- Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond
- Edited by Maddalena Betti, Francesco Borri, Stefano Gasparri
Border pacts and frontier areas in Carolingian Italy
- Stefano Gasparri
- © 2024 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3.15
Border pacts are an Italian peculiarity in the early Middle Ages. They indicate the existence of a traditional and specific practice of agreements between different powers coexisting on the Italian territory, which is much older than the Carolingian age. This paper, however, focuses only on the latter period, examining first of all the pacts between the Lombards of Benevento and the Neapolitans, then, in the North, the pact of Lothar with the duchy of Venice (840). All these pacts concern rural life and commercial activities and give rise to interesting situations, such as the condominium on the lands and the peasants of Liburia (a land between Naples, Caserta and Capua), or the recognition of commercial activities that took place across the borders, under the protection of political powers (both in the South and in Venice). None of these texts proves the existence of military frontiers. On the contrary, the most important element that has emerged is the existence of border areas of a politically mixed character, in which the daily life was not conditioned by the existence of a frontier, but by the needs of the agricultural and commercial work.
- Keywords:
- Middle Ages,
- 8th century,
- Carolingian Italy,
- duchy of Naples,
- duchy of Venice,
- southern Lombards,
- Lothar,
- boundary pacts,
- frontier areas,
Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-1374-504X
Chapter Information
Chapter Title
Border pacts and frontier areas in Carolingian Italy
Authors
Stefano Gasparri
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3.15
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Bibliographic Information
Book Title
Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond
Editors
Maddalena Betti, Francesco Borri, Stefano Gasparri
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
354
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0415-6
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0416-3
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0418-7
Series Title
Reti Medievali E-Book
Series ISSN
2704-6362
Series E-ISSN
2704-6079