The Bolognese Societates Armatae of the Late 13th Century

Abstract

The Bologna archives preserve the bye-laws of 24 „armed societies”, dating from between 1230 and the early 1300s, written in good notary Latin. Though known to exist in other Italian city-states, only few non-Bolognese armed society bye-laws are preserved. These armed societies had disappeared everywhere by the Late Middle Ages.

Keywords

• Bologna
• armed society
• city-state
• warfare
• feudal law
• Middle Ages
• popolo
• Holy Roman Empire