A gastald (Latin gastaldus or castaldus, Italian gastaldo or guastaldo) was a Lombard official in charge of some portion of the royal demesne (a gastaldia or castaldia) with civil, martial, and judicial powers. By the Edictum Rothari of 643, the gastalds were given the civil authority in the cities and the reeves the like authority in the countryside. Under the Lombard dominion, territories were delimited by giudicati or "judgments" among the several gastaldi. From the immediate region of Parma and of Piacenza, numerous such giudicati survive, which cover the range of Lombard rule. The documents follow the same formalized structure, of which one between the gastaldo Daghiberto and the gastaldo Immo was adjudged by Adaloald, at Ticino, November 615. For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, whence comes the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe that entered the late Roman Empire. ... The feudal concept of demesne is a form of manorial land tenure as conceived in Western Europe, initially in France but exported to England, during the Middle Ages. ... The Edictum Rothari (also Edictus Rothari or Edictum Rotharis) was the first written compilation of Lombard law, codified and promulgated 22 November 643 by King Rothari. ... Events Rothari, King of the Lombards, issues the Lombard law code. ... Look up reeve in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, famous for its architecture and the fine countryside around it. ... Piacenza (Placentia in Latin and old-fashioned English, Piasëinsa in the local dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. ... Adaloald (602 – 626) was the Lombard king of Italy from 616 to 626. ... For the river, see Ticino river. ...

As paid officials with direct allegiance to the roving Lombard kings, whose seat was nominally at Pavia, the gastaldi were often in conflict with the dukes, the great Lombard territorial magnates who pursued policies of autonomy. By the 9th century, the powers of the gastaldi had devolved to largely administrative ones. The title gradually disappeared over the final century of Lombard power, surviving only in a few instances, especially in the Mezzogiorno, where ducal Lombard power continued for another two hundred years, for example at Capua, which was included in the Lombard Duchy of Benevento and where the count's title remained gastaldo as late as the ninth century, when Gastaldo Landulfo began strenuously to establish his independence. About 1200, in his Magna derivationes, Uguiccione of Pisa included gastradeus [sic., a copyist's slip for gastaldeus] given the meaning "rector loci", the "administrator of a place".^[1] For the municipality in the Philippines, see Pavia, Iloilo. ... The Mezzogiorno is generally viewed as encompassing Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily, which lie in Italys south, as well as Molise and Abruzzo, which are geographically in central or south-central Italy. ... This is as list of the Princes of Capua. ... The Duchy of Benevento was the southernmost Lombard duchy in medieval Italy, centred on Benevento, a city central in the Mezzogiorno. ... Landulf I (c. ... Huguccio (Hugh of Pisa) was an Italian canon lawyer (b. ...

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In Old High German, gastaldus came to denote a steward. Castaldy appears in Middle English with an abstract meaning of "stewardship"; the specific function, however, remained foreign to Anglo-Saxon or Norman institutions. The (Late Old High) German speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 950. ... The terms steward or stewardess can refer to a number of different professional roles. ...

Notes

References

• Paolo Ostinelli: Gastaldus in German, French or Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.