L'intervento pubblico nei rapporti contrattuali privati e la stima dei beni. La prassi lombarda della datio in solutum (secoli XVI-XVII)

Sale contracts and rental agreements involve the estimation of goods and estates. It is required to determine the price of goods and estates to be sold or the rent to be paid. Usually the parties make an agreement on the value of goods and estates and decide about the price and the rent. Legal doctrine has always been aware of this crucial topic in contract law: a 16th century Lombard jurists wrote that «Precium est rei aestimatio commutandae cum certo numero numorum dandorum ei, qui eorum dominus numquam fuit, sed quem tradens dominum facere tenetur» (G.C. Giussani, Tractatus de precio, et aestimatione secundum ius civile, Mediolani, 1615). The aim of this paper is to study the legal practice of estimation of goods and estates in 16th-17th century Milan Duchy, focusing on the so called datio in solutum, a special institute of contract law.