Border pacts and frontier areas in Carolingian Italy

Gasparri, Stefano (2024) Border pacts and frontier areas in Carolingian Italy. In: Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond. Reti Medievali E-Book (48). Firenze University Press, Firenze, pp. 193-205. ISBN 979-12-215-0416-3

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	Nella sezione "III. Italian boundaries II: southern frontiers".
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Middle Ages, 8th century, Carolingian Italy, duchy of Naples, duchy of Venice, southern Lombards, Lothar, boundary pacts, frontier areas
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History
Depositing User:	dr Vincenzo De Luise
Date Deposited:	08 Aug 2025 08:33
Last Modified:	08 Aug 2025 08:33
URI:	http://www.rmoa.unina.it/id/eprint/7176

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