Peacemaking as a Written Work in Progress: Texts and Players (Italy, 15th century)

During a negotiation many records were produced, not only treaties, agreements and other formalised documents. There were also documents that were juridically flawed but pertinent politically. These are often drafts that record a promising milestone on the path to agreement. They share another trait: the variety and flexibility of the format used. The paper examines three cases from southern Italy in the 15th century and the early 16th century, with particular focus on documents produced over the course of negotiations between a diverse range of political figures: the political commitment expressed in the king Ferrante of Aragon’s albarans to the barons; the 1462 accord between the same king and his main rebel adversary, the prince of Taranto, Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini; the 17-years long confrontation between the inhabitants of Cava and the monks of the local Benedictine monastery after an informal agreement in 1497