Credito, restituzione e cittadinanza: uno snodo storiografico tra valutazione e reintegrazione (secoli XII-XV)

The question of restitution highlights the longstanding encounter between the languages of theology and canon law, and financial and mercantile practices. Within this framework, the consolidation of evaluation mechanisms during the thirteenth century appears crucial. By establishing the (permeable and uncertain) limits of licit economic behaviours, these mechanisms also charted the (equally negotiable) boundaries of civic belonging. This evaluation function, based on specific commercial and credit competences, can be fitted within the constant process that redefined the social and ethical “equilibria”, in strict connection with the peculiar systems of political and economic relations.