«Osservare vogliam la legge di Dio». La riflessione sul diritto nella letteratura arturiana italiana

Italian Arthurian prose compilations, beyond their entertainment value, take part in the debate that was animating contemporary law culture. This paper aims to show how medieval law is depicted and discussed in the so called Tristani italiani, and in particular in La Tavola Ritonda, a 14th-century adaptation of the 13th-century Prose Tristan. By adapting the Tristanian legend for an Italian public, the Tavola Ritonda, the Tristano Riccardiano, and the Tristano Panciatichiano, even if in a disguised way, hint at peninsular reflections about law and jurisprudence. We will concentrate on the passages where Tristan gets mixed up in some criminal trials playing first the role of a victim, then of an accused person and finally of the defender of truth.