The commutation of criminal sentences in late Medieval Italy : the example of fifteenth-century Lucca

Petitions for the commutation of criminal sentences were common in Italy (and elsewhere) from the early years of the fourteenth century and were directed towards both republican and seigneurial regimes. Previous studies have tended to focus on princely states, and on the fourteenth century. The present article examines the practice in Lucca in the decades after the restoration of the republic in 1430. It is concerned both with the motivations and pleadings of the supplicants and with the objectives and calculations of the Lucchese councils that determined the granting of a pardon. [Publisher's text]

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