Establishing Power And Law 247
by a group of 50 elite jurors. The adoption of Barcelona’s municipal regiment
as a model—extended to Sassari in 1331 and to Alghero in 1441—did not lead to
the complete annulment of prior statutes. The Statuti sassaresi were likewise
extended in part to Alghero and Castellaragonese,46 while the Breve di Villa di
Chiesa established the office of captain, who governed the city when it came to
judiciary functions, side by side with an “Assessore” and not a Veguer. However,
the city of silver (Villa di Chiesa) had to struggle to obtain the firm status vital to
preserving municipal autonomy. On the occasion of the parliament of 1421, the
city proposed a judiciary plea (greuge) regarding the Crown’s stated proposal
to enfeoff it. In 1436, authority over Villa di Chiesa was conceded to Carroç for
5,750 florins, but that did not deter the city from re-vindicating its municipal
liberties. A huge popular uprising against the imprudent barons preceded Villa
di Chiesa’s liberation in 1450, and its final reincorporation into the royal state.
No less tormented was the situation of Bosa, which was repeatedly enfeoffed
by the Crown, which did not to wish to recognize the royal statute. In fact,
Bosa was not permitted to govern itself until 1565. It was this city, along with
others on the margins—Oristano and Castellaragonese, for example—which
prevented the entire system of royal cities from achieving full perfection in the
Aragonese period.47
In its initial form, this urban system already manifested the characteris-
tics that marked its later history: a hierarchical order with a stable leadership
(Cagliari), two rival poles (Sassari and Alghero), and four supports (Iglesias,
Oristano, Bosa, Castellaragonese). The predominantly military character of
this urban system contrasted fortified cities, in which Sardinians remained
strangers in their own land, with the countryside. A closed social apparatus
surrounded restricted groups of counselors (ciutadans honrats) and mer-
chants, who monopolized both municipal posts and export licenses. The civic
topography reflected the firm segmentation of the social spectrum, assigning
each group a separate space (neighborhood, street, piazza). All in all, the in-
troverted and rigid urban system of Sardinia was incapable, despite its coastal
location, of opening itself up to the cultural upheavals coming from the prin-
cipalities of Italy and “imperial” Spain in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
46 Antonello Mattone, “Gli Statuti sassaresi nel periodo aragonese e spagnolo,” in Gli Statuti
Sassaresi. Economia, società e istituzioni a Sassari nel Medioevo e nell’Età moderna, eds
Antonello Mattone and Marco Tangheroni (Sassari, 1986), pp. 409–490 (esp. 454–456).
47 On Iglesias and Bosa, see Boscolo, I Parlamenti, pp. 16–17, 85–88, 113–115, 124–130; on
Castellaragonese, see Antonello Mattone and Alessandro Soddu, eds, Castelsardo:
novecento anni di storia (Rome, 2007).