Norme relative agli ambasciatori nei codici statutari di Bologna (secc. XIII-XV)

During the late Middle Ages, the task of ambassadors was of great importance in the institutional, political and social affairs of the community and city government of Bologna. Despite this undoubted importance, analytical research on references to the tasks of ambassadors in the municipal statutes issued in the Bologna area have only recently been carried out. This work resumes and deepens the results of these investigations by examining the statutory rules contained in codes drawn up over a period of time between the twelfth and fifteenth (more precisely, these are the statutes of 1288, 1335, 1376, 1389 and 1454). From the analysis of the promulgations taken into consideration, a few repeated and constant elements can be gathered. First of all, the limits of this type of source which cannot account for the real development of the embassies but which is generated by the desire to fix certain points such as the amount of the costs of the missions and the scope and methods of recruitment of officers. Repeated and constant are some privileges such as that of carrying prohibited weapons or being able to be replaced in public proceedings. Another constant can be seen in the clear distinction between the nuncios – simple bearers of notices – and the ambassadors to whom the ability to influence is attributed even in the most controversial issues such as those relating to reprisals. The number of ambassadors continuously and drastically decreases from the first codes to the last ones. This cannot be attributed to a decrease in consideration because at the same time the repayments and the expected salaries record repeated and inevitable increases. Presumably precisely the awareness of the need to entrust such important and delicate roles has ended up limiting sections of the statutes dedicated to them. At the same time, this situation allowed notable freedom of choice in concrete situations. It is mainly for this reason that beyond the identification of the recruitment area, ambassadors do not appear as an office of the municipal apparatus. Ultimately the evident and constant reluctance to designate the ambassadors as normal officers of the municipal apparatus combined with the rigor and the increasingly stringent mandate meant the desire to maintain control over their work which too easily could conform to partisan and even personal interests.