La sauvegarde des usages civiques dans les Statuts de la Chastelado

In 1891, Claudio Allais, the canon of the dioceses of Saluzzo, published a book entitled ‘La Castellata’ (Chastelado, in the Occitan language). In this volume, he described the historical events of the upper Varaita valley, a border area in the western Alps, with Occitan language and traditions. Allais shows a thorough knowledge of the history of the Dauphiné, which derives from his direct consultation of the manuscripts preserved in the departmental archives of Grenoble. Regarding the Statutes (chartes) of the Castellata, it should be remembered that the direct dominion of the Dauphin (‘plenum dominium’) doesn’t correspond to the right of ownership but of jurisdiction. For these reasons, the ‘chartes de franchises’ always attributed the protection of mutual funds to the Community and, consequently, one of the main goals of the Statutes and Ordinances is the safeguarding of the ‘usi civici’ defined as ‘communaux’ or ‘communs’.