The Liber Paradisus (Paradise Book) is a law text promulgated in 1256 by the Commune of Bologna which proclaimed the abolition of slavery and the release of serfs (servi della gleba).
The Liber Paradisus (Paradise Book) is a law text promulgated in 1256 by the Commune of Bologna which proclaimed the abolition of slavery and the release of serfs (servi della gleba).
After the battle of Fossalta (1249) almost all Signorie (Lordships) of Bologna countryside were defeated. The result was an ethical and economic reflection on the serfs' status, until then determined by their bond to their owners, called Signori (Lords).
On 25 August 1256, the Arengo bell of the Palace of Podestà (Bologna) called Bolognese citizens into the Piazza Maggiore, where the Podestà (head of city government, expression of urban aristocracy), Bonaccorso da Soresina, and the Capitano del popolo (head of city militia, expression of urban bourgeoisie) announced the liberation of about 6,000 serfs, owned by 400 lords. They were emancipated by the payment, from the communal treasury, of 8 (for children) or 10 (for adults) Bolognese silver lire, which was the market price. For the emancipation of 5,855 serfs, the Commune paid 54,014 Bolognese Lire.
There was, arguably, some economic benefit for the city in the emancipation of so many serfs: firstly, free men were better workers; secondly, freedmen were no longer exempt from the taxes of the Commune (and, in fact, the Commune forbade freed serfs to move outside the diocese to which they belonged). In some cases, the serfs were gathered in certain free places (Italian: franco), from which the names of towns like Castelfranco Emilia. Whether, however, the economic benefits outweighed the economic disadvantages caused by the loss of so much unremunerated labor is hard to assess. Whatever the case, a combination of theological and practical concerns seems to have led to the extraordinary Bolognese mass manumission, and the Liber Paradisus is a powerful theological treatise on human equality.
With this act, also called Paradisum voluptatis, Bologna was probably the first city in the world to abolish slavery.
In 1257 the Commune ordered four notaries – between them Rolandino de' Passaggeri – to catalogue names and details of freed serfs in a memorial. This book is now kept at the State Archives (in Piazza dei Celestini, Bologna), and it is called Paradisus because the first written word is Paradise, to remember that God created man in paradise in perfect and perpetual freedom.
Latin incipit: «Paradisum voluptatis plantavit dominus Deus omnipotens a principio, in quo posuit hominem, quem formaverat, et ipsius corpus ornavit veste candenti, sibi donans perfectissimam et perpetuam libertatem»
(«In the beginning God planted a paradise of delights, where he put the man whom he had formed, and adorned his body of a bright dress, giving him the most perfect and perpetual freedom»)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate slaves around the world.
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed during late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century.
Reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements which reject those old ideals, in that the ideas are often grounded in liberalism, although they may be rooted in socialist or religious concepts. Some rely on personal transformation; others rely on small collectives, such as Mahatma Gandhi's spinning wheel and the self-sustaining village economy, as a mode of social change. Reactionary movements, which can arise against any of these, attempt to put things back the way they were before any successes the new reform movement(s) enjoyed, or to prevent any such successes.
Podestà, also potestate or podesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of central and northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city-state, the counterpart to similar positions in other cities that went by other names, e.g. rettori ('rectors').
The emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia, also known as the Edict of Emancipation of Russia, was the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire.
The Black Codes, sometimes called the Black Laws, were laws which governed the conduct of African Americans. In 1832, James Kent wrote that "in most of the United States, there is a distinction in respect to political privileges, between free white persons and free colored persons of African blood; and in no part of the country do the latter, in point of fact, participate equally with the whites, in the exercise of civil and political rights." Although Black Codes existed before the Civil War and although many Northern states had them, the Southern U.S. states codified such laws in everyday practice. The best known of these laws were passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, after the Civil War, in order to restrict African Americans' freedom, and in order to compel them to work for either low or no wages.
The term serf, in the sense of an unfree peasant of tsarist Russia, meant an unfree person who, unlike a slave, historically could be sold only together with the land to which they were "attached". However, this stopped being a requirement by the 19th century, and serfs were practically indistinguishable from slaves. Contemporary legal documents, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants. While another form of slavery in Russia, kholopstvo, was ended by Peter I in 1723, the serfdom was abolished only by Alexander II's emancipation reform of 1861; nevertheless, in times past, the state allowed peasants to sue for release from serfdom under certain conditions, and also took measures against abuses of landlord power.
Slavery in medieval Europe was widespread. Europe and North Africa were part of a highly interconnected trade network across the Mediterranean Sea, and this included slave trading. During the medieval period (500–1500), wartime captives were commonly forced into slavery. As European kingdoms transitioned to feudal societies, a different legal category of unfree persons -- serfdom—began to replace slavery as the main economic and agricultural engine. Throughout medieval Europe, the perspectives and societal roles of enslaved peoples differed greatly, from some being restricted to agricultural labor to others being positioned as trusted political advisors.
Castell'Arquato is an Italian town located on the first hills of Val D’Arda in the province of Piacenza, in Emilia-Romagna, approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Piacenza and 35 kilometres (22 mi) from Parma. Places nearby include Bacedasco, Vigolo Marchese, Fiorenzuola d'Arda, Lugagnano Val d'Arda, and Vernasca. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia.
The Papal Mint is the pope's institute for the production of hard cash. Papal Mint also refers to the buildings in Avignon, Rome, and elsewhere that used to house the mint.
The Towers of Bologna are a group of medieval structures in Bologna, Italy. The two most prominent ones remaining, known as the Two Towers, are a landmark of the city.
The Palazzo del Podestà is a civic building in Bologna, northern Italy.
Palazzo Re Enzo is a palace located on Piazza del Nettuno, 1 in the historic center of Bologna, northern Italy. The palace takes its name from Enzio of Sardinia, Frederick II's son, who was prisoner here from 1249 until his death in 1272. The palace is presently used to sponsor cultural events and exhibitions.
Bologna is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its metropolitan area is home to more than 1,000,000 people. It is known as the Fat City for its rich cuisine, and the Red City for its red tiled rooftops and, more recently, its leftist politics. It is also called the Learned City because it is home to the oldest university in the world. It is the only Italian city besides Milan, Rome and Turin to have always been included in the list of the Globalization and World Cities Research Network: specifically, in 1998 it was classified as one of the 100 world cities and, since then, it was the only one to exceed the level of sufficiency or high sufficiency, besides the other three cities previously mentioned, having reached the "Gamma -" level in 2016.
Giovanni II Bentivoglio was an Italian nobleman who ruled as tyrant of Bologna from 1463 until 1506. He had no formal position, but held power as the city's "first citizen." The Bentivoglio family ruled over Bologna from 1443, and repeatedly attempted to consolidate their hold of the Signoria of the city.
While slavery has not been widespread on the territory of what is now Russia since the introduction of Christianity in the tenth century, serfdom in Russia, which was in many ways similar to contemporary slavery around the world, only ended in February 19th, 1861 when Russian Emperor Alexander II issued The Emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Emancipation of state-owned serfs occurred in 1866.
Serfdom has a long history that dates to ancient times.
The Third Statute of Lithuania abolished slavery in 1588.
Filippo da Pistoia, also called Filippo Fontana or anglicized Philip, was an Italian prelate, military leader and diplomat. He was the bishop-elect of Ferrara from 1239 until 1252, bishop-elect of Florence from 1250 until 1251 and archbishop of Ravenna from 1250 until his death. He was the apostolic legate in Germany between July 1246 and March 1247, in Lombardy and the Trevigiana between December 1255 and August 1258 and throughout northern Italy between 1267 and February 1270. He served as podestà (mayor) of Ravenna in 1254.
Guglielmo Cortusi (fl. 1305–1361) was a Paduan judge, diplomat and chronicler whose Chronica de novitatibus Padue et Lombardie is the principal primary source for Paduan history in the early years of Carraresi rule.
