The Use of the Vernacular: Language, Law, and Political Culture in Fourteenth-Century Italy

This paper argues that in fourteenth-century Italy the vernacularisation of Latin municipal constitutions and the direct vernacular composition of the law were purposely sought out by the ruling elite as ideological and political mechanisms to build consensus and achieve support in municipal and regional states. By analysing the statutes of some of the most important communal cities as well as the fundamental laws of the Papal State and the Sardinian judicate of Arborea, it brings to light the workings and driving forces behind the translation or composition of legal texts in the vernacular. The thesis challenges scholarly views claiming, on the basis of evidence found in rhetorical declarations of the time, that the vernacularisation of law aimed to address common people who could not understand Latin.