Il Lessico dei rapporti di dipendenza libera e servile nella società rurale dell'Europa mediterranea bassomedievale: Sardegna e Catalogna a confronto

This piece of research is about serfdom and freedom in late Middle Ages rural society in Sardinia, with a comparison related to some specific and selected aspects of the same topic as documented in Catalonia. Analysis focuses extensively on a wide range of sardinian sources, looking for those terms, formulas, signs and indicators of servile status and how that is generated, maintained, modified, adapted and ceased in a period of time ranging from the eleventh to the fifteenth century and depending on the evolving specific circumstances at regional and local level. Perspectives are multiple and in the first instance necessarily legal (laws, rights, customs, deeds, rulings, etc…) but also and at the same level social and economic, by assessing how rural society shape and evolution is defined, determined and affected by rulers and lords’ strategies, aims, decisions and actions. Initial reference is to sardinian model of servitude and if or to what extent this matches with or aligns to “new serfdom” developed in the same period in most regions of continental Europe. Comments on Catalonian rural society are then based on a selected range of sources specifically describing "mals usos", particularly "remença". Conclusions are finally drawn by highlighting key-themes, peculiarities, similarities and differences of the two regions and relevant sub-regions and promoting further discussions and debates around some unresolved topics to be further investigated in the future.