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‪This paper focuses on the nature of servile fortunes, as revealed by certain transactions between rural lords and tenants. It explores some documents dealing with high-priced emancipations, sales of rural tenures and rent conversions that took place in the medieval Mugello valley (North of Florence) during the years 1180-1250. Focusing on the social and political constraints that strongly conditioned these transactions, this paper investigates the origin and nature of servile fortunes.‪