«Civitas tunc quiescit et fulget cum pollentium numero decoratur». Le concessioni di cittadinanza in età viscontea tra pratiche e linguaggi politici

An analysis of the granting of citizenship during the age of the Visconti has verified if and in what way, in the context of Milanese domination, the privilegium civilitatis was used as an instrument of continuity or rupture with the past and what type of language was adopted for it. The attempt was then made to ascertain to what degree the dominating classes of the city succeeded in reserving for themselves the right to grant new citizenship and what were the ways by which the ruling power took this over. Between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the duke progressively invaded this sphere: even though mediated through language that tends to call it a request for an act useful to the community, the duke’s intervention represents in any case an interference in matters that earlier were the prerogative of the communal institutions but that, over time, became important tools of government in the hands of the Visconti.