Zitationsvorschlag
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“Et nullus audeat ponere duas personas supra equum vel equam”. The Italian Commune and the Commercial Rental of Horses and Pack Animals in the 13th and 14th Centuries
Abstract Hiring horses and mules for a fee was a common practice in the Italian communes. This is at least suggested by the numerous statutory norms on this subject that have survived from the 13th and 14th centuries. A random review of the statutes shows that hardly any of the larger municipalities refrained from regulating horse rental. In the relevant chapters, the communes laid down fee scales, regulated the procedure in the event of damage and standardised the handling of the rented animal and any accessories in detail. Many statutes also testify to a great need for control over the horses available for hire: the animals or their owners were registered, groups of people were excluded, or individuals were legally obliged to offer horses for rent. The reason for the remarkable legislative interest in this sector is probably due to the high demand for horse renting from the local authorities themselves. This can be verified by non-normative sources, which are used to analyse the implementation of the statutory regulations. They confirm what the statutory norms already suggested: rental horses were a significant factor in the Italian commune’s ability to act from both a political and economic viewpoint.
