ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to study the changes in the ways in which social disputes were settled throughout the sixteenth century focusing both on the different discursive materials of political communication and on institutions. It examines how the feud could coexist with the law in early modern Tuscany. The Tuscan case is particularly interesting as it shows the ambiguity of such a polarization between transformation and stability. A historical analysis concerning Pistoia and Tuscany has to take into account different aspects and to put together financial, political and social problems. The chapter focuses on social disputes and their settlements in this city in order to scrutinize the new political order constructed by the Medici dukes in their dominion. The internal struggle within the Panciatichi faction resulted in an enlargement of the political oligarchy of the city: the Brunozzi slowly performed the highest charges in the Pistoia councils and became part of the few families which ruled over the city.
