may 16, 1116 - Birth of the Commune of Bologna

Description:

Henry V issued a privilege that granted imperial protection to the citizens of Bologna and the right to pursue their own customs.

Those consuetudines were of a commercial character and did not comprise public rights, nor did the privilege use the term “comune,” but the grantees were described as “concives,” (fellow countrymen of a particular place) thereby recognizing an organizedtotality of citizens; holder, as the privilege attested, to a treasury and a common patrimony.

[Tamba, Civic Institution (12th-early 15th Centuries) in Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Bologna ed. Sarah Rubin Blanshei, 2017, 211]

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