Accountability in Building Projects in Piedmont under Philip of Savoy-Achaea: Administrative Experimentation and Political Consolidation

The construction industry was an important tool for political affirmation in the process of territorial consolidation that affected the principality of Savoy-Achaea during the first half of the 14th century. Public buildings have functional purposes and address the specific needs of local communities. Nevertheless, monumental architecture is also a mechanism of "monumental politics", which aims to legitimate and celebrate power. Castles, palaces, fortifications and public infrastructures represent important opportunities for the transmission of ideological frameworks that facilitates the exercise of power. Administrative accountability in the form of castellany accounts provides a wealth of information about this topic. Castellany expenses consist largely of building work costs and show financial management methods during construction. This is possible through the study of the opera castri rubric of computi and by analysing the surviving building accounts, which integrate the ordinary accountability. The organisation of building sites is closely related to the administrative structure observable from the beginning of the 14th century. Political strengthening was followed by appropriate financial strengthening. The necessity of more rational management led the central administration to create specific accounts for building activity. The account for construction of the Palatine Chapel of Pinerolo, which began in 1314, is believed to be the earliest surviving building account for the area, but it is not the only one. Accounting development and political consolidation can be observed in the administrative procedures implemented during that time. On the one hand, central administration developed more successful financial records. On the other hand, the Prince oversaw an evolution of building site management. He moved from a centralized organisation, which characterized the early years, to an “outsourcing system”. This progression is possible to observe through the study of procurement contracts (ad taschiam), the number of which grew, to the detriment of ad diem employment agreements. A comparative study of concurrent building sites shows the political and social needs that produced new types of financial records. There is some evidence that there were two kinds of cities, which influenced each other: a “build city” and a “written city.