This article examines the case of Lucca around the year 1100 to investigate a decisive transfor-mation in medieval social and political structures: the emergence of the domus (house, house-hold) as a legal and moral person, holder of assets, rights, and obligations. It argues that the aggregation of individuals into domus endowed with a proper name, transmissible patrimony (both material and immaterial), and territorial anchorage represents a sharp rupture rather than the linear outcome of a process begun in the Carolingian era. Drawing on extensive Luc-chese documentary evidence, the study identifies two distinct phases corresponding to two ma-jor seasons in the formation of domus within the social fabric. The first (c. 1080-1120), linked to the seigneurial transformation and civil wars, marked the collapse of a court-centred order focused on the marquis’s palace: houses formed primarily among parental groups that had dis-tinguished themselves in the microcosm of the court. The second phase (c. 1170-1220), associ-ated with economic growth and the commercial revolution, had a much broader scope, with a strong multiplication of domus within the militia, mainly in the urban context. By contrasting a pre-1100 ‘court society’ with a post-1100 ‘house society’, the article aims to contribute to the definition of two ideal-typical models and a chronological framework that can be applied com-paratively to other contexts, while also challenging the historiographical tendency to project later dynastic and territorial structures backwards.
University of Pisa, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-3358-8336
Chapter Title
Models for a changing society: Lucca around the year 1100
Authors
Paolo Tomei
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1076-8.18
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
In Search of the High Middle Ages. Change and Continuity in 11th–12th-century Italy
Editors
Alberto Cotza, Giuseppe Petralia
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
560
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1076-8
ISBN Print
979-12-215-1075-1
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-1076-8
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-1078-2
Series Title
Reti Medievali E-Book
Series ISSN
2704-6362
Series E-ISSN
2704-6079