Pisa
Is it only a coincidence that Pisa became the first medieval city to lay down a municipal code and introduce many rules of Roman procedure in local trials? Is it a pure accident that the most famous pupil of Bulgarus, Johannes Bassianus, mentions the city as â€?prudentissima Pisanorum civitas’,[449] for having introduced the rule that the plaintiff must mention the name of the action (noÂmen actionis) in the document by which he initiates litigation?
The model of ancient Rome was indeed very present in the construction of the political independence of Pisa.
This Tuscan city had claimed native, auÂtonomous political and judicial institutions since the second half of the 11th century. Every step towards self-government in the city was celebrated by the civic culture through allusion to the glory of Rome. Civic poetry drew analogies between Muslim enemies and those of ancient Carthage, even depicting Pisa as the â€?other Rome’. New civic rulers were named after the Roman consules and elected judges. The construction of the new cathedral invoked ancient magÂnificence through the many inlays of ancient marbles. To celebrate the leading families of the city, ancient sculpted sarcophagi were bought everywhere in Italy and brought to the Pisan Campo santo.[450]The long residence of the pope in Pisa during the 1130s confirmed the preÂtensions of the city to become a new Rome. Pisa looked confidently to a future of independence and prosperity. Yet in 1152, the election of Frederick Barbarossa to the office of emperor seemed to bring a halt to this trend, given Barbarossa’s ambitions and pretensions of controlling the power and wealth of Italian citÂies. Where in this context could Pisa find authority in defence of the city’s libÂerty, its autonomy of jurisdiction, and its fiscal and commercial independence? It was natural to look once more to the authority of ancient Rome, to her laws and institutions, as did the medieval Romans in the very same years.
Thus were the codification of the customs of Pisa (â€?nostrum ius civile') quickly compiled and published in 1160.[451] [452] [453] [454]Focusing on different aspects, recent studies have stressed the ideological character of the Pisan codification. Chris Wickham considers that the RomaniÂzation of the local institutions was a clearly ideological operation - and a very well executed one, as it changed quickly not only the law, but also legal pracÂticed Claudia Storti Storchi suggests that both constitutions - of the customs and of the law - were published by the city to prevent the danger of an impeÂrial imposition by Frederick Barbarossad The authority of Roman antiquity could now be opposed to the authority of the German emperor. So this â€?RoÂman' Pisa, with its consules and legal codes, began to apply in court some of the most important rules of Justinian's procedure: Roman actiones and interdicta took the place of traditional methods, modifying the effective balance of perÂsonal rights by the new system of proof introduced with the imagined Roman procedure.
One can think that this deep change had begun with the presence of InnoÂcent II in Pisa, and the small treaty on procedure addressed by Bulgarus to his chancellor Aymericus. Only very careful reading of documents from this periÂod can reveal how such a reconfiguration of public powers was to be achieved. A good example of this can be seen in relation to the office and authority of judges in the first pages of Bulgarus' treatise. â€?ludicem dat potestas publica, ut Princeps, et qui sub eo militant', reads the modern edition of Wahrmund: judiÂcial power is a function of the imperial authority. Three different manuscripts, considered to be of Italian origin, give a slightly different reading: â€?ludicem dat potestas publica aut princeps'. The small change in the text reveals a profound difference in the conception of public power: here, potestas publica is someÂthing different from the prince, since the prince is not the only one who can use it.24
From the middle of the twelfth century, renewed intellectual interest in RoÂman texts within Italian cities was given the function to legitimise the exercise of a public power that was prohibited by the emperor, who did not see the free cities as independent politic powers.[455] [456] [457] This â€?learned’justification gained in plausibility as the new legal culture spread everywhere in Northern Italy and the free cities adopted a procedure largely influenced by Roman law. Since the new procedure was very technical, it called for an analytical knowledge of the internal mechanisms of Roman law. And this deep, technical knowledge could be applied in practice relatively quickly. This is because a new society, one ready to apply new rules, was coming into being. In these conditions can the shaping of public legal thinking be detected well in advance of the origins of the state itself?6 3