Legitimation and legal sanction of vendetta in Italian cities from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Centuries

Abstract

Violence can be expressed through many forms, through revenge and conflict, laws and sentences, words and images. Between the second half of the thirteenth and the first half of the fifteenth century, central and northern Italian city-states frequently suffered moments of disruptions to social peace through factional battles. Vendetta was integral to these factional disputes, even to the commune itself. Violence was the language of political resolution, repression its natural consequence in negotiation of amicizia (friendship) and inimicizia (enmity) among individuals and social groups. Vendetta’s legitimization was the outcome of a complex cultural elaboration of values, norms, and conceptual boundaries, whereby individuals and groups strove to satisfy quests for honor and to foster an equilibrium between parties in conflict. Vendetta was a powerful tool for that social and political integration.