HLGC will be welcoming Dr Attilio Stella from the University of Verona to speak about his new book, The Libri feudorum (the Book of Fiefs) (Brill 2023) in a seminar titled ‘The Libri feudorum: From Fiefs to Feudalism’. More information on Attilio’s book can be found here.
The Libri feudorum (the ‘books of fiefs’) are the earliest written body of feudal customs in Europe. The text was codified in northern Italy c. 1100-1250 and soon gave rise to feudal law as a branch of the ius commune. Its role in shaping modern ideas of feudalism has provoked an intense debate among legal historians and medievalists in the past decades, leading to a deep rethinking of the ‘feudal’ vocabulary and the notion of feudalism itself. Attilio Stella’s book provides an up-to-date English translation of the Libri Feudorum with a working Latin text. The introduction offers a historical and historiographical overview, highlighting the long-standing relevance of this legal collection over nine centuries of Western European history.
Dr Attilio Stella obtained his doctorate in medieval history at the University of Trento (2014), and took part in two prestigious international projects funded by the EU, one at the Tel Aviv University (PIMIC, 2013-2016), the other at the University of St Andrews (CLCLCL, 2017-2021). In 2017 and 2022, he was a research fellow at the Department of Cultures and Civilizations of the University of Verona, where he has been a fixed-term researcher since 20 December 2022. His research, which initially focused on the history of rural lordship and peasant society, has over time expanded towards the social and comparative analysis of the political-institutional developments of medieval Europe, with particular attention to feudal law and practices and of the concept of feudalism. Dr Stella is currently the Principal Investigator of the Communities and Custom in the Making of the European Legal Systems project, funded by the MUR. The research consists of a comparative analysis of the function of local communities and local legal frameworks in the construction of Western European territorial formations in the 12th-13th centuries, through a comparative gaze that embraces regions of the kingdom of England, the French territory and the Northern Italy.
This promises to be an exciting discussion, and we look forward to seeing you there.