Medieval Italy

This is the original version of an article now edited and translated into English (updated with additional illustrations) and republished in "Food, Social Politics and the Order of Nature in Renaissance Europe" (2019), a volume of my collected articles.

Kosmas von Prag über das Liebesleben von Mathilde von Tuszien und Welf V. is a paper I have written for an university seminar before. It contains a small research about Mathilda of Canossa and her much younger second husband Welf V. The source used in this paper is from Cosmas of Prague.
It might not be perfect, but since there isn't much info gathered about medieval "love", I thought it should be published. :-) The bibliography is linked.

"Cos’era Udine agli occhi di un cividalese del Quattrocento, se non una ‘neonata’ irriverente? Partendo da questa domanda provocatoria, il saggio delinea lo sviluppo e la storia di Cividale durante il Medioevo da un’angolatura diversa: quella del conflitto latente che la contrappose a Udine per la maggior parte del tempo.

Come sottolinea il titolo del saggio, si tratta di un percorso che inizia in età tardo antica, quando ‘Forum Iulii’ strappò ad Aquileia la palma di capitale, e si conclude al tramonto del Medioevo, quando quella che ormai si chiamava ‘Civitas Austriae’ cedette il primato a Udine.

Dapprima come ‘forum’ romano, quindi come ducato longobardo, e più oltre, in età carolingia, quando è attestata l’esistenza di una scuola capitolare, nei secoli centrali del Medioevo Cividale del Friuli crebbe fino a divenire la sede prediletta dei patriarchi aquileiesi. E fu proprio il rapporto con alcuni presuli – in particolare da Bertoldo di Andechs Merania in poi – a contrapporre l’antica ‘città ducale’ alla nuova ‘terra’ di Udine. Un continuo rivaleggiare che non si esaurì nemmeno con la sottomissione a Venezia (1419-21) e che, anzi, inseguì i primati già nella decorazione delle insegne che celebravano la Serenissima."

The volume is available for free download at https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/106880.

Ethics, Politics and Justice in Dante presents new research by international scholars on the themes of ethics, politics and justice in the works of Dante Alighieri, including chapters on Dante’s modern ‘afterlife’. Together the chapters explore how Dante’s writings engage with the contemporary culture of medieval Florence and Italy, and how and why his political and moral thought still speaks compellingly to modern readers. The collection’s contributors range across different disciplines and scholarly traditions – history, philology, classical reception, philosophy, theology – to scrutinise Dante’s Divine Comedy and his other works in Italian and Latin, offering a multi-faceted approach to the evolution of Dante’s political, ethical and legal thought throughout his writing career. Certain chapters focus on his early philosophical Convivio and on the accomplished Latin Eclogues of his final years, while others tackle knotty themes relating to judgement, justice, rhetoric and literary ethics in his Divine Comedy, from hell to paradise. The closing chapters discuss different modalities of the public reception and use of Dante’s work in both Italy and Britain, bringing the volume’s emphasis on morality, political philosophy, and social justice into the modern age of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.

CU Boulder - FREN1200
Offered FA2014, FA2015, FA2016
Course Description: The popularity of George RR Martin's fantasy saga A Song of Ice and Fire and its Emmy-winning HBO adaptation Game of Thrones shows us that major themes from medieval stories still resonate with audiences a thousand years after their composition. This course will examine major epic and romance texts of the Middle Ages such as Beowulf, The Song of Roland, and The Death of King Arthur. We will aim to understand the rich literary tradition that has led to our modern interest in dragons, knights, heroes and magic. We will also look at how representations of medieval culture in contemporary series such as Game of Thrones influence our conceptions (and misconceptions) of the Middle Ages. Much like Sansa, we will find that the stories do not necessarily reflect the reality.

Intending the Early Middle Ages as one of the most astonishing political and social laboratories in Europe's history, the main goal of this session is the study of social complexity between the 9th and 10th centuries, comparing societies and political landscapes from two European macro-regions: Northern Iberia and Central Italy, in order to investigate social, economic and political complexities on a continental scale, with the main intention of interpreting 'landscapes of social and political inequality'; to deepen the concepts of social and political inequality in the historical evolution of societies and powers, which must be always considered as processes in progress.

a cura di Carlo Castignani, Comune di Montecosaro, 1995, pp. 342.

Indice:
Carlo Castignani, Introduzione
Gianfranco Paci, Il territorio di Montecosaro in età antica
Febo Allevi, Montecosaro nella continuità del suo tempo remoto
Delio Pacini, La pieve di San Lorenzo ed altre istituzioni medievali a Montecosaro
Carlo Castignani, Formazione e primi secoli di vita del comune di Montecosaro
Alfredo Maulo, La disavventura del signor Giuliano, padrone di Montecosaro
Pietro Diletti, Confraternite e opere pie 
Rossano Cicconi, Documenti dei secoli XIII-XIV e una giunta del XV
Carlo Castignani, Montecosaro: topografia e toponimi vecchi e nuovi

(spedizione gratuita dei volumi disponibili)

Nella seconda metà del Cinquecento, lo spostamento dell’asse economico dalla linea Mar Adriatico-Mar Baltico alla linea Gibilterra-Fiandre-Londra provocò il declassamento del Mediterraneo e la conseguente decadenza politica della Spagna e dei paesi ad essa
collegati. Come tale, l’Italia da baricentro dei traffici mediterranei, si trovò al di fuori delle rotte commerciali più importanti e le fiorenti città marittime come Genova e Venezia, pur conservando – ancora per qualche lustro – lo splendore della loro vita artistica, non riuscirono
più ad opporsi alla sopravvenuta competitività dei tessuti inglesi o dei manufatti delle Fiandre e della Germania.

This essay explores some of the papal symbols which assumed particular prominence during the pontificate of Pope Innocent III (1198–1216). These symbols belong to different modes of expression: metaphoric speech and writing (vicarius Christi, the pope's body); clothing (pallium, tiara); objects (the Golden Rose); and visual art (the mosaic in Old St Peter's). It is argued that the pope – and his curia – employed these symbols to represent the special position of authority which the pope held within the Church and society at large, and that several of them played a role in ritual enactments of papal authority. It is furthermore argued that they should be seen as part of a coherent system of symbols and that many of them serve to emphasise the relationship between the pope and Christ, and thus represent Pope Innocent III's ecclesiological programme in which the pope as God's representative on earth plays a pivotal role.

This paperback edition of the 'Trotula' ensemble differs from the 2001 hardback edition in the following ways:
- it omits the critical edition of the Latin "standardized ensemble," retaining only the modern English translation
- the historical Introduction remains the same, aside from the correction of a few minor errors
- it omits the Index verborum (list of all specialized Latin terminology) of the 2001 edition; instead, it offers an index of Materia medica Employed in the 'Trotula'

Se nourrir est une nécessité biologique qui se double au Moyen Age de valeurs symboliques particulières dans la culture chrétienne. Le christianisme a, en effet, placé au cœur de ses pratiques rituelles la commémoration d’un repas, la Cène. L’Eglise a également élaboré des normes de comportement alimentaire très précises, allant de l’invention du péché de gourmandise à la mise en place d’un calendrier établissant de façon rigoureuse les périodes de jeûne. Quels aliments peuvent être consommés pendant ces jours de restriction ?
Toute la création divine est même rassemblée par les philosophes médiévaux dans une «grande chaîne de l’être» qui ordonne hiérarchiquement les plantes et les animaux. Existe-t-il une correspondance entre l’échelle sociale des hommes et les aliments qu’ils consomment ?
Le XIIIe siècle marque un tournant dans les pratiques alimentaires médiévales. Le qualitatif prend le pas sur le quantitatif à la table des seigneurs. Comment s’exprime ce nouveau raffinement de la table noble ?
A cette même époque, les recettes de cuisine sont mises par écrit. Parmi ces ouvrages, le Du fait de cuisine – commandé en 1420 par le duc Amédée VIII de Savoie à son cuisinier Maître Chiquart – est tout à fait original parce qu’il présente la manière de réaliser un banquet. Quels sont les moyens mis en œuvre pour éblouir les convives et comment se décline un festin médiéval ?
Amédée VIII séjourne au château de Chillon en 1436 et 1442. Au-delà d’être une demeure seigneuriale, la place forte est, dès 1150, le siège d’un péage par lequel transitent de nombreuses denrées. Le châtelain savoyard y réside également. A ce titre, il perçoit des redevances en nature pour son seigneur. Il veille également aux vignes domaniales de la région.
Autant de raisons qui font du château de Chillon un écrin de choix pour accueillir l’exposition temporaire L’eau à la bouche-Boire et manger au Moyen Age du 14 septembre 2018 au 28 avril 2019.

""Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Latin Bibles survive in hundreds of manuscripts, one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. Their innovative layout and organization established the norm for Bibles for centuries to come. This volume is the first study of these Bibles as a cohesive group. Multi- and inter-disciplinary analyses in art history, liturgy, exegesis, preaching and manuscript studies, reveal the nature and evolution of layout and addenda. They follow these Bibles as they were used by monks and friars, preachers and merchants. By addressing Latin Bibles alongside their French, Italian and English counterparts, this book challenges the Latin-vernacular dichotomy to show links, as well as discrepancies, between lay and clerical audiences and their books.
Contributors include Diane Reilly, Paul Saenger, Richard Gameson, Chiara Ruzzier, Giovanna Murano, Cornelia Linde, Lucie Doležalová, Laura Light, Eyal Poleg, Sabina Magrini, Sabrina Corbellini, Margriet Hoogvliet, Guy Lobrichon, Elizabeth Solopova, and Matti Peikola"


LIVE(!) table of contents:


Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 
Eyal Poleg and Laura Light

The Bible as Bellwether: Manuscript Bibles in the Context of
Spiritual, Liturgical and Educational Reform, 1000–1200  (http://www.academia.edu/3742204/The_Bible_as_Bellwether_Manuscript_Bibles_in_the_Context_of_Spiritual_Liturgical_and_Educational_Reform_1000-1200_in_Form_and_Function_in_the_Late_Medieval_Bible_eds._Eyal_Poleg_and_Laura_Light
Diane J. Reilly

The Twelfth-Century Reception of Oriental Languages and
the Graphic Mise en page of Latin Vulgate Bibles Copied
in England............................................................................................................ 31
Paul Saenger

Durham’s Paris Bible and the Use of Communal Bibles in a
Benedictine Cathedral Priory in the Later Middle Ages ......................... 67
Richard Gameson

The Miniaturisation of Bible Manuscripts in the
Thirteenth Century. A Comparative Study ............................................... 105
Chiara Ruzzier

The Epistles of St. Paul of the Convent of San Domenico
(Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS 1545).......................................... 127
Giovanna Murano

John Pecham on the Form of Lamentations ................................................. 147
J. Cornelia Linde

The Summarium Biblicum: A Biblical Tool both Popular and Obscure............................................................................................................... 163
Lucie Doležalová

The Thirteenth-Century Pandect and the Liturgy:
Bibles with Missals .......................................................................................... 185
Laura Light

The Interpretations of Hebrew Names in Theory and Practice ............... 217
Eyal Poleg

Vernacular Bibles, Biblical Quotations and the Paris Bible in
Italy from the Thirteenth to the Fifteenth Century: A
First Report........................................................................................................237
Sabina Magrini

Vernacular Bible Manuscripts in Late Medieval Italy: Cultural Appropriation and Textual Transformation ............................................. 261
Sabrina Corbellini

The Medieval Vernacular Bible in French as a Flexible Text:
Selective and Discontinuous Reading Practices...................................... 283
Margriet Hoogvliet

The Story of a Success: The Bible historiale in French
(1295-ca. 1500)................................................................................................307
Guy Lobrichon

Manuscript Evidence for the Patronage, Ownership and Use
of the Wycliffite Bible ..................................................................................... 333
Elizabeth Solopova

Tables of Lections in Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible ......................... 351
Matti Peikola

Epilogue................................................................................................................... 379
Peter Stallybrass "

From the valley of Adige, the massif of Monte Baldo is first rising with steep walls, and only above them the characteristic eastern terrace of Monte Baldo stretches.

In those walls, on the altitude of 773 m, already from the year 1000 on, and certainly in the 12th century, there was a hermitage and in 1530 the first church was built there. In 1898 it was rebuilt, but the biggest reconstruction started in 1975.
The church was demolished and rebuilt to the dimensions, which can be seen nowadays. The church was consecrated in 1978 and in 1988 also the Pope visited the place.

Once the place was hardly reachable. Only a narrow and exposed passage was leading to the buildings.

The Sanctuarium and the Shrine of the Corona is a place of silence and meditation, extended between heaven and earth, hidden in the heart of the Baldo rocks. Medieval documents testify that hermits linked to the Abbey of St Zeno in Verona lived in the Baldo area already around the year 1000 and that at least from the second half of the 13th century there was a monastery with a chapel dedicated to St Mary of Montebaldo. This was only accessible by a dangerous narrow path in the rock. A holy tradition dates the birth of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Corona to 1522, the year when the sculpture venerated hen was miraculously transported through angelic intervention from the island of Rhodes, when the island was invaded by the Muslim army of Suliman II. This date is however contested by the existence, in the recesses of the modern shrine, of a fourteenth century painting of the Our Lady and the Child Jesus. This was the first image venerated in the original chapel, which took its name from it. Between 1434 and 1437 St Mary of Montebaldo passed under the ownership of the Knights of St John, or of the Holy Sepulchre, present in Verona since 1362 as the Commenda di San Vitale e Sepolcro, who remained owners of the Shrine until the dissolving under the Napoleonic provision of 1806. It would seem that the group in stone of the Pietà later venerated as Our Lady of the Corona dates to this period. The statue, that is 70 centimetres high, 56 wide and 25 in depth, is made from local stone and painted. It stands on a pedestal that bears the legend “HOC OPUS FECIT FIERI LODOVICUS D CASTROBARCO D 1432”, traditionally considered proof that the statue was made and given to the Corona in 1432 by Lodovico Castelbarco, of a noble family of Rovereto. During its four centuries of operation, the Commenda radically transformed Our Lady of the Corona, turning it into a real spacious and accessible Shrine thanks to the building of a wooden access bridge in the valley (1458) and the construction of a new church measuring 18 metres by 7 over the old chapel (1490-1521).
The sixteenth century saw the creation of two sets of access steps that can still be seen: a wider one, composed of 556 steps which from the spring of Spiazzi, later called “Spring of Independence” went down to the Bridge “del Tiglio”, and a narrower one, 234 steps, cut from the rock along the original very narrow path that went from the bridge to the church.

A draft translation of three interconnected documents - two charters and a letter - regarding a donation made by Matilda of Tuscany and Canossa (r.1076-1115). The first charter, issued in May 1095, records Matilda's granting of the estate of 'Standalmont' to found a new house of regular canons in Briey, and her placing of this foundation under the protection of the Holy See. Probably also in May 1095 Matilda wrote a letter to Albert of Briey, asking him to ensure that the donated property was conveyed to the canons. In the second charter, issued in May 1106, Matilda confirmed her earlier grant to the house of canons at Saint-Pierremont.

Indagini per una storia del clero tra medioevo ed età contemporanea, XIX Convegno di Studio 13-15 gennaio 2022, Accademia Alfonsiana Largo Brancaccio, 31 (già via Merulana, 31) Roma, con il patrocinio Associazione Italiana dei Professori di Storia della Chiesa

In medieval Italy the practice of revenge as criminal justice was still popular amongst members of all social classes, yet crime was also increasingly perceived as a public matter that needed to be dealt with by the government rather than private citizens. Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy sheds light on this contradiction through an in-depth comparison of lay and religious sources produced in Siena between 1260 and 1330 on criminal justice, conflict, and violence.

Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy argues that religious people were an effective pressure group with regards to criminal justice, thanks both to the literary works they produced and their direct intervention in political affairs, and that their contributions have not received the attention they deserve. It shows that the dichotomy between theories and practices of 'private' and of 'public' justice should be substituted by a framework in which three models, or discourses, of criminal justice are recognized as present in medieval Italian communes, with the addition of a specifically religious discourse based on penitential spirituality. Although the models of criminal justice were competing, they also influenced each other.

Cet ouvrage raconte l’incroyable histoire du citoyen romain le plus célèbre du Moyen Âge, Cola di Rienzo (1313-1354). Homme instruit et brillant, il subjugue les foules par de beaux discours, rêve de rendre Rome à son antique gloire et prend le pouvoir en 1347. Il a alors trente-quatre ans. Visionnaire politique, humaniste ou encore homme de foi attiré par des idéaux de réforme révolutionnaires, il est considéré à l'époque romantique comme un précurseur de l’Unité italienne. Personnalité complexe, ambitieux et plein de contradictions, il n’hésite pas à se mettre en scène dans de superbes cérémonies, s’imaginant déjà empereur. Il connaîtra toutefois une fin tragique.
Cette nouvelle biographie illumine ce personnage hors du commun qui possédait l’art inné d’utiliser les mots pour séduire et convaincre. L'Auteur décrypte les ressorts d’une propagande qui permit à cet homme du peuple d’accéder au pouvoir. Il nous amène ainsi à réfléchir sur le thème toujours d’actualité de la dangereuse puissance de la propagande et des rhétoriques populistes.

"Nel Friuli patriarcale Cividale era solo una 'terra', ma la vocazione urbana - già visibile nella 'forma urbis' - era fortissima. Nel corso del Trecento il consiglio del Comune attuò una chiusura oligarchica: 'milites' e 'pedites' appaiono ormai come etichette prive di valore, ma sono un gruppo coeso, che nei confronti del patriarca Bertrando di Saint-Geniés seglie la via del conflitto, fino al tragico epilogo del 1350.
Nel saggio sono descritte le magistrature cittadine e individuato il gruppo dirigente urbano tra tra 1328-45 (riassunto in due tavole poste in appendice)."

The Influences of the Dominican Order in the Middle Ages
Taylor Institute, Lincoln College, and Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University

September 10-12, 2015

This interdisciplinary conference will explore the influences of the Dominican Order on all aspects of medieval life, encompassing the large-scale influences of the Order and the legacy of its prominent figures, as well as the impact that the Order had on those that came into contact with it.

The keynote paper will be delivered by Mary Rouse, on ‘The Vital Impact of the Dominicans on Books at the University of Paris, 1217-1350’.  The program will feature papers on the Dominican influence in England, Northern Europe, Italy, Eastern Europe, and the Byzantine world; the influence of Friars on other movements and communities; Dominican influence on architecture, art, books, music and liturgy; and influential Dominican philosophers and theologians.

Confirmed speakers are from the UK, the USA, Canada, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.  In addition, the conference will include a walking tour of medieval Oxford, and a concert of music that can be associated with the Dominican Order. 

http://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/influences-dominican-order-middle-ages

"De 1442 à 1501, les Aragonais occupent le trône napolitain. Grâce à une riche documentation textuelle et iconographique, cet ouvrage retrace la construction de l’imaginaire monarchique dans le royaume de Naples, puis sa diffusion dans les cours alliées et ennemies. Les portraits physiques des cinq rois de la branche aragonaise de Naples, ainsi que leurs portraits symboliques, notamment héraldique et emblématique, permettent l’étude de l’incarnation d’une identité napolitaine. Au-delà du corps royal, l’unité de la Couronne se dit aussi dans les portraits des serviteurs de l'État et ceux de la familia royale, tout comme dans les rituels, la mise en scène des résidences royales et ducales, et par la création d’un nouveau visage topographique de la capitale et du royaume.
L’expression de la souveraineté s’inscrit dans un vaste mouvement méditerranéen, envisagé des années 1420 au XVIIe siècle, de Valence à Naples, Florence, Ferrare, Barcelone ou Marseille. Le mécénat des rois de Naples et de leurs proches, ainsi que leur choix iconographiques, apparaissent respectueux des traditions aragonaises, angevines et souabes, mais aussi résolument modernes en dialogue avec les Flandres, l’Espagne et l’Italie contemporaines. Seule monarchie de la péninsule, ces vaincus de l’histoire, déchus lors des Guerres d’Italie, lèguent à l’Europe moderne le triomphe et le portrait à l’antique, la chronique monumentale, le portrait de ville et le portrait monétaire."

In an effort to put my knowledge on thirteenth-century Florence in general - and Brunetto Latini in particular - to practical use and to share it with a broad audience, I have designed, researched and written a travel guide to Medieval Florence.

This guide invites tourists to skip the beaten path of Renaissance Florence and to discover Medieval Florence instead. To this end, the guide consists of two walks (of 2,8 and 1,6 miles respectively) which introduce the visitor to the hillside, south of the city centre, and guide him/her deep into the heart of its city centre.

In addition to a traditional paper format (see attachment), I have also re-worked this travel guide into two multi-media travel apps which are freely available for download on the izi.travel platform:

(1) https://izi.travel/nl/browse/fdb5f2e6-c489-4355-9d0b-97d78ce164eb/en#tour_details_first;

(2) https://izi.travel/nl/browse/db9625a2-239c-4890-816a-bfeb757b72b9/en#tour_details_first

Catherine of Siena (1347‐1380) is well known as a saint and mystic with a colourful biography. Recent scholarship has begun to recognise Catherine's substantial political contributions. She wrote letters to notable political figures including Bernabò Visconti and Pope Gregory XI, and also brought her influence to bear in person, visiting numerous Tuscan cities as well as Avignon and Rome. There has been little investigation, however, into the relationship between Catherine's writings and major political discourses of the period. This article offers evidence that Catherine should be viewed within the bonum commune tradition of high medieval political thought. Like other Dominican political thinkers of the period, Catherine was particularly interested in the concept of caritas, which she used to justify her involvement in political disputes such as the War of the Eight Saints (1375–8) between the papacy and Florence, and the disputed papal elections of 1378. Recognising that the content of Catherine's writings was political as well as spiritual provides an important counterpoint to accounts of late fourteenth‐century Italian political thought which give excessive prominence to 'secularising' humanists. This study also challenges lingering assumptions that the political thought of the early Renaissance must be studied through a narrow (and male) canon.

This is the self-archived accepted version of the paper.
Published version of the paper now available open access here: https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12633

This course presents a broad survey of historical forces at work over the past 6,000 years, examining the manners in which human societies have organized themselves along categories of race, ethnicity, class, and gender to meet the challenges of the increasing human population and its demands on natural resources: thus, it examines continuity and change in societies over time, in different places, and among various peoples.