Bonifacio VIII e la Marca d'Ancona

The essay will investigate the policy adopted by Boniface VIII, as sovereign of the Papal state, for the March of Ancona, a region that was not directly implicated in the pope’s private interests, but was subject to significant administrative measures. The policy of Caetani pope is placed in continuity with that of his predecessor, Nicholas IV, and is driven by a strong pragmatism, aimed to legitimize de facto the autonomies of the many urban centers in the region and to limit abuse of officials working in the papal Curia. The justice domain, with its strong evidence on financial, allows to sense, better than any other, the political management of Boniface VIII in the March. The pope granted, for consideration, large awards to towns and castles of the region in terms of administration of justice, even giving some of them from the jurisdiction of appeals. But at the same time, there was a sharp increase in cases of appeal discussed in the provincial Curia or in one of the three intermediate districts, called ‘giudicati’. In this respect, an extraordinary document, the Liber liliorum, keep in the communal archive of San Ginesio, allows to value the frequent recourse to the papal courts in civil and criminal. Even the most important legislation for the March, the Celestis patris familias (1303) grants to justice a major role. That legislation was received so favorably by the municipalities of Marchs, that, when a year later the death of Boniface VIII their successor decided to repeal it, they went down in open revolt, forcing Pope Benedict XI to reaffirm its validity.