Giustizia e società nel Meridione d'Italia. Prime indagini alla luce di un registro giudiziario di area salentina (sec. XV)

Over the last decade, and also thanks to the publication of significant studies on the subject, a greater attention than before has been devoted to different typologies of documents which were produced in Italy between the 14th and the 15th century. Such a field of research has involved, and still does, sources of different origin and kind: institutional and administrative documents, diplomatic and personal correspondence, inventories, thematical account records and, more recently, even legal reports. The current contribution focuses on a legal report produced in the Salento region, a rare example of his kind as per the Apulian territory; it records charges of several crimes (against public power, against people and against properties) committed in the town of Nardò (in the province of Lecce) towards the end of the 15th century. While allowing for a short, general reconstruction of the local judicial system, the analysis of the text also reveals a social framework especially interesting in terms of personal interrelations. Against the backdrop of an everyday reality where animosity seemed to easily turn into resentment, anger, a desire to defeat others and avenge oneself, particular attention will be devoted to the charges where women act as main characters, either as plaintiff, defendant or as a mere witness of the facts