| Reti Medievali Rivista, I - 2000 / 1 - maggio-dicembre |
Antonella Ghignoli
© Antonella Ghignoli per "Reti Medievali"
The "Romans" of CDL 206: Exercise in History and Diplomatics
Subject of this study is a ‘famous’ longobard charter: a charta offersionis, dated 767 april 9, Pistoia, preserved in a notarial copy of the XII century (State Archives of Florence, Diplomatico, Rocchettini di Pistoia, 767 aprile 9), and published in Codice diplomatico longobardo, I-II, ed. by Luigi Schiaparelli, Roma, Istituto Storico Italiano, 1929-1933, (Fonti per la storia d’Italia, 62-63), v. II, nr. 206 (= CDL 206). This charta is famous in the medieval historiography because of a word – Romani –, which appears by mentioning peasants in a dependent social condition, in a strategical passage of the text where the word "Romani" seems to be used as a synonym of peasants-servants (massari). In other words, the longobard charter CDL 206 is till now considered, by the most of historians, a precious and objective evidence of the subordinate social condition of the Romans, in ethnic sense, during the longobard period (‘objective’, because it is contained in a notarial charter, and ‘precious’, because it is the only preserved source of this kind). While others few have till now considered Romani - with really unfounded argumentation - as a technical expression of the longobard charter formulary to indicate servants who were set free.
General purpose of this study is to present an essay of critical reading of the italian charters of the early Middle Age. With CDL 206 as a whole - and CDL 206 in his Romani-passage - arises the oportunity for an 'exercise' in the critique of historical sources, where it is necessary to work with proper conceptual tools strictly: that means, in this case, with the tools of the latin paleography and diplomatics.
The conclusion is, that in the famous passage of CDL 206, at the place of the word Romani, the original charta offersionis – the text of which, it must be remembered, is preserved in CDL 206 as a copy written by a notary of the XII century – must have presented simply the repetition of the word massari. Romani was the result of the incomprehension during the copy-work of the original word massarii, written in the writing of the longobard period: the so-called corsiva nuova.
About the hypertext structure: the Author tried to reproduce the stream of the philological, historical and paleographical argument into the various paths of the single questions, which make a tight web around the main problem of the "Romani". She imagined nevertheless a simple form of hypertext, mapped as a narrow beginning, a wide cross-linked middle, then narrowing down to the conclusion and her hypothesis. The colored links become more frequent in the middle sections, where there is evidence, and alternatives and argument.
In his main content, this work is also published in another,‘not hypertextual', form in the review "Archivio storico italiano", CLVI (1998), N. 578-disp. IV (ottobre-dicembre), pp. 621-636, under the title: Da massarii a romani: note e congetture su un famoso documento longobardo (CDL, nr. 206, 767 aprile 9, Pistoia).