Stupor mundi

“The Liber Augustalis” has the almost self-explanatory subtitle “Constitutions of Melfi promulgated by the Emperor Frederick II for the Kingdom of Sicily in 1231”. Frederick II of the House of Hohenstaufen is the powerful Holy Roman Emperor who ruled (or attempted to rule) Germany and Italy. He was often in conflict with the free Italian cities and the Papacy. The kingdom of “Sicily” actually comprised all of southern Italy, not just the island of Sicily proper.

James M Powell has attempted to reconstruct and translate the original, pure version of the text from 1231, without any later additions. His introduction is relatively short. The book is mostly of use for historians with a bad grasp of medieval Latin, who want a readable translation of the original source material.

Sure, there are some tidbits. There always are in old collections of laws. Rape of prostitutes is punishable by death, raped women should not be forced to marry the rapist (a custom in some parts of Italy during this time), adulteresses should have their noses slit, Jews are permitted to charge interest, while the heretical “Patarines” should be burned at the stake. The emperor pulls no punches in his perennial conflict with the Italian cities. Cities which elect their own magistrates should be burned down and left desolate, while their population is sold into perpetual slavery! There's also a law against, wait for it, air pollution…

However, most of the Constitutions of Melfi are of interest only to specialist historians. Headings include “How an oath should be sworn by bailiffs and chamberlains”, “About the office of castellans and sergeants” and “About alienation of property which has been brought into judgment”. The general point of the Constitutions was to extend royal power at the expense of the feudal nobles and the cities. A related point was to stop the nobles from waging petty wars against each other, conduct blood feuds or solving legal squabbles by trial of combat. Thus, the Constitutions are an attempt to establish a real, centralized state power (with an absolutist monarch) in place of the erstwhile feudal system. Similar tendencies were at work elsewhere in Europe during the 13th century, even in a backwater like Sweden.

But, as I said, this is perhaps mostly of interest to serious students of medieval history…