La storiografia statutaria degli ultimi trent’anni. Considerazioni brevi tra passato e futuro prossimo

During the 19th and the 20th centuries legal historiography has alternatively shown phases of great interest and moments of substantial indifference for the medieval statutory law. In the last three decades, however, we can notice a vivid return of interest characterized by some important elements of novelty. Beyond its importance as a normative source, the communal statute law is now seen like a ‘global sources’, a fundamental key to understand the social, economic and cultural context of a medieval city. The interest for statutory law is now common to other figures of scholars and every new editorial project starts from a very interdisciplinary approach. The future, however, conceals some causes for concern. The current system of evaluation, for example, penalizes young legal historians who intend to engage in this kind of research.