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The Giudicati of Sardinia.

The giudicati (singular giudicato) were the indigenous kingdoms of Sardinia from about 900 until 1410, when the last fell to the Aragonese. The rulers of the giudicati were giudici (singular giudice), from the Latin iudice (pl. iudices), often translates as "judge". The Latin for giudicato (judgeship) was iudicatus (pl. iudicati), sometimes spelled with a "j", as in judicatus. The Latin terms were corrupted over time into judike/judikes (iudike/iudikes).

The title of iudex was that of a Byzantine governor (prases or judex provinciae) dating from the creation of the Exarchate of Africa in 582. The Byzantines were totally cut off from the Tyrrhenian Sea by the Muslim conquest of Sicily in 827. A letter of Pope Nicholas I in 864 mentions for the first time the "Sardinian judges," and their autonomy was clear in a later letter of Pope John VIII in which he referred to them as principes ("princes"). The local authority was exercised initially by curatores — who each ruled over a curatoria — who were subject to the judges, whose responsibilities included the administration of justice and command of the army.

Originally the giudicati were Byzantine districts that became independent during the period the Arab expansion in the Mediterranean. The governors were originally elected by the Corona de Logu (parliament), but the establishment of dynasties there was, as elsewhere in Dark Age Europe, inevitable. The known medieval giudicati were:

• Giudicato of Agugliastra (also known as Ogliastra)
• Giudicato of Arborea (with capital in Oristano), 13 or 14 curatoriae
• Giudicato of Cagliari (also known as Cagliaritano or Pluminos), 14 curatoriae
• Giudicato of Gallura, 10 curatoriae
• Giudicato of Logudoro (also known as Torres), 20 curatoriae

In the early thirteenth century, three of the giudicati successively passed to women by inheritance: Gallura to Elena in 1203, Cagliari to Benedetta in 1214, and Logudoro to Adelasia in 1232. By the end of the century, all three giudicati had fallen to either the Republic of Pisa or Genoa: Cagliari in 1258 to Pisa, Logudoro in 1259 to Genoa, and Gallura in 1288 to Pisa, though this last was disputed until the early fourteenth century. Arborea survived much longer and greatly expanded its territory in the fourteenth century. It reached its peak under Marianus IV the Great and Eleanor, its heroine. It was purchased by the Crown of Aragon in 1410.

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