Il monte Caprione tra Malaspina e vescovo di Luni. Affondi tematici sulla “Pace di Lucca” del 1124, in Archivio Storico per le province parmensi, Quarta serie, LXXV, Anno 2023

The peace between the bishop of Luni and the marquis Malaspina, mediated by the city of Lucca in 1124, is a multifaceted example of the societal, political, and juridical changes occurring in the early 12th century. This article proposes a new critical reading of the text, highlighting the functional role of memory in the structuring process of the domus/houses descended from the original obertenghi parental group. The testimonies collected in the peace treaty show the internal segmentation of the family, due to a weakening of kinship solidarity and a loosening of its genealogical ties, which could then be exploited by external actors such as the bishop of Luni. The necessity of defining a more consolidated juridical and patrimonial ensemble entailed an effort to build specific identities for these new “houses” by restructuring their historical memories. The territorial conflict between the bishop and Malaspina gives us a glimpse of this other clash between opposing narratives, organized by competing domus over their common ancestry: different reconstructions of the past could, in fact, be used to claim resources and territories once shared within the wider group. This paper will also analyze the role, strategies and technical knowledge of the jurists who brokered the peace, acting in a seminal period for the evolution of legal forms and the recovery of roman laws, which could be more apt to answer the challenges of a deeply changing society.