Dominus spiarum: the development of a magistrate responsible for selecting spies in legal documents of late medieval and early modern Italy (14th to 16th centuries)

In the first decades of the 14th century, the italian statutory legislation – written systematizations of legal procedures, fiscal and civic regulations as well as sumptuary norms, considered by authors such as François Menant to be an innovation of the northern-italian communes produced from the 12th century until the napoleonic era – introduced amongst the ranks of city officers a magistrate called Dominus spiarum, whose main function was to select, manage and control the envoy of spies, agents described in these texts as individuals designed to investigate and report about “new occurrences from all parts and to carry letters to whichever location chosen by the spy master.” Instead of disappearing when most nothern italian cities became parte of larger signorial states or were subdued by the papacy during the 15th and 16th centuries, the dominus spiarum gained even more prerrogatives. This agent became responsible for almost every matter regarding foreigners, letters received and envoied by citizens as well as officers and, of course, spies sent and interceded in the territory. Even the ability to torture those who were considered to be spies from outside powers were conceded to this officer. In the present communication one intend to discuss the legal construction, the prerrogatives and development of this magistrate in late medieval and early modern Italy. The main source of this exposition is going to be the communal and signorial statutes produced after the second half of the 14th and all the way through the 15th centuries in the northern portion of the italian peninsule which became quite difused in most cities of this geographical area.