Abstract

This study aims to reconsider the role and social position of counts in the Lombard principality of Salerno. Unpublished fragments of outlying archives and even some published documents, that were overlooked precisely because of their exceptionality, show a restricted and eminent group amongst dozens of well-known comital families, a group well hidden in the folds of the abundant Salernitan archives. The comparison to the cases of Capua and Benevento allows us to grasp Salerno's peculiarity, suggesting further investigation on different archival traditions.