Una forma di associazionismo tra rituale e politica. Le «società degli stolti» nel Piemonte rurale del Cinquecento

This article examines a historiographical subject first explored in the 1970s by Natalie Zemon Davis but still largely opaque, the so called «societies» or «abbeys of fools». These peculiar organisations are investigated within the historical framework of sixteenth-century rural Piedmont, where – as it will be shown throughout the analysis of two partially unpublished cases, both from the Canavese area – the societates stultorum were deeply embedded in rural communities and could play a fundamental political role, with explosive effects in episodes of conflict with seigneurial power and even open revolt. Contrary to the predominantly youthful and carnivalesque connotation traditionally assigned to the phenomenon by local studies, the article highlights the composite character of these societies, both in terms of the members’ age and their social background. This type of structure made them an effective vehicle for community self-defense and for asserting communal rights.