Dentro o fuori dal perimetro? L'importanza della comunità nel contesto medievale

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the advent of the Middle Ages, the political scenario is characterized by a strong political fragmentation, due to the lack of a unitary central power. Between the XI and the XIII century a new reorganization of power began, which resulted in the affirmation of feudal monarchies, as in France and England. A particular example, in Italy, is that of the Municipalities, which gradually establish themselves as autonomous entities. In all these contexts, however, the sense of belonging is never lost: every institution and every social group traces precise perimeters for its members, establishing not only rights and duties, but also tools for exclusion from these social boundaries, such as the ban and the excommunication. The community – and not the individual man –, in all its manifestations and gradations, is the true protagonist of the medieval juridical experience.