Linguistic reflections on the definition of the northern border (1130-1168) of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily

This paper deals with the study of the linguistic reflections in toponymy and family onomastics of the feudal organization of the northern border of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily (1130-1197), i.e. in the newly conquered territories (1140-1159) along the unstable borders with the nascent Church State, in the territories of the principality of Capua (one of the first Norman possessions, in which the county of Aversa had been founded as early as 1030) and in the newly conquered territories (1140-1159) on the north-eastern border with the Duchy of Spoleto (in the presentday regions of Abruzzo and Molise). The main source for the historical reconstruction of this fundamental work of territorial organization (in which the border between the Church State and Southern Italy was delineated and remained unchanged until 1861) is the Catalogus baronum, a list of the feudal lords’ landed estates in continental Italy (1150-1152, rewritten and updated in 1166 and 1175). Scarcely explored from a historical-linguistic point of view, it is instead extremely useful for the study of the Norman linguistic heritage not only in the field of toponymy but above all in the choices and dynamics of personal and family onomastics connected to the settlement of the new class of Norman feudal lords and their relations with the previous Longobard, Frankish and Byzantine ruling classes