inheritors. This fact was instrumental in binding the peasant to the land and in providing the feudal lord with a much needed agricultural workforce. For his part, the peasant was able to develop his farming activities to the best possible advantage. On the other hand, short term grants of land (such as rents of limited duration and "labour agreements") served, primarily, intensive cultivation of cereals, often destined for the export market. In such cases the landowner would be reluctant to commit his land for long periods with an unproductive peasant farmer or at a rental rate that might turn out to be unprofitable on account of rises in grain prices. The variety of grants of land, combined with the type of cultivation and the small plots of land in different regions gave both peasant and landowner the opportunity to choose the best possible farming solution with the best possible prospects.
Landowner, land and peasant were closely bound to one another and interdependent. Nevertheless, the individual owning the land always had a distinct advantage, however much he might depend on farm-labourers in order to turn his land into a profit-making concern. The numerous farm-labour contracts that have survived are evidence of this relationship of dependence, as well as of the landowner's decisions with respect to the best exploitation of his land, and the efforts of both sides to secure their interests by means of the terms of the agreement and by the practice of signing the contract and having it formally ratified. The large number of contracts testifies to the mutual dealings of peasants of the same land, to the increase in the cultivable land area as more and more land was granted for cultivation, and the arrival of new peasant farmers. However, one cannot determine accurately the size and extent of these phenomena, since it is not possible to establish correlations across historical periods, or, what is more, for specific regions, since the sources do not cover the entire island.
The profits deriving from the exploitation of the land of the feudal lords were chiefly in kind, as agricultural products, grain, wine and, to a lesser extent, livestock breeding. Everything was destined for the local or international market. Besides the land rent, the feudal lords also reaped various feudal revenues -all kinds of dues and rights- that the peasants paid in order to use the land and other features of the countryside. These revenues, part money, part in kind, did not entail vast sums; they did, however, serve to reaffirm the relationship of dependence, economic and personal, of the peasant on the feudal lord, and determined the position of the peasant within the social and economic system of Crete.
The two social classes -feudal lord and peasant- occupied by definition the base and the peak of the economic pyramid of medieval society, that is, the many poor and the few rich. Yet within these two classes further pyramids quickly emerged displaying significant intermediate levels. In other words, by the midfourteenth century there were a considerable number of feudal lords who were running into serious financial difficulties, and a relatively small number of peasants who, while one hesitates to describe their situation as prosperous, at least found themselves to be getting by on a satisfactory economic level. It appears to be the case, therefore, that although Cretan society had clearly defined lines separating the social classes, the level enjoyed by each group's members was not the same, however much their position in the social hierarchy provided them with differing opportunities, starting from a differing base.
The prospects and likelihood of finding an alternative livelihood were very limited for a peasant, and any attempt at breaking out of the mould entailed considerable risks. Nonetheless, small-scale trade and investment (basic characteristics of the city-ports, where large numbers of people came together from much of Europe and the Near East), served to fuel the desires and hopes for betterment of the poor of both city and countryside. At difficult moments in the island's history, the peasants turned to the cities and towns. There they hoped to find refuge, or the means by which they might leave the island to seek a better fortune elsewhere.

Abordamos algunas de las relaciones entabladas por las aragonesas y aragoneses bajomedievales con sus vivos, sus muertos, sus intercesores más apreciados e incluso con la divinidad en los diversos momentos que engloban lo que Alejo de Venegas denominó en el siglo XVI como "tránsito de la muerte". Analizamos aquellos elementos que pudieron condicionar los comportamientos y las respuestas sociabilizadoras que la muerte generó en el Aragón bajomedieval: la pertenencia a un determinado grupo socioeconómico, la condición de hombre o mujer, de clérigo o laico, el marco urbano o rural donde se vive o la incidencia de la legislación a la hora de canalizar prácticas de bien morir y manifestaciones públicas de duelo y acompañamiento.
La separación del cuerpo social después de la muerte no significa que el difunto sea abandonado por los vivos. Tanto en lo físico como en lo espiritual sigue formando parte del mundo de los vivos. Porque es el mundo de los vivos, el espacio de los vivos, las relaciones sociales de los vivos, los criterios de organización de los vivos y,en definitiva, los comportamientos, acciones y creencias de los vivos los que dan forma al amplio y diverso entramado de relaciones, solidaridades y sociabilidades que entra en funcionamiento ante el hecho biológico de la muerte.""

Throughout its existence, the inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire frequently evoked concepts of peace in legal, governmental, and moral affairs. In particular, the term Landfrieden can be found in sources from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Historians and legal scholars have long debated its meaning, typically defining it either as a form of legislation or else as a type of regional peacekeeping union. This article synthesizes the array of evidence regarding Landfrieden and makes the argument that it was central to discourses about public peace and authority in the pre-modern German lands, which could find expression within both regional and pan-imperial organizations, laws, and institutions. The article surveys concepts and applications of Landfrieden from the high medieval period to the Holy Roman Empire's dissolution in 1806, demonstrating how it could legitimize leagues, alliances, and other associations while also underpinning the evolving imperial constitution.

Available on De Gruyter's website: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110591316-008/html

Prosopographical Apparatus, in:
Robert Gramsch, Erfurter Juristen im Spätmittelalter. Die Karrieremuster und Tätigkeitsfelder einer gelehrten Elite des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts (Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 17), Leiden / Boston 2003, Personenkatalog auf CD-Rom, Nr. 649.

The present paper will investigate pardon letters or “lettres de rémission” granted to soldiers by the Valois dukes of Burgundy from 1386 to 1482. During this period, the chancery records contain 885 remission letters by which the prince granted his pardon to individuals who committed a crime and petitioned for mercy. This large amount of documents includes more than 15 percent of pardons granted to petitioners who served or had served the dukes in their armies. In the narrative parts of their letters, these soldiers insisted on their military pasts as a good reason to be pardoned. The purpose of this paper is to study the contents of these military pardons to underline how they contributed to shape a collective military identity in the Burgundian State. Following the works of Christopher Allmand, according to whom fifteenth-century leaders undertook to transform their soldiers into professional State agents, I will argue that military pardons were used by the dukes of Burgundy as a tool of social disciplining. Because they granted a large amount of pardons to their soldiers who affirmed their military identity in their petitions, the dukes promoted the military service as a motive to be forgiven. And because they only forgave simple homicides and refused to pardon typical war crimes such as pillage, rape, or even desertion, they indicated which kind of behaviour was worthy for the good Burgundian soldier, and which one was not.

In 1448 the inhabitants of the Widmer Quarter-one of the four districts of late medieval Vienna and including areas within and without the city walls-were listed for tax purposes. Unusually, this list, now in the Austrian National Library, includes not only the owners of each house plot, but also other men (tenants, employees…) and occasionally women (widows) living there. The plots are grouped in neighbourhoods, some of which are identifiable today. It has proved possible to identify the routes which the men compiling the list took through the district. Some areas can now be reconstructed in great detail. The house plots can be reconstructed on the basis of the accurate city map by Werner Arnold Steinhausen (1710), tempered with information from the maps by Wolmuet (1547), Suttinger (1684) and others. Numerous archaeological projects, including major excavations, which have taken place in the area, enable us to further adapt the street plan and even some house plans. The 1448 list can be compared to other contemporary lists compiled for tax and other purposes, to the plot-by-plot study of house owners and property transfers compiled by Paul Harrer in the mid-twentieth century, an unpublished work held in the City Archives, and to the results of more recent historical work. Thus it is proving possible to place dozens of householders and other people on the plots on which they lived. The area can be a Viennese test case for the GIS-powered connection of textual data to plot maps, as pioneered in other cities and exposing the social-spatial structure of the city in the later medieval period. The possibilities for historians, archaeologists, museum professionals and others interested in the Middle Ages are considerable.

Der Band präsentiert die Ergebnisse einer interdisziplinären Tagung, die im Oktober 2008 an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt stattfand und sich exemplarisch dem Literaturbetrieb der Reichsstadt in der Zeit des Umbruchs zwischen Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit widmete. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die Institutionen des lokalen Kultur- und Literaturbetriebs sowie die Strategien literarischer Kommunikation des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. Vor dem Hintergrund ereignis- und epochengeschichtlicher Wandlungen, religiöser Auseinandersetzungen, bildungspolitischer Reformen und nicht zuletzt buch- und mediengeschichtlicher Entwicklungen wird die Rolle der Literatur im Kraftfeld städtischer Repräsentationsaufgaben und partikularer Gruppeninteressen untersucht.

Bibliotheks- und überlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien ermöglichen es, das literarische Profil Frankfurts zu bestimmen. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit findet die einflussreiche Spieltradition, indem die Rezeptionsstrategien und der ambivalente Status des Frankfurter Passionsspiels zwischen Liturgie und Theater analysiert werden. Einen weiteren thematischen Schwerpunkt des Bandes bildet die Bedeutung Frankfurts als Verlags- und Messestadt, wobei auch die jüdische Literatur angemessene Beachtung erfährt. In den Blick genommen wird zudem die literarische Darstellung der Reichsstadt und ihrer Bürger, wie sie in Chronik, Städtelob und Schmähgedicht mit Hilfe rhetorischer, narrativer und im weitesten Sinne fiktionaler Elemente inszeniert wird.

The subject of the study is the analysis of the manuscript with genealogical notes on the family of Podiebrad dukes, the descendants of king George of Poděbrady. The manuscript is held in the National Archive in Třeboň and contains the only known Czech translation of the notes, which, in subject literature, go by the name of Elenchus. The Czech version is also complimented by the Latin one. The study deals with three primary areas. Firstly, the relation between the Codex of Třeboň and other edits of family notes. Thesis formulated by Wojciech Mrozowicz, who did not consider Elenchus to be a part of the chronicle of the Žďár monastery, known as Cronica Sarensis minor, was supported. The second area deals with the role of Elenchus in the strategies of shaping and presenting family records of Podiebrad dukes. The introduction of information regarding the baptism of Charles’ I daughter in Wrocław, with participation of the Bohemian king, suggests that Elenchus was intended to present the Podiebrad dukes as Christian rulers, who were wrongly associated with reputation of heretics.
The third area concerns the circumstances accompanying the creation
of the Codex of Třeboň. The Latin version, although recorded as the second one, was undoubtedly the basis for the Czech translation. Said translation however, contains numerous discrepancies. As a conclusion, a thesis was formulated, that the Codex of Třeboň was created as a result of the genealogical study of the Holicki house from Šternberk from which descended the first wife of George of Poděbrady. The original Podiebrad family records were re-used by this house.

When Holland and Zeeland were integrated in the Burgundian personal union, the court of the count disappeared in these counties . Instead. a regional administrative machinery was set up. in which the govemor,later called stadholder; was the most important officer.In the first years of Burgundian rule in Holland and Zeeland, the office of stadholder took shape. The office was based on predecessors in both the two counties as well as being modelled after French-Burgundian examples. In Holland and Zeeland the office developed out of a situation of crisis and war and found its final form after an unsuccessful experiment with a non-noble president. The stadholder replaced the count of Holland, that is the Burgundian duke, in allrespects. He was his lieutenant general and the subjects of Holland and
Zeeland regarded him as such. With the court at a distance, the stadholder was the most important link between the duke and his counties . He spoke the language of both the duke and his subjects in Holland and Zeeland. Moreover, he was a trustee of the duke and an expert in matters of justice, war and diplomacy. But he was not only formally the most important link between the regional and the supra-regional administrative level. Through
relationships based on patronage and kinship, nearly all stadholders had strong ties with one or more persons at the court . Fundamentally, the regional administration, and especially the stadholder, was the link between the duke and his subjects. They were the perfect mediators between the Burgundian dukes with their ambitious plans on the one hand and the towns that wanted to keep their independence and privileges without paying too many subsidies, on the other. In a sense they were brokers who could provide their clients access to the patron (the duke). Through their formal and informal relations, they connected the central powers with regional and local interest groups.

This roll, taken from King’s Bench 27 (KB27) at the National Archives, Kew, records a case of a counterfeiter of Torrington, Exeter, who, in 1421, turned King’s Approver but failed in this duty of bringing his appellees to justice. The roll is comprised of five main sections. The first of these details Richard Swalwe’s assumption of the status of King’s Approver and his appeal against a certain William Forde of Devon. The scribe relates the specifics of Richard and William’s acclaimed counterfeiting and the crown’s determination that the two men should be held in the custody of William Bradwardyn, the Marshal of the King’s Bench, to await judgement. The second section details how Forde determined to defend the claims made against him ‘by his body…as a faithful man against a traitor should defend by the law of the land’; that is to say, he made clear his preparedness to engage in trial by battle to defend his innocence. The third section states that Swalwe expressed his willingness to partake in such a duel. A location is agreed upon and a date set within the week with both men remaining in the custody of Marshal Bradbardyn until this time. Fourthly, the roll describes the encounter at Tothill and Swalwe’s prompt renege on his commitment to the duel. Finally, Swalwe is led to London, where he is hanged, drawn and quartered, and Ford is acquitted of the charges levelled against him.

This paper will explore the nature of approver’s appeal during the late middle ages as well as the place of trial by battle in this medieval judicial phenomenon, which has survived down to the modern day in the form of Queen’s evidence. Counterfeiting of the King’s coinage during the middle ages, measures taken by the Crown to combat it and its proliferation witnessed during the reign of Henry V will also be discussed. Finally, both a transcription and translation of KB27/648 will be provided.

In his study, the author focuses on the activity of the Hussite military garrisons in the Silesian duchies in 1428–1435. After a synopsis of the basic stages of the Hussite raids in Silesia, he pays attention to the presence of garrisons deep in the enemy territory and repeatedly returns to the issue of supplying them with military equipment and provisions. In Silesia, the priest Bedřich of Strážnice helped to transform the system operating among the garrisons in Central and South Moravia, including the collection of food in the form of tributes, obtaining the spoils of war, supplying through the convoys sent from the Hussite domain, and the cooperation with local elites. At the same time, securing supplies determined the main features of military operations.

The aim of this article is to analyse the natural plant population of the southwest of Cordoba and how it was affected by human action. To achieve this goal, several archives were searched and various species of trees, bushes, and other plants that were exploited by the local communities between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries have been identified. The article will demonstrate that these vegetal landscapes, which were characteristic of the southern regions of the Crown of Castile, were of great importance for nearby human communities.

The aim of this study is to do a  first approximation on the organisation and structure of the military defence during the Catalan Civil war (1462-1472) of the town of Igualada. This military and political conict faced the King John II of Aragon and the Institutions of the Principality of Catalonia. From the very beginning, cities and towns were involved in the general conflict. In this sense, these settlements started up the defence of their towns. Our sources show us a well organised and structured system of defence, probably common among cities and towns of the Principality.

Co-authored with Anne Curry, Peter Hoskins and Thom Richardson

The Battle of Agincourt on October, 25, 1415, remains one of the most glorious victories in British history, with a legacy that endures today. A pivotal moment in the Hundred Years War between France and England, it reinvigoratead the English campaign in France and bolstered the English crown's hereditary claims to French land. Published to mark the 600th anniversary of this famous victory, The Agincourt Companion tells a wider story about warfare in the middle ages. Delving into the development and advances in weaponry, armour and tactics during this period and the impact this had on the battlefield, this is a richly detailed look at the world of medieval warfare.

Η μελέτη εξετάζει το σύνθετο πλέγμα σχέσεων και αλληλεξαρτήσεων που αναπτύχθηκε στη διάρκεια του πρώτου αιώνα της λατινικής κυριαρχίας στο Αιγαίο μεταξύ κατακτητών, εποίκων και εγχωρίων καθώς και με τον υπόλοιπο λατινοκρατούμενο χώρο (φεουδαρχικές σχέσεις, πολιτικές εξαρτήσεις, οικογενειακοί δεσμοί, οικονομικές συναλλαγές κ.α.). Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο ερευνώνται οι παράγοντες εκείνοι που με τον ένα ή το άλλο τρόπο λειτούργησαν καθοριστικά στη διαμόρφωση των σχέσεων αυτών, όπως η προέλευση και η κοινωνική θέση των νέων κυριάρχων, οι συνθήκες εγκατάστασής τους στην περιοχή, η εκάστοτε πολιτική συγκυρία, η θέση και η γεωπολιτική σημασία των νησιών, η διάταξή τους σε ομάδες ή μεμονωμένα. Η πραγμάτευση του θέματος εστιάζει στις μικρές ανεξάρτητες ή ημιανεξάρτητες δυτικές κυριαρχίες που δημιουργήθηκαν στο Αιγαίο μετά την Τέταρτη Σταυροφορία και αγγίζει περιφερειακά τα δύο μεγάλα νησιά της Εύβοιας και της Κρήτης.

Syfte med uppsatsen har varit att undersöka färgens och gestikens påverkan på altarskåpets iscensättning av berättelserna och därmed även budskapet. Uppsatsen har ett bildsemiotiskt perspektiv som en utgångspunkt. Materialet för undersökningen är ett flandriskt altarskåp från Skånela kyrka som finns idag i Uppsala domkyrka. Skåpet är tillägnat Joakim och Sankta Anna. Undersökningen har avgränsats till att enbart analysera de sex skulpterade scenerna i korpusen. Analyserna har utförts genom en formell beskrivning och diskussion med hjälp av Lena Liepes lågikonografiska analys och med Norbert Ottos trestegsmetod för gestfunktioner. Lena Liepes metod och teori används som underlag för undersökningen. Undersökningen ansluter till Virginia Nixons forskningsarbete om Jesu mormor i kyrkokonsten.

Det har konstaterats att färg- och gestikanalyserna möjliggör en nyanserad tolkning. Undersökningen har visat att färgen och gestiken är ett påverkningsmedel i syfte att leda betraktaren mot ett dolt budskap i bilden. Och att det finns en koppling mellan Skånelaskåpets budskap och den medeltida kvinnofientlighet som var rådande då. Annaskåpet innehåller budskap som präglas av den dåvarande barn- och kvinnosyner.

IN ENGLISH:

Purpose of this essay has been to examine the color's and gesticulation's impact on the altarpiece staging of the stories and thus the message. The essay has a semiotic perspective as a starting point. The material for the study is a flemish altarpiece from Skånela church that exists today in Uppsala Cathedral. The altarpiece is dedicated to Joachim and St. Anne. The study has been limited to only analyze the six sculptured scenes in the corpus. The analyzes have been performed through a formal description and discussion by Lena Liepes low iconographycal analysis and with Norbert Otto's three-step approach for gesture features. Lena Liepe's method and theory was used as a basis for the investigation. The study connects to Virginia Nixon's research on Jesus' grandmother in church art.

It was found that the color and gesticulation analyzes enables a nuanced interpretation. The investigation has shown that the color and gestures are an actuation in order to lead the viewer towards a hidden message in the picture. And that there is a link between Skånela altarpiece's messages and the medieval misogyny that prevailed then. Anne-altarpiece contains messages that are characterized by the contemporary child and female visions.

Serving the state. The regional officers of Holland and Zeeland in the Burgundian period (1425-1482).

This is a summary of my phd-thesis, a prosopographical study into the officers of the Council and Chambre des Comptes of Holland and Zeeland in the Burgundian period (1425-1482)

In de jaren 1425-1433 kreeg de Bourgondische hertog Filips de Goede via een diplomatiek en militair offensief de graafschappen Holland en Zeeland in handen. In dit boek beschrijf ik op welke manier de ambtenaren van de hoogste bestuurlijk-juridische en financiële instellingen van Holland en Zeeland, de Raad en de Rekenkamer, hebben bijgedragen aan de integratie van deze gewesten in de Bourgondische personele unie. In het eerste deel wordt onderzocht welke institutionele vernieuwingen het gewestelijk staatsapparaat onderging in de vijftiende eeuw en passeren alle ambtenaren de revue. In het tweede deel bekijk ik welke strategie de vorst volgde bij de recrutering van zijn ambtenaren en met welke middelen hij trachtte hun dienstbaarheid en loyaliteit te bevorderen. De intermediaire positie van de ambtenaren - ingeklemd tussen de belangen van de hertog en die van de onderdanen - is het onderwerp van het derde deel. In een bijlage zijn biografische notities van 170 ambtenaren opgenomen met gegevens over hun herkomst, familie, carrière en netwerk.

In medieval Italy the practice of revenge as criminal justice was still popular amongst members of all social classes, yet crime was also increasingly perceived as a public matter that needed to be dealt with by the government rather than private citizens. Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy sheds light on this contradiction through an in-depth comparison of lay and religious sources produced in Siena between 1260 and 1330 on criminal justice, conflict, and violence.

Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy argues that religious people were an effective pressure group with regards to criminal justice, thanks both to the literary works they produced and their direct intervention in political affairs, and that their contributions have not received the attention they deserve. It shows that the dichotomy between theories and practices of 'private' and of 'public' justice should be substituted by a framework in which three models, or discourses, of criminal justice are recognized as present in medieval Italian communes, with the addition of a specifically religious discourse based on penitential spirituality. Although the models of criminal justice were competing, they also influenced each other.

Il libro "Naturalmente divisi" è nato a seguito di un convegno che aveva il proposito di fornire una panoramica sufficientemente completa e criticamente aggiornata sulla storia sociale delle antiche comunità delle Alpi. La prospettiva nella quale si è operato è stata l'analisi storica e politica di singole valli attraverso lo studio delle autonomie da loro guadagnate nel corso dei secoli: aree montane privilegiate che hanno più volte rimarcato la "naturale divisione" dalle grandi città della pianura attorno alle quali gravitavano. La complessità di questo rapporto è stato sintetizzato nel presente volume che si propone come una valida guida per chi volesse avvicinarsi con curiosità all'argomento. Particolare attenzione è stata rivolta alle vallate centrali delle Alpi (dalla Valle Camonica alla Valsassina), per quanto i contributi spazino dalle Alpi Cozie fino alla Carnia, con un excursus riservato alle antiche comunità alpine in epoca romana.

Hans Baldung Grien, the most famous apprentice and close friend of German artist Albrecht Dürer, was known for his unique and highly eroticised images of witches. In paintings and woodcut prints, he gave powerful visual expression to late medieval tropes and stereotypes, such as the poison maiden, venomous virgin, the Fall of Man, 'death and the maiden' and other motifs and eschatological themes, which mingled abject and erotic qualities in the female body.

This is the table of contents of my forthcoming book, Political Theology of International Order, Oxford University Press, 2020. It investigates presuppositions of international order that originate in medieval theology. The main argument is that international order understood in terms of individuals—either states or human beings—and artificial relations, established by the operation of an impersonal mechanism or the adoption of positive rules, is a worldly application of a theological pattern. The book uncovers these presuppositions as they emerged in a medieval dispute about the nature of God and the extent of his power and its traces their assimilation into modern politics and law.