An eighteenth-century find
The parchment was found in 1749 by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri in the Archive of the Republic. It is a rather corrupt late-eleventh-century copy of a document dated 20 February 885. It measures 360 × 650 mm; numerous tears have damaged four lines and the entire lower-right side of the text. Many scholars have examined its state of conservation and authenticity, from Cesare Manaresi to the Swiss Paul Aebischer. Discussions on the integrity of the text and possible interpolations remain open.
The bishop and the abbot
The Placito records a civil case held in the Feltresco area between two parties: Deltone, bishop of Rimini, and Stephen, priest and abbot of the monastery of San Marino. The bishop accused the abbot of having usurped from the Riminese Church some lands on the western slope of the Titano. The decision was entrusted to John, bishop of the Montefeltro, supported by some thirty jurists and magistrates. After a lengthy dispute, the verdict went to the Sammarinese abbot: Stephen managed to prove that the Riminese Church had never owned those properties.
| Place name | Origin |
|---|---|
| Casole | Of uncertain etymology |
| Ravellino | Late Latin |
| Fabbrica | Latin fabrica |
| Petroniano | Latin, from the gens name Petronius |
| Pignaria | Late Latin |
| Griziano | Latin, from the gens name Grittius |
| Erviano | Latin, from Hervius |
| Laritiniano | Latin, from the gens name Laretinius |
| Fiorentino | Latin Florentinus |
| Silvole | Latin silva |
| Flagellaria | Late Latin |
A civitas already free
The value of the Placito goes beyond the judicial decision. The document attests that around 885 a castle and a monastery coexisted on the Titano, with holdings cultivated by a dense agricultural population; and, for the first time in writing, asserts the independence of the Sammarinese territory from the Church of Rimini and from the Montefeltro. It is the milestone from which the documented history of the Republic begins. The historical narrative continues with the Middle Ages and the rise of the Arengo.