I tribunali dei feudi Colonna nello Stato pontificio alla fine del Settecento. Struttura, composizione, rendite

Abstract

The courts of the Colonna’s fiefs in the Pontifical States at the end of the 18th Century. Structure, composition and revenues. The issue of feudal jurisdictions in the Pontifical States in the Modern Age is addressed in this article by analyzing the case study of the lands ruled by the Colonna family. Based on the answers to a questionnaire drawn up by the government in 1786, the Author reconstructs the structure of the courts and the revenue of their staff; based on the registers of the governors and sheriffs he sketches their origins and careers. The contemporaries’ complaints about the progressive decline of the jurisdictions’ revenues, which affected their administration and multiplied abuses, seems to be confirmed. The efforts by the pontifical government and by the landlords themselves to improve the condition of the courts’ officers and ministers are only partially successful and only after the revolutionary period would more radical measures be adopted, forecasting the abolition of feudal jurisdictions.

Keywords

• Feudalism
• Justice
• Pontifical States
• Princes Colonna
• 18th Century