The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression. — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression.
Dante Alighieri · en
The magistrates must execute the
father's decision without calling for proofs.[382] A son may thus be
arbitrarily confined to the house, fettered and imprisoned by his
father, who is only bound to supply him with the necessaries of life.
The same rule obtains with regard to other descendants. If in all
this great variety of laws we try to discover any one characteristic
peculiar to the statutes, we must seek it in the _unitas personæ_
between father and son, which is often carried to a great length. This,
too, is a result of the general conception of the family recognised
by the statutes. In Urbino and elsewhere the father may be punished
for the son, the master for the servant.[383] As to the liabilities
of commerce, these are shared, not only by father and son, but by
the whole body of the relations, as we find was the case in Genoa,
Florence, and many of the principal trading cities. In Florence, the
father, grandfather, and great-grandfather incur the same liability
for a descendant (even if under guardianship) who engages in trade,
as though they stood surety for him. To escape this responsibility
they must make a public and formal disclaimer of liability.[384] Thus,
if an unemancipated son is agent or factor of a company or house of
business, the father is responsible for him, unless he has given
the parties legal notice to the contrary. For the same reason the
emancipation of the son must be publicly performed and communicated to
the Society of Merchants.[385] When a daughter marries, she ceases to
be subject to the paternal authority, and can no longer be held in any
way responsible for her father, either as regards civil obligations or
criminal, should the father have evaded punishment by flight.