The chains of the Diminutive. 'Documentality' and the Representation of Peasants in Early Medieval Italy (6th–11th Century)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6093/1593-2214/12862Keywords:
Early Middle Ages, Italy, Peasants, Anthroponymy, DocumentalityAbstract
The aim of this paper is to decipher a rather widespread practice in early medieval Italy: the use of diminutive suffixes in the anthroponymy of peasants and, more generally, of the lower strata of societies. The research, taking up the approach of PRIN project Lexiconomy, which develops the field of observation around the relationships between economy, society and documentary representation, shows that the diminutive is essentially a relational phenomenon, substantiated in documentary practice. On the one hand, the elites tend to ‘cage’ the peasants in humiliating representations in the written word; on the other hand, the peasants tend to reject these representations, when they have the opportunity to act in a proactive (economic) role in documentary transactions, in some cases even ennobling their own anthroponymy (e.g. Lucciolus > Lucius > Lucianus).
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