Pezzaze

On the arms of Pezzaze there is a steelyard, the balance with unequal arms: they are canting arms, because the village's name comes from weighing — pesà in Brescian, by way of the medieval Latin Pesaciis. Beside it is an open book with a date in Roman numerals: these are the town statutes, preserved in a copy of 1529 that reproduces the originals of 1318, now lost. The lily and the rake, on the other hand, were the Guelph insignia of the Valtrompia community.

Something of the tone of those papers has survived too. In 1596 the town council laid down a fine of half a scudo, for each person and each time, on anyone who dared enter and linger in the mill without legitimate cause in the company of women, «whether maidens or married». And in 1713, during the bishop's visit, the parish priest of Lavone was told to preach more forcefully against disorderly loves, the familiar mixing of young people of both sexes and the abuse of dancing, to discourage the taverns and games of dice, and to forbid the faithful entirely from carrying weapons in church. Below ground, meanwhile, they were digging: the Marzoli mine, which gave the village work for generations, is now a museum.