Sardinia As A Crossroads In The Mediterranean 33
provided much of the information permitting historians to reconstruct the
socio-economic life of the island.92 These cartularies—or registers—record
local laws and customs for sales, exchanges, trials, or kertu related to the pos-
session of land or servants, agreements on the distribution of the children of
slaves, the protection of women’s rights, and juridical rulings. The carte de logu
were ahead of their time in establishing a code of civic rights that later became
the core of the legislative body of the entire island.93 Their impact was such
that these publicly enforced civic duties were largely maintained during and
after the Aragonese occupation.94 Women’s rights are mentioned in the conda-
ghe, in terms of inheritance and adultery, and appear to be more advanced
than what was available to women on the continent. Women became judges,
or shared ruling powers with their husbands, and could inherit land. Today,
women’s studies are starting to develop in Sardinia.95 These carta de logu
Turtas “Evoluzione semantica della parola condake,” http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/
fullsize/2010011412221400006.pdf.
92 Rowlands summarized three condaghe texts from the monastery in the Logudoro;
these are S. Pietro in Silki, S. Nicolo di Trullas, and S. Michele di Salvenor and one in the
Arborean S. Maria di Bonarcado, see Rowland, The Periphery in the Center, pp. 170–177.
93 Italo Birocchi and Antonello Mattone, eds, La Carta de Logu d’Arborea nella storia del
diritto medieval e moderno (Rome-Bari, 2004); in same volume, see also Jesús Lalinde
Abadía, “La ‘Carta de Logu’ nella civiltà giuridica della Sardegna medievale,” pp. 13–49;
and Francesco Artizzu, “ ‘Carte de Logu’ o ‘Carta de logu’,” pp. 192–203; most of the original
documents were written in the giudicato’s own idiom, see Giulio Pualis and Giovanni
Lupinu, “Tra Logudoro e Campidani. I volgari sardi e le espressioni della cultura,” in
Brigaglia, Mastino, and Ortu, Storia della Sardegna, vol. 1, pp. 131–139.
94 Giuliano Bonazzi, ed., Il Condaghe di San Pietro di Silki. Testo logudorese inedito dei secoli
XI–XII (Sassari-Cagliari, 1900); Attilio Mastino, “La romanità della società giudicale in
Sardegna: il Condaghe di San Pietro di Silki,” in Atti del Convegno Nazionale La Giudicale
in Sardegna nei Secoli XI–XIII: fonti e documenti scritti: Sassari, Aula Magna dell’Università,
16–17 marzo 2001, Usini, Chiesa di Santa Croce, 18 marzo 2001 (Sassari, 2002), pp. 23–61. And,
for the more recent revision of this early text, see also Alessandro Soddu and Giovanni
Strinna, Il Condaghe di San Pietro in Silki (Nuoro, 2013).
95 The few exceptions are L. Pinna, La Famiglia esclusiva: Parentela e clientelismo in Sardegna
(Pisa, 1971); Robert J. Rowland, “The Sardinian Condaghi: Neglected Evidence for Medieval
Sex Ratios,” Florilegium 4 (I Condagni Sardi: testimonianza dimenticata sui rapport numerici
fra sessi nel Medioveo), in QB 11 (1982); M.P. Meloni, “ ‘Et de onnia ateru intro de domo fusca
a una discu’. Breve nota sulle donne nel Condaghe di S. Maria di Bonarcado,” in Giudicato,
ed. Giampaolo Mele (Oristano, 2000); Robert J. Rowlands, “Observation on Donations
Made to the Church in the Judicati Period,” in Giudicato, ed. Giampaolo Mele (Oristano,
2000). Regarding the condition of women in Europe, see David Herlihy, “Land, Family
and Women in Continental Europe, 700–1200,” Traditio 18 (1962); David Herlihy, in Women
in Medieval Society, eds Brenda Bolton and S. M. Stuard (Philadelphia, 1976). Particular