Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2019
Accounts of public justice in the Italian communes emphasize mediation of urban conflicts, overlooking interactions between rural communities and civic tribunals. Foregrounding the countryside reveals how nonelites responded to public courts and procedures such as anonymous denunciation and ex officio inquisition. This article argues that a Florentine court's outcomes resulted from the intersection of institutional structures, local power relations, and rural inhabitants’ in-court behavior. It uses procedural records in conjunction with notarial cartularies and public documentation to explicate the local dynamics shaping testimony. Claiming ignorance was rural peoples’ tactical response to elite malefactors' enmeshment with the commune as rural proxies.
The author thanks George Dameron, Sharon Farmer, Thomas Kuehn, Carol Lansing, Steve Rosswurm, Kristoffer Smemo, and Brian Tyrrell, who read earlier drafts and provided helpful comments. I also thank the editorial staff and anonymous readers at Renaissance Quarterly, and the archival staff at the Florentine State Archives. I am grateful for generous support for research provided by the US-Italy Fulbright Commission, the American Historical Association, the Medieval Academy of America, and the Borchard Fellowship Foundation.