LA SACRA ROTA ROMANA E LE SUE DECISIONI IN MATERIA COMMERCIALE NEL XVII SECOLO

The purpose of the work, divided into three chapters, is to provide a contribution on how the trade has evolved in the seventeenth century, with particular attention to the “decisiones” of the Tribunal of the Sacra Rota Romana. The whole trade was governed by custom and practice that merchants were accustomed to use in their trade but, only in the sixteenth century, with the revolutionary instrument of the press began to circulate the first treaties, including those written by Santerna and by Stracca. The merchant class was not having a good reputation in ecclesiastical circles, and probably also this was the reason because we needed to wait long time before being able to find the first specific works that are only interested in commercial law. In view of such aspect is particularly interesting to investigate how the Roman Courts have dealt with the whole commercial subject that belong at that world of merchants in constant expansion. The first chapter is intended primarily to highlight how the Sacra Rota Romana has had an extensive expertise in trade issues and has helped to consolidate with its judgments those commercial practices which were carried out by economic operators. It will provide the reader with an overview of the institutions of commercial law which were dealt with. First of all the writings of merchants and their probative value with the consequent need for a merchant who wanted to serve their own book in legal proceedings. In this case, the document must be fitted with some elements called “adminicula” that allowed it to purchase a full evidentiary value in their favor. Will be then examined problems related to “corsa” and piracy and how religious factors affected such processes; then the reserch will deal with judgments about the company and in particular the delicate theme of usury compared to economic issues. On this special topic will be analyzed the ways in which could be compensated for loss of earnings and the actual damage.The second chapter analyzes the establishment of marine insurance extremely used in the seventeenth century and as the Sacra Rota Romana has disciplined this contract strictly commercial, With special attention to its classification, and the problems refered at the compensation for the damages ad the risk. The third chapter deals with the establishment of exchange and “litterarum cambii” and intends to focus on how the Roman Court will be compared to this contract in consideration of the obvious implications in terms of usury. Ultimately it aims to provide an insight into how was administered the commercial life in seventeenth-century Rome, paying attention to: 1) jurists invoked within the same “decisiones”: Baldo and Bartolo, through Santerna and Stracca till the contemporary Scaccia and De Luca 2) judgments from other courts and particularly the Genoese one.