„Per fuoco e per estimo“

Abstract The essay illustrates the system of direct taxation, the colletta , applied in the city of L’Aquila in the Angevin and Aragonese periods. By analysing the administrative processes, it defines the role of the institutions involved: that of the municipal government and that of the local government, both inside and outside the city, which identified themselves with L’Aquila’s founding communities and ensured the management of land and collective assets. The criteria for the distribution of the tax are also determined by the recognition of the procedures used to calculate the contribution: on a personal basis, through censuses (called numerationes foculariorum ), and on a cadastral basis, through land registers ( apprezzi ).