562 glossary
Consacrazione the act that gives the episcopal dignity to a person. The newly
or consecration elected pope had to be first consecrated bishop.
Conversos Jews or Muslims who converted to Christianity.
Corbel an architectural decoration typical of Pisan or Lombard
Romanesque churches made out of a sequence of rounded or
lobated arches just below the roofline either on the facade or
around the entire building.
Cuniadus enclosed fields.
Curatoria a subdivision of a giudicato, which corresponded to its eccle-
siastical partition into dioceses.
Curtes economic and legal organizations characterized by a tenden-
tiously closed and self-sufficient economy that absorbed the
entire cycle of production and exchange, and an independent
judicial and administrative system, usually with tax and judi-
cial immunity, directed by a single leader.
Dhimma the pact of protection enforced through a poll tax (gizyah)
upon non-Muslim subjects living in the dar al-Islam (the por-
tion of the world under Islamic political authority).
Divites rich and powerful men.
Dominium directum direct ownership of land with its titular (the feudatory).
Dominium utile usufruct, right of the land, invested ownership.
Dominus lord, landowner.
Domus ecclesiae a site of Christian worship inside a private building.
Donamentum gift by which a free man recognizes the jurisdiction of a lord.
Donnicalias or farms and state-owned lands granted by the Sardinian kings
domos to Pisan and Genoese aristocrats to freely carry out their ac-
tivities. These agrarian complexes consisted of farms, mead-
ows, pasture, woods, large and small livestock, serfs and
maidservants.
Donnu giudice or judex or judge.
Dux military governor of a Roman province.
Equites knights, subject to military service.
Fibula decorative broach worn over clothes.
Fondaco or Fonduk a type of inn/residence for foreign merchants; each nation
(from Arabic) had its own, generally located beyond the city walls.
Fundus cultivated area of a farm.
Giudicati literally means “judgeships” or “judicatures.” These were the
indigenous, independent kingdoms of medieval Sardinia
(ca. 900–1420).