WAHRHEITSFINDUNG UND GRENZSETZUNG. Der Kampfbeweis in Zeugenaussagen aus dem frühstaufischen Oberitalien.

The article discusses the findings of research into a decades long legal dispute between two medieval dominions disputing boundaries and ownership of five villages in the Po Valley, in northern Italy. The judicial "duel" was in part investigated through "trial" by testimony of witnesses to establish the geographic boundaries. This sort of ordeal came to replace trials by combat or those involving the application of glowing iron or hot or cold water. The evolution of trials by ordeal and of the ordeals themselves are discussed as beginning in the context of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.