In the archives of ancient origin, such as the one of Pomposa, one can find terms that may sound unusual to today’s ears that do not deal with Law or Jurisprudence. Emphyteusis, level, privilege, papal brief…

Emphyteusis is a form of contract through which property can be exploited by another person, enjoying the rents, in return for a periodic tribute in money or in kind. Emphyteusis, lasting twenty years, was widely used to reclaim marshy or uncultivated land and to transform wooded areas into cultivable ones. Over time, the contract also included the obligation to improve the land (whether rustic or not).

The name “livello” derives from the document (libello) on which was recorded the request for the concession of land for a fixed time (for cultivation and/or housing), in exchange for the payment of a rent (censo). On its expiry, the agreement was renewable through the payment of a further level fee. If in kind, the fee to be paid was not fixed: at the end of the year a percentage of the harvest of certain products was paid.
Lands could be granted at a level not only by the owners of the land, but also by levellers, emphytetes, beneficiaries… The concession agreements were written in an identical manner on two copies, one bearing the signature of the grantor and the other the signature of the leveller.

The privilege in Roman times established a legal exception to the regulations in force and could represent both a right and an obligation and was applicable to a single individual (hence the term privus, meaning «individual», and lex, «law»). In the Middle Ages, privileges also came to reserve an advantage for groups or sets of subjects, either indefinitely or with a time limit. The emperor (or king) and the pope had the power to grant (or revoke) privileges in terms of rights or possession of goods, as did landowners: donations of land, usufructs, monopolies, minting rights, exemption from taxes and services… Privileges granted to individuals could be transmitted by inheritance.
Over time, the privilege represented both the deed and the physical document on which it was recorded. The term privilegio is used more for papal concessions, while the term diploma is used for royal and imperial concessions.

The papal bull and the apostolic brief are two different formulas to indicate two formats of decrees issued by the Pope. Both have seals to guarantee their origin.
The bull (the seal or bulla in Latin), made of lead and, exceptionally, gold, is attached to the document by means of hemp or red and yellow silk strings, depending on its content. The topics are various (statutory and judicial norms, dispensations, excommunications, canonisations, appointments of bishops…) and the letter is sent by the Apostolic Chancellery.
From the end of the 18th century, the seal was replaced by a red ink stamp of Saints Peter and Paul with the name of the reigning pope around the image. The text ended with a dating formula indicating the place, day, month and pontifical year when the document was written. Signatures and seals were affixed as a last step.
The apostolic brief uses less formal formulas than the bull and follows a shorter procedure (in forma brevis sub cera), and is authenticated by means of a wax mould. The seal was affixed with the papal ring ‘of the fisherman’, the insignia of the Pope as ‘fisher of men’ according to Christ’s legacy. The ring was used to impress on the wax the representation of St Peter casting his nets into the water. The name of the pontiff in office was engraved on the edge of the ring. At present a red ink mould is used.
The term breve is widely used to refer also and more commonly to all those documents that summarise the details and implications of a deed concluded in long form.

Morgengabe literally means «gift of the morning» and in the Germanic tradition of the Barbarian era corresponded to the gift that the husband brought to his bride on the morning after the wedding night. This was done in front of family and friends as a demonstration of the woman’s honour. If at first the gift consisted of simple, mainly ornamental objects, in more economically prosperous times it consisted of goods of greater and greater value. The ownership of the gift remained with the woman even in the event of widowhood and possible second marriages. Gradually, the possibility of repudiating a bride who was not a virgin disappeared and the morgengabe began to be respected on the wedding day and not the day after, until it became a kind of widow’s allowance.