Nel buio delle folti tenebre. Justice and Law in the provinces of the Kingdom of Naples during the Modern Era (17th Century)

This work focuses on the Neapolitan Jus Regni and judicial activities of the baronial courts in the Kingdom of Napoli during the early modern period; and in particular, the thorny activity of applying the law in the provincial territories in which individual cases could be subject to different procedural methods deriving from the statutory legislation in effect in each. A privileged insight into these dynamics comes from a precious source: a collection of sentences passed by a governor, during his service at feudal tribunals in the Barony of Cilento. It allows us to analyse the precise act of the interpretatio of the laws with the aim of harmonising local (statutory) law, the ius commune and the King’s law, as well as to identify the reference jurisprudence used by the magistrate.