Looking closer at the texts of Placiti

The formulas from Sessa Aurunca (March 963) and Teano (October, 963) are similar in kind, only concerning different lands, though still within the Lombard duchy of Capua. These documents are invaluable in that their formulas are similar to the Placito, confirming that that is the language spoken around 960 A.D.

The fact this early Italian is used in a court proceeding seems to confirm that it Italian had been spoken (if not written) for a while and that Latin as we know it was unknown by the general public.

To sum it up, the importance of the Placito lies in that:

1. we know for certain that from 960 A.D. Italian is the language of government and

2. it is proof it was spoken and understood by all classes of society,

3. That people felt it to be a language apart from the Latin used in the courts and at mass.

Apart from the formula 'Parte Sancti Benedicti', a fossil genitive like 'Piazza San Marco' (St. Mark's Square) or Via Giuseppe Mazzini that appears in many Italian addresses today, and Tebe and bobe in the last three proceedings (the fossil datives of Lat. tibi and vobis), scholars have acknowledged that the Placito is linguistically emancipated from Latin: it also shows a certain resemblance to modern dialect of Campania (kelle, possette etc).

While it is not difficult to explain such spelling variants as ko, cco (c would be read as en. 'cho'), que and ke (ke being a phonetic trascription of Lat. que, 'that') as pronounced in middle Latin, 'sao' has been disputed.

'Sao', probably modeled on the Campanian 'ao' (it. ho, "I have"), dao (it. do, "I give"), stao (it. sto, "I stay") on analogy with Lat. sapis (it. sai, "you know") and sapit (it. sa, old Campanian sae) poses a bigger problem.

Although we are pretty sure about the spelling (it is the same in all of the four documents), its origin is still disputed since modern Capuan has "saccio" with palatal c (en. ch), while 'sazzo' is the only southern variant.

When we know that dialects are extremely conservative we are at pains to explain why there is no trace of 'sao' in today's Capuan. In the next chapter we will try to solve this puzzle with the aid of some educated guesses.

The quarrel between Rodelgrimo and the monks

One day, a small army of Saracens (883 A.D.) landed on the coasts of Southern Italy. They pillaged and destroyed everything and everyone on their path, finally heading for the mountains where a group of Benedectine monasteries were rumored to be full of gold and money. Most of the clergy were killed, the monasteries burned to the ground, anything valuable was carried away. What remained was a heap of smoking ruins surrounded by the deepest silence, dead bodies on the smoking ground.

Those who survived to tell the story would never set foot on those lands until the next century. But when the monks returned to rebuild their property they found that many natives had occupied their lands in their absence. Winning back the smaller lots of lands was easily done, but they eventually met with the stubborn opposition of a local squire, Rodelgrimo d'Aquino.

He, not unlike others, had annexed to his estate two lots that aparently belonged to the Catholic Church. In response Don Aligerno, the abbot of Montecassino, sent his lawyer (Pietro) to plead the monks' case in court which would settle the dispute under judge Arechisi from Capua. In his defense, Rodelgrimo produced a detailed map of his lands, insisting that his annexation had been lawful.

On their part, the Benedectines insisted that those lots belonged to them since they had lived there for a long time when the Saracens forced them to leave. The pleading was in Latin as this was still the language of the courts at the time.

When Judge Arechisi finally reached a verdict (the Placito), it stated that the lands held at the time by Rodelgrimo did actually belong to the monks, since they had been in their possession for at least 30 years (usucapione, still in use today) prior to Rodelgrimo's occupation.

After his deliberation, however, judge Arechisi wrote down the Placito in Italian, its form based on similar formulas in use in Latin, their existence documented at least since 882 A.D. (Lucca), in San Vincenzo al Volturno, not far from Capua (936, 954 and then 976 A.D.

As the judge entered the courtroom, he read out the formula in front of the public. Then, he asked three witnesses (Teomondo, Gariberto, two monks, and Mari, a notary) to repeat that same sentence in vernacular to make absolutely sure that everyone had understood it. In sum, the same sentence was recited four times (by judge and witnesses), and Mari the notary duly testified to the fact by writing down emphatically "toti tres quasi ex uno ore; quasi uno ore". (all three [witnesses] did swear as if with one voice).

The witnesses had more than a passing knowledge of Latin and could have used it as easily as their local dialect but much of the listening audience in the courtroom were did not speak Latin, hence the use of Italian. That they had to say the words in the new language was the telling sign that Latin, was no longer used or understood by the general public as a spoken language. This courtroom formula, marks the moment when Italian was officially recognized as a language.