Medieval Italy

On the 12th of May 1328, Friar Minor Pietro da Corvaro was elected antipope by the will of Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian. Through the letters of the Avignon pope John XXII, the acts of the inquisitorial trials of Bologna and Todi and the licterae gratiae of the antipope Nicholas V, it is possible to reconstruct the participation of members of the various religious orders in the schism. The support offered to Nicholas V by a large fringe of Friars Minor in central-northern Italy is not found among the Preachers. If the position of the leaders of the Eremitani friars was always openly sided in favor of the Avignonese pontiff, it is nevertheless possible to find cases of individual "rebel" friars for convenience, particularly in the cities where the imperial party had managed to impose itself. There was no lack of adhesion to the antipope even among Benedictine, Camaldolese, Vallombrosan and Cistercian monks.

https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/anos90/article/view/119024

The persecution of the Templars, which began in the kingdom of France at the beginning of the 14th century, spread throughout Christendom within a few months with the requisitioning of property and summary trials, replicated at a national level with defamatory accusations and concluded in the respective dioceses often with life prison sentences while fires were lit for renegades who did not want to confirm the confessions extracted with violence of all kinds.
Paris was the epicenter of persecutions, trials, tortures and quite a few anonymous deaths, in prison or at the stake, tanquam Christi martires who await canonical recognition on the basis also of the elements collected here for 22 knights, priests and servants analyzing the scarce news that leaked from the processes and from some old news.

In the context of global decline in old-growth forest, historical ecology is a valuable tool to derive insights into vegetation legacies and dynamics and develop new conservation and restoration strategies. In this cross-disciplinary study, we integrate palynology (Lago del Pesce record), history, dendrochronology, and historical and contemporary land cover maps to assess drivers of vegetation change over the last-millennium in a Mediterranean mountain forest (Pollino National Park, southern Italy) and discuss implications in conservation ecology. The study site hosts a remnant beech-fir (Fagus sylvatica-Abies alba) mixed forest, a priority habitat for biodiversity conservation in Europe. In the tenth century, the pollen record showed an open environment which was quickly colonized by silver fir when sociopolitical instabilities reduced anthropogenic pressures in mountain forests. The highest forest cover and biomass was reached between the fourteenth and the seventeenth century following land abandonment due to recurring plague pandemics. This rewilding process is also reflected in the recruitment history of Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) in the subalpine elevation belt. Our results show that human impacts have been one of the main drivers of silver fir population contraction in the last centuries in Mediterranean, and the removal of direct human pressure led ecosystem renovation. Since 1910, the Rubbio State Forest locally protected and restored the mixed beech-fir forest. The institution in 1972 of the Rubbio Natural Reserve and in 1993 of Pollino National Park have guaranteed the survival of the silver fir population demonstrating the effectiveness of targeted conservation and restoration policies despite a warming climate. Monitoring silver fir populations can measure the effectiveness of conservation measures. In the last decades, the abandonment of rural environments (rewilding) along the mountains of southern Italy has reduced pressure on ecosystems, thus boosting forest expansion. However, after four decades of natural regeneration and increasing biomass, pollen influx and forest composition are still far from the natural attributes of the Medieval forest ecosystem. We conclude that long-term forest planning encouraging limited direct human disturbance will lead towards rewilding and renovation of carbon-rich and highly biodiverse Mediterranean old-growth forests, which are more resistant and resilient to future climate change.

Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) was one of the most remarkable mystic politicians of the fourteenth century. She had four main goals: return the Papacy to Rome, make peace in Italy, crusade against the Ottomans, and reform the Church. She worked for these not just on diplomatic journeys, but also by composing 380 letters. It is interesting that Catherine encouraged not just the men but also the women to behave like a man. In the fourteenth century, in my point of view, there was a three-stage pyramid: woman, man, and Christ. Hence, if a woman wanted to achieve a union with Christ, firstly she needed to demonstrate that she was bodily and spiritually as trained as a man. The main statement of this paper: in the letters, woman was an “imperfect man” too, but Catherine used the language of the manhood to find a gap in the shield of gender-bound order. Therefore, she presented malleable boundaries rather than fixed ones. It resulted that the set of values of manhood became more accessible to the recipients. Meanwhile, it is hardly deniable that the use of the language could have reinforced also the boundaries. As a woman, the practice of masculine virtues brought benefits both from a religious and political point of view: a masculine status was associated with more reliability. Furthermore, the authorship, the bolder speak, and the stigmata were authentication signs of her reliable status as a woman, which is interconnected also to the obtainable alternative masculinity.

This chapter aims to present the Exploitation of Mediterranean Alums in Europe (EMAE) international research coordination network. The goal of the network is to analyse the multiple aspects involved in the exploitation of alum in the Late Middle Ages (late thirteenth to early sixteenth centuries). The research objectives of the group are addressed in three major sections: the conditions that prevailed in alum production, the uses of alum and the alum trade and its agents and networks.

An inlaid belt set from the Early Middle Ages, including a belt in new condition – that was the wish of the makers of the exhibition "Aux sources du Moyen Age" in Lausanne. The belt set found a few years ago in Orbe VD (Switzerland), consisting of a buckle and a counterplate, was chosen as a model. The parts are made of iron, linear and inlaid with silver and brass.

I have had the opportunity to organise a series of roundtables on my book, Borders and the Politics of Space in Late Medieval Italy. If you're in the area and are keen to hear more about it or share your thoughts, please consider coming to one of these. I'm very grateful to the friends, colleagues and mentors who agreed to take part. More details below, but please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to know more.

«Se mala segnoria, che sempre accora/ li popoli suggetti , non avesse-mosso Palermo gridar ''Mora, mora!''» (=Αν δόλιοι άρχοντες, που καταθλίβουν/ Τα πλήθη, δεν έσπρωχναν το Παλέρμο/ "Θανατικό! Θανατικό!" να ουρλιάζει». Οι συγκεκριμένοι στίχοι, από το 8ο Άσμα του Παραδείσου, απεικονίζουν με το λιτό, συμπυκνωμένο τρόπο γραφής του Δάντη και το χαρακτηριστικό παραστατικό ύφος του, τη μετάβαση, ενός τραγικού ιστορικού γεγονότος που έλαβε χώρα στο Παλέρμο του 1282, στο περιβάλλον της Τέχνης του Λόγου. Και μάλιστα στον χώρο της υψηλής ποίησης, σε ένα έργο που προσλαμβάνει εθνικό χαρακτήρα σηματοδοτώντας τη χρονική στιγμή εκκίνησης της Ιταλικής Λογοτεχνίας. Στον πρώτο στίχο της τερτσίνας, ως "mala segnoria" (=δόλιους άρχοντες), ο Δάντης περιγράφει την τυραννική διακυβέρνηση του Καρόλου του Ι των Ανζού, που πληγώνει τους υπηκόους, την καρδιά του λαού, που εξεγείρεται αναζητώντας τιμωρία. Το ρήμα "gridare" (=ουρλιάζω), αποδίδει την κραυγή που αντηχούσε σε όλο το επαναστατημένο νησί: "Θάνατος στους Γάλλους!" (=Muoiano i Francesi)

The paper examines the importance of fidelity in the exercise of political power under the Hohenstaufen, focussing in particular on the function of the oath of fidelity in stabilising social order. The stabilising effect of fidelity lay in the principal of reciprocity which was also inherently present in asymmetrical fidelity relationships and was realised by rewarding loyal services. Already in the twelfth century, the obligations of fidelity had been clearly formulated and laid down in written form. The observation of the custom to reward loyal services gave both sides security in their expectations. Such expectations could of course also be disappointed, but there was a certain faith in relations cemented by the oath of fidelity – faith in the sense that proven fidelity could found the basis for a hypothesis of future behaviour which was sure enough to form the foundations for further actions (Georg Simmel). The paper will also briefly look at the importance of fidelity in ruling through representatives and its role in lordly-hierarchical bonds in contrast to egalitarian or kinship relationships.

The work carried out as part of construction on a ring road around Nardò (Lecce, South Italy) involved a votive aedicule attached to the perimeter wall of a rural building that had been scheduled for demolition. Provision was made for the movement and relocation of the building, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, to an adjacent area, in addition to the restoration of the pictorial decoration itself. The intervention was designed to conserve the building as testimony of its use for future generations, given its value and sense of identity for the local community. The project was largely conservatory, thus guaranteeing the continuity of its still active devotional function. In this sense, the restoration of the building was also associated with an educational aim of raising awareness of the importance of eco-compatible care of the landscape. So, this project highlights the importance of social, as much as environmental, sustainability.

Il presente contributo offre la prima edizione complessiva di un noto ma non ancora sufficientemente indagato bassorilievo con scena di Anastasis conservato in Palazzo Bianchi-Dottula, sito nel centro storico di Bari. A un’introduzione sullo stato di conservazione del reperto segue il tracciamento di un suo profilo bibliografico, da cui emerge la sostanziale indeterminatezza della sua datazione e la quasi totale disattenzione verso le sue iscrizioni. Si offrirà quindi un esame stilistico dell’esemplare, che ben si accomoda sul finire del XII secolo, datazione avallata dalla seguente analisi paleografica del comparto epigrafico. Dunque, si fornirà un commento dell’epigrafe incisa nel cartiglio retto da Davide, che riprende quasi alla lettera un passaggio dell’apocrifo Vangelo di Nicodemo, altresì ricorrente nella liturgia medievale di dedicazione delle chiese. Questi dati lasciano ipotizzare che il bassorilievo fosse in origine collocato nei pressi dell’ingresso principale di un edificio sacro.

This article examines the surviving inscriptions from the city of Bari (Apulia, Italy) datable from the 6th to the 13th centuries that promote acts of euergetism by private citizens or political figures using their personal financial resources. Texts celebrating the construction and restoration of buildings will be considered, as well as those commemorating the production of specific architectural elements. The final section of the article will offer remarks on the physical and textual features of the analysed inscriptions, their interaction with monuments, and their overall significance as euergetic message bearers.

Here is a review in Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean of the first English render of the combined Gesta Episcoporum Neapolitanorum. This joins a number of other works which Professor Berto has translated into English [after pioneering translations into Italian]. As you will see, I hope that the publishers will ultimately publish a paperback version.

The opening paragraphs:

Previous scholars have held that sacrum imperium (literally: holy empire) was an ideological construct of Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) and his chancellor Rainald of Dassel (1156-1159, then archbishop of Cologne [1159-1167]), who were supposedly attempting to 're-sacralize the state' and reshape the relationship between the Empire and the papacy. This article will show that neither contemporary imperial nor papal sources presented the terminology in such a light. Rather, the idea of sacrum imperium symbolizing a resurgent German state was the product of the national tradition of modern German historiography, which sought to either glorify its past (as in the prewar period) or to document the start of Germany's exceptionalism, its so-called Sonderweg (as in the postwar period). The term sacrum imperium was adopted by the German imperial chancery in 1157. It started gaining currency from 1174 onward, and in 1184 it was expanded to sacrum Romanum imperium (holy Roman empire). It was not before 1254 that it became a part of the standard terminology of the imperial chancery.

The term, however, had had a long history before it became the name of the Holy Roman Empire. It gradually gained currency at the imperial court from 1136 until 1167, and 1157 was an important turning point. Until now scholars have considered the evidence from 1136 until 1157 to be of little significance because they made a sharp distinction between the imperial chancery, which they ahistorically treated as a bureaucratic unit, and the imperial court. However, not only did sacrum imperium permeate the imperial court at least from 1136, but the court started using the phrase under Italian influence, which was waxing, together with imperial involvement in Italy, after 1130.

Il nostro maggior poeta medievale, il "padre" dell'Italiano, ha descritto nei suoi versi personaggi , situazioni, e territori la cui consistenza talvolta non coincide con la storiografia "ufficiale", perciò i critici compiono vere acrobazie verbali o semplificazioni arbitrarie per trovare giustificazioni a frasi che invece dovrebbero essere lette per quello che sono

« Narrare la crisi negli ordini monastici : qualche osservazione a proposito dell’ordine camaldolese nel Trecento », in Narrare la crisi. Economia e vita religiosa nelle trasformazioni dell’Italia del Trecento, a cura di L. Tanzini, Roma: Viella, 2023, p. 167-198