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CHAPTER 9
Establishing Power and Law in Medieval and
Modern Sardinia
Gian Giacomo Ortu1 The Era of the giudicati
1.1 The Economy of the domus
Recent studies and excavations have uncovered a considerable number of
Roman villas in Sardinia, both on the island’s coast and in its interior.1 Without
altogether disregarding the indigenous traditions of collective land use, pre-
served particularly in the most inland and mountainous regions of the island,
what may be gathered from this is that the system of Roman villas (an exten-
sion of urban life into the countryside) was widespread in flat and hilly areas
of the island. Nonetheless, the stamp of the Roman estate, long articulated in
the villa’s three basic parts—fundus (ager cum aedificio; territory with build-
ings), saltus (open countryside), and silva (the woods)—was imprinted on the
overall appearance of the Sardinian landscape.
Between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries, the Sardinian country-
side seems to have been dominated by the domus—large farms run by lords
and servile labor. The derivation of the Sardinian domus from the Roman
villa is certain, even if documentary evidence is lacking for the long period
(sixth–tenth centuries AD) of Byzantine rule. Both the term and concept of the
Roman dominus are in fact clearly conveyed in the Sardinian donnu (the pro-
prietor of the domu), while those of the Roman servus and ancilla underlie the
Sardinian servu and ankilla (the employees of the operation). However, patri-
monial registers of certain monastic estates (the so-called condaghes), present
the domus as a villa in the wilderness, immersed in a thoroughly rural context
with no ties to the city.2 It was as though its long affiliation with the Greek and
eastern half of the Roman Empire kept Sardinia in a cocoon of structures and
1 Attilio Mastino, ed., Storia della Sardegna antica (Nuoro, 2005), pp. 180–183.
2 Giuliano Bonazzi, ed., Il Condaghe di San Pietro di Silki (Sassari-Cagliari, 1900); Paolo Merci,
ed., Il Condaghe di San Nicola Trullas (Sassari, 1992); Maurizio Virdis, ed., Il Condaghe di
Santa Maria di Bonarcado (Cagliari, 2002); Paolo Maninchedda and Antonello Murtas, eds, Il
Condaghe di San Michele di Salvenor (Cagliari, 2003).