For the history of money circulation in northern Italy between the 11th and the first half of the 12th century. The evidence of the documentary sources

Abstract

On the basis of the evidence offered by the documentary sources, the essay investigates the monetary circulation in the Northern Piedmont and in the Asti territory between the 11th and the first half of the 12th century. The author identifies  a rich context  of temporal steps and areas of diffusion of different coinages of silver pennies (as real coins and/or money of account). From a period, corresponding to the first part of the 11th century, in which in some of the examined areas (others are not mentioned in the documents)  there is a diffusion of the moneys minted in Pavia and Milan – even then, as we know, not aligned between them – we pass, starting from the last decades of that century, to a period of vivacious currencies movements. From the west a transalpine kind of money, the money of Poitou, entered Piedmont, already much weaker than the two currencies cited above, while, starting from the end of the 11th century, the moneys of Pavia and Milan were affected by two successive weakening, spreading in some of the examined areas according to complex dynamics, as the sources allow to grasp. At the end of the studied period in comparison to past monetary history some decidedly new facts can be registered: the spread of a “feudal” coin westward, minted by the counts of Savoy in Susa, and the establishment of communal money in the Asti territory.