Formule di conversione. Esempi dalle carte di un ospedale vercellese (secoli XIII-XIV)

Abstract

The archive of the Sant’Andrea Hospital of Vercelli preserves about fifteen notarial records of conversion or self-tradition issued from the third decade of the 13^th to the middle of the 14^th century. With the use of special formulas, these documents testify to the passage of individuals, women or men, or married couples from the lay status to the condition of converses, which could imply ambiguous profiles and generate conflict and controversy. This paper analizes the forms of this corpus of documents from the perspective of Diplomatics. The appendix presents the edition of the documents, including the report of a legal dispute between the comune of Vercelli and a converso of the hospital on the payment of taxes, that contains interesting allegations of the parties to the proceeding.