Subjects and goods in the Early Middle Ages: the theft in the Frankish Law (VIth-VIIIth centuries)

• Grant number: 08/01747-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: September 15, 2008
• End date: December 14, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Cândido da Silva
• Grantee: Marcelo Cândido da Silva
• Host Investigator: Régine Le Jan
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France

Abstract

This research project intends to examine the relations between subjects and goods in the Early Middle Ages, particularly in the Frankish kingdom. Starting from the presupposition that it is from exceptions to the norm that social and juridical rules are constructed, that is, that the exception constitutes the very condition of the possibility of validating the juridical norm, the principal instrument in this project for understanding the relations between goods and subjects in the Early Middle Ages will be the analysis of Frankish legal constructions that aimed to restrain and punish attacks on goods. In this way, we will examine how royal legislation and the ecclesiastic legislation elaborated in the Regnum Francorum dealt with the struggle against the theft of goods in the VI, VII and VIII centuries. The focus will be on the statute of the public subject - those who acted and moved in public space - their relations with other subjects and also with the public authority. The project thus proposes a reflection on the nature, boundaries and specificities of public space in the Early Middle Ages. (AU)