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Rituals of liberation of poor prisoners condemned for minor crimes on the occasion of Christian feasts have not received specific attention in the historiography of communal Italy. Nevertheless, they can foster our knowledge of the Italian late Middle Ages by shedding light on aspects such as the concept of civic religion and the relationship between criminal justice and spirituality in the communes. This article focuses on the origins of these practices, which seem to occur for the first time in 1270s-1290s Tuscany, but which subsequently became common in other areas of central and northern Italy.
