Oath of Pontida

The cloister of the abbey of Pontida. The monastic complex, which is dedicated to James the Great, is the place where, according to tradition, the oath of Pontida would have been celebrated

The oath of Pontida (Giurament de Pontida in Lombard, Giuramento di Pontida in Italian), according to tradition, would have been a ceremony that would have sanctioned on 7 April 1167, in the abbey of Pontida, near Bergamo, in Italy, the birth of the Lombard League, or of a military alliance between the municipalities of Milan, Lodi, Ferrara, Piacenza and Parma aimed at the armed struggle against the Holy Roman Empire by Frederick Barbarossa.[1]

The oath of Pontida does not appear on contemporary documents, being mentioned for the first time in 1505, then three and a half centuries after the traditional date of 7 April 1167.[2]

  1. ^ D'Ilario, Gianazza & Marinoni 1976, pp. 53–54.
  2. ^ D'Ilario, Gianazza & Marinoni 1976, pp. 53–56.