Abstract

The ban on usury has been a pivotal element in the development of medieval theological and legal reflection on the economy and administration of both the church and the societas christiana. As a consequence, scholarship has thoroughly studied its specific terminology, trying to isolate the elements that came to constitute an emerging economic vocabulary. This article contributes to such debate by analysing the introduction and diffusion of the term interesse. It therefore focuses on its dissemination in 12th- and 13th-century canonistic texts, and on its reception within local synodal and civic legislation until the first decade of the 14th century, aiming at identifying the strategies employed to administer the prohibition of usury.