Arimannus
The arimanni (singular arimannus) were a
Italy
. In contemporary documents arimanni are sometimes denominated as liberi homines (free men) or exercitales (soldiers).
The ranks of the arimanni were originally filled by experienced warriors, the descendants of the Lombard freemen who invaded Italy in 569. The position of the arimanni declined after the
serfs
.
The arimanni were typically small or medium landowners with a few tenants, or none, beneath them. They formed the basis of the Italian state as they owed it service, specifically oste et ponte et placito: army, bridge, and court services. This service was not mediated by
Lambert in the 890s created legislation asserting the obligations, especially military, of the arimanni and outlawing the prevalent practice of granting public obligations to vassals as benefices. The concept of arimanni survived into the eleventh century, when certain Tuscan citizens pleaded that status against the claims of the House of Canossa
.
Sources
- Cavanna, Adriano. Fara, sala, arimannia nella storia di un vico longobardo. Milano, 1967.
- Gasparri, Stefano. 'Strutture militari e legami di dipendenza in età longobarda e carolingia,' Rivista Storica Italiana 98 (1986), 664–726.
- Gasparri, Stefano. 'La questione degli arimanni,' Bullettino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo 87 (1978), 121–153.
- Gasparri, Stefano. 'Nobiles et credentes omines liberi arimanni'. Linguaccio, memoria sociale e tradizioni longobarde nel regno italico,' ed. S. Gasparri, Bullettino dell'Istituto storico italiano, Istituto storico italiano 105 (Rome, 2003), 25–51.
- Gasparri, Stefano. 'Il popolo-esercito degli arimanni. Gli studi longobardi di Giovanni Tabacco', Giovanni Tabacco e l'esegesi del passato. Quaderni, Accademia delle Scienze di Torino 14 (Torino, 2006), 21-36.
- Jarnut, Jörg. 'Beobachtungen zu den langobardischen arimanni und exercitales,' Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte. Germanistische Abteilung 88 (1971), 1-28.
- Tabacco, Giovanni. I liberi del re nell'Italia carolingia e postcarolingia. Spoleto, 1966.
- Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000. MacMillan Press: 1981.
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