Pétitions et suppliques pendant la domination des Visconti et des Sforza au xve siècle : exception, dérogation et formes simplifiées de justice

In 15th century Lombardy, petitions addressed to the dukes of Milan were not spontaneous writings. They were rather elaborated texts ; formulated by experts on writing, petitions were drafted in legal forms, and often written in latin. They also were defective and incomplete texts, which were completed and transformed in “rescripts” when the prince (or his magistrates) attached his signature and the date. Shaped in a “fictional” sequence of events and motivations, the petitions aimed at obtaining a ducal privilege, that is a benevolent act from the prince. The duke’s propaganda claimed that subjects could easily reach the prince’s authority using either petitions or public audiences ; in turn, the petitioners presented themselves as poor and defenseless, and begged protection from the ducal power. Eventually, these procedures reflect the novelty of post-communal institutions and build a new image of the Prince. The Italian archives preserve a wide range of the many types of concessions that followed a petition: licenses, safe-conducts, privileges, immunities, pardons and graces, summary legal proceedings. The Visconti-Sforza, as other Italian lords, experimented such a new technique of power and adopted a principle of “equity” which allowed them to manipulate and trespass laws and statutes.