Studien zur Beamtenschaft Kaiser Friedrichs II. im Königreich Sizilien (1220‒1250)

This volume deals with the middle and top ranking administrative servants in the Regnum Siciliae in the period from the coronation of Emperor Frederic II in 1220 to his death in 1250. The wide range of the responsibilities and the structure of the organisation of more than 1000 servants who were employed on the provincial or city level has been systematically surveyed using only primary sources. The studies on Emperor Frederic II’s administrative service are divided into two major parts. The first addresses the question generally of how far these offices and their holders were incorporated into the body of administrative law created by Frederic II. It can be shown that the function and scope of any one office owed rather more to changing political needs and pragmatic daily demands than to the formal legal codes laid down in the Constitutions of Melfi. The second part of the study lists all provincial and city officeholders of the period and discusses them in detail based on both prosopographic and administrative records. Combining a historical study of the administration with prosopographical aspects, this book is the first in-depth analysis of the structure of the Regnum Siciliae’s administration of the first half of the 13th century. Although based on the Norman tradition, Frederic II, the "first modern man on the throne" (J. Burkhardt), developed the administration of his realm to perfection. The volume should close an important gap in both administrative and political history.