Aspects of continuity and change in the Italian placitum, 962-72: The nature and significance of courtroom procedures

During the first seventy-five years of the tenth century in Italy three distinct procedures existed for the purpose of resolving jurisdictional disputes over property. Together they comprise the activity of a special court known only by the general term placitum. The property court, the placitum under discussion here, employed three procedures: (1) a litigation, (2) confirmation to avert possible conflict between two parties over opposing claims, and (3) a request for the confirmation of a commercial transaction.My study considers two problems: what purpose did the courts serve and to whom were they useful; second, what was the nature and intent of the procedures that these courts employed? The answers require an investigation of the personnel who administered the courts and the persons who sought court judgments, since the status and interests of both groups had considerable impact on the legal and institutional developments of this tribunal. The participants were mostly members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and some of the higher lay magnates; by and large they were members of the ruling hierarchy.The property hearing had a long chain of development that reached into the late eight century: over the years it developed distinct procedures and instruments to record the results. These procedures reflect the interface of German and Roman law. We see in the history of this court the development of thoughts about evidence, the validity of written instruments as witnesses, and the role of judges as investigators.