Marino da Caramanico: giudice, giurista, intellettuale

Marino da Caramanico (1240? – 1285/7?) was without any doubt an important figure in the Angevin court. Nevertheless we know very little about his biography. We don’t know where he studied law, nor whether he ever was professor in the Studium founded by Frederic II in Neaples. Many members of his family were judges so as a judge certainly was him. All in all he was a practical jurist but with a noteworthy education. His name is famous for his comment on the Liber constitutionum Regni Siciliae (very soon considered the ‘glossa ordinaria’ to that law code). His introduction (Proemium) to the Gloss calls the most attention by scholars. Marinus defends the idea of a strong and centralised monarchy. He draws from Roman law the concept of an absolute power, concentrated in the hands of the prince. Such a prince, anyway, for Marinus is no more the emperor, but the king of a single country (Regnum): a king who is strong enough to not have to recognise any other ‘temporal’ authority above him. Marinus was interested non only in the sovereignty’s questions (non excluded the relationship with the Pope and the local autonomies, i.e. the commons), but also in fiscal system, in the feudal rules and in the exercise of the iurisdictio.