Heidelberg University Publishing

Abstract The chapter analyses the institutional and documentary forms adopted by some cities of Abruzzo, in the northern part of the Kingdom of Naples, between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, in order to highlight the phenomena of appropriation and adapta­ tion of elements of the communal political culture and their political significance. The historiography on Italian cities has long followed two threads: on the one hand, commu­ nal cities, an extraordinary political laboratory that became a symbol of Italian freedom from any superior domination; on the other, the cities of the Mezzogiorno, struggling to liberate themselves from the oppressive power of the monarchy and the barons. The border between the two worlds coincided with that between the terre Ecclesie and the re­ gnum Sicilie, and it was the latter, according to historiographic tradition, that prevented cities in the south from developing in a communal sense, assuming that this was the only possible, or at least the best, direction. In recent years historians have abandoned this idea and are striving to interpret the urban political history of the Mezzogiorno iuxta propria principia. The present chapter goes in this direction but touches on the most controversial point: the comparison between cities in the south and the commu­ nal world. The analysis focuses on elements of the institutional system and practices in the political­documentary sphere clearly originating from communal Italy, adopted by some cities of the regnum, in particular in the Abruzzo region. It looks in particular at the political power of the bishops (in Teramo), the podestà institution (in Teramo, Atri, L’Aquila, Cittaducale) and other figures (such as the capitano del popolo in Atri), as well as the drafting of town statutes modelled on those of central Italy (in Teramo and Penne). The analysis of these cases highlights how such appropriations, selecting and adapting elements of the communal world, were aimed at responding to the practical and political needs of local communities, without pursuing ‘communal freedom’. The only exception is the spread of the podestà and consiliar system – not only in Abruzzo – after the death of Frederick II. This was however furthered by the papacy, with the aim of fighting the Swabian dynasty.