The Popolo’s Room. Describing Medieval Archives Through a Fourteenth Century Bologna Inventory

Abstract

This article presents a dataset derived from a medieval archive inventory preserved in the State Archives of Bologna, the Liber seu memoriale of 1324. This source, resulting from the reorganization of an important portion of the archives of the ancient city commune, describes all the documents produced during the administrations of 54 different capitani del popolo, the foreign officers who, along with the podesta, governed the city, changing every six months. It offers a comprehensive view of the archival material produced by these officers from 1281 to 1308 and helps in understanding Italian city archives of the Middle Ages. The article delves into the 1324 inventory’s origin and structure, emphasizing its innovative system. Then it describes the methodology used to create a table in which individual items described in inventories are listed, along with other data provided by the identification of the descriptions with actual preserved registers. The resulting dataset, named Camera Populi 1324, includes detailed information on the archival units, the persons involved in their production, and the curie, the different teams of officers directed by every capitano. The dataset has been utilized for a critical edition of the Liber seu memoriale and a virtual reconstruction of the Popolo’s Archives. The reuses of this dataset span academic research, teaching, and broader applications, such as tracking specific individuals’ activities, reconstructing communal office contexts, and assessing the loss of medieval documentation over time. The simple and flexible dataset structure allows for adaptation to other medieval and premodern collections, enhancing its versatility for various archival history and research projects. Overall, this dataset provides a valuable resource for understanding medieval administrative practices and archival structures.

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