This paper uses the body politic metaphor to explore the dialectic of power between different political players in communal and post-communal Lombardy. On the one hand, notions of corporeal links, drawing upon an ancient and venerable tradition, were key strands of public debate on state formation in the Late Middle Ages. On the other hand, there were distinctively communal and post-communal discourses based upon the body politic metaphor. My purpose is to investigate all of these aspects through analysis of the so-called "pragmatic writings" (such as letters, decrees, notarial deeds), sources usually overlooked by historians of political thought. As is shown in this paper, the novelty of this approach makes it possible to appreciate corporeal metaphors as performative tools and instruments of political action.
The aim of the project is to investigate Oberto Pelavicino's lordship over some italian city-states in the second half of the 13th Century. Between 1249 and 1266 he exerted his power over Cremona, Piacenza, Pavia, Vercelli, Milan, Brescia, Alessandria and Tortona (but his dominion can be recognized also in the cities of Asti, Parma, Pontremoli and Reggio). A debate about the dominion of the city was recently brought to the center of the affairs of the communalistic historiography, despite facing a critical afterthought of the relationships between city-state and lordship. On the one hand my purpose is the investigation of the reasons and the ways through which Oberto Pelavicino ruled over such a wide territorial structure. On the other hand I analyze the reasons that led different cities to bow to him. Unfortunately, the municipal archives regarding this period and the cities ruled by Oberto don't exist anymore. Therefore the research is based on the private acts and the documents of ecclesiastical institutions: among the Milan State Archive for what concerns Milan, Pavia, Cremona and Brescia; and on the maps and the papers of Archive of St. Antonio's basilica and of Piacenza State Archive. Finally, we take advantage of other documents from the State Archives of Vercelli, Pavia, Brescia, Cremona and Alessandria. As a consequence of the private nature of the majority of the available documentation, the identification of collaborators is the base for my work. The reconstruction of Pelavicino's political entourage allows us to notice which families and social groups supported him. Therefore, this makes us understand if they were the same in every cities and how the pars marchionis concretely acted. The analysis of the functionary "circuits" represents a useful key of investigation in order to inquire how Pelavicino ruled the city system he was controlling and this is why we are allowed to look at his lordship always being focused on the reality of each cities, and, at the same time, being able to keep in mind the dimension of the local dominion.
This thesis analyses the political and institutional development of the populus of the Umbrian city-states in connection with the municipal documentary activity in the second half of the thirteenth century. The aim of the research was to identify the initiatives explicitly promoted by the populus in the field of production and documentation management. Umbria was chosen as field of study because of its historical and geographical context, characterized by a particularly high density of small and medium city-states and a remarkably rich municipal documentation. This research has focused in particular on the city-states of Assisi, Gubbio, Orvieto, Perugia, Spoleto and Todi, all presenting different characteristics, such as territorial extension, incisiveness of popular regimes, relevance in historiography field. In this area municipal records directly related to an offitium of the populus' institutional bodies have been identified and analysed. The gradual affirmation of the populus in the Umbrian city-states government as well as the many documentary initiatives specifically commissioned by popular magistrates are characterized by the extreme variety of the solutions adopted both in the institutional field and in the municipal documentation management. Finally re-writing of certain acts, operated by the offitium capitanei populi, seems to indicate a direct interference and a control of the capitaneus in preforming certain tasks by other municipal offitiales.
This research studies the origin and evolution of venetian female monasticism from IX to XIV centuries. Religion dynamics is the focus of this study but it examines relationships with venetian politic situation. It starts with a "large" monasticism that includes great variety of women's spiritual experiences to arrive to consider a "strict" monasticism through the analysis of istitutionalisation processes. This study considers not only Church point of view, but also women's religion vocations.
L'articolo ripercorre la storia della famiglia Chiaromonte, che nel Trecento riuscì ad effettuare una straordinaria ascesa sociale grazie a un'abile strategia matrimoniale e politica. Il principale esponente della famiglia fu Manfredi, che divenne vicario del Regno di Sicilia, duca di Gerba e commissionò la realizzazione del soffitto ligneo della Sala Magna dello Steri di Palermo.
Cabrino Fondulo came to power in very violent and sudden way, by betraying the two foremost members of the important Cavalcabò family, and he provoked the anger of the contemporary chronicler who emphasised his unscrupulousness and his bloodthirsty government. The aim of this thesis is to verify the relationships of the factions, the clients, the patronage, which allowed his rise to "signore" di Cremona . It has been possible to discover who was in the group of Cabrino Fondulo's faithful followers and officials through the manuscripts of decrees and legal city documents. Certain member of this family stood out and were of particular importance because he gave them important assignments as for example he entrusted to his cousin Fondulo de Fondulis the Santa Croce castle which was fundamental for the defence of Cremona. This family has been studied from some unpublished documents were two other characters were found and analysed: his friend Maffeo Mori, a man who was a strong figure in Cabrino Fondulo's government and his vicarius Bonifacio Guiscardi who were related spiritually because Cabrino Fonfulo was godfather to this son.
Si esamina la produzione scientifica di Salvatore Fodale, basata sullo studio di documenti inediti custoditi in archivi italiani e spagnoli. Lo studioso ha posto al centro della sua ricerca i rapporti tra potere ecclesiastico e potere politico dall'età normanna al Quattrocento, nelle sue molteplici sfaccettature, dedicando ampio spazio allo Scisma d'Occidente e agli ordini religiosi. L'orizzonte geografico delle sue ricerche ha spaziato nel contesto mediterraneo, includendo la Sicilia, la Sardegna, l'Aragona, la Grecia e il Maghreb. ; We analyze the scientific production of Salvatore Fodale, based on the study of unpublished documents kept in in Italian and Spanish archives. The scholar has focused his research on the relationship between ecclesiastical and political power from the Norman age to the fifteenth century, in its various facets. Above all, he studied the Great Occidental Schism and religious orders. From a geographical point of view his researches have ranged over the Mediterranean context, and included Sicily, Sardinia, Aragon, Greece and the Maghreb.
Il monastero femminile di San Zaccaria di Venezia, fondato nel IX secolo, adotta intorno alla metà del XII secolo le consuetudini di Cluny. Questo contributo vuole dimostrare che la decisione, riconfermata più volte nel corso del tempo, contribuisce al rilancio del cenobio dopo un periodo di difficoltà, e anche se non comporta il formale collegamento del cenobio alla congregazione borgognona, lo proietta per la prima volta in una dimensione sovralocale. Tale proiezione è ben visibile circa cinquant'anni più tardi, quando le monache si presentano a Verona e trattano con il podestà e le autorità veronesi una questione patrimoniale che ha importantissime implicazioni di natura politico-territoriale per entrambe le città. ; The female monastery of San Zaccaria in Venice, founded during the 9th century, adopted the customs of Cluny around the mid-12th century. This paper aims to demonstrate that such a move, confirmed over and again, contributed to the revival of the monastery after a period of serious difficulty and, even if it did not imply the creation of a formal connection with the Burgundian congregation, the adoption of such customs projected San Zaccaria, for the first time, onto a supra-local dimension. This became clear some fifty years later, when the nuns went to Verona to discuss with the podestà, and all of the major city authorities, a patrimonial issue that proved to have relevant political and territorial implications for both cities.
Originario di Salses, nella diocesi di Elne, il catalano Raimondo de Puyolis fu designato arcivescovo di Messina da Clemente VI nel 1342. Nei pochi anni in cui visse nella città dello Stretto cercò di esercitare un significativo ruolo economico e politico, recuperando decime e censi ed effettuando visite pastorali. Giunto nella sua diocesi dovette fronteggiare una rivolta. Riuscì poi a ottenere la fiducia dei canonici e degli esponenti del ceto cavalleresco. Il suo testamento, ritrovato a Toledo nell'Archivo Ducal de Medinaceli, consente di ricostruirne la personalità, la consistenza patrimoniale e la biblioteca.
Il saggio focalizza un momento complesso della vita sociale e religiosa messinese di metà Trecento, che vede coinvolti da un lato Raimondo de Puyolis, arcivescovo catalano di Messina, dall'altro l'ospedale S. Giovanni di Gerusalemme: uno scontro scaturito dal mancato pagamento delle decime, dietro cui si celavano articolate politiche cittadine.
Nel Trecento la Kalsa era un borgo marinaresco, come attesta la toponomastica, abitato da mercanti stranieri. Folta era la comunità pisana legata alla chiesa e al monastero di San Francesco. Il volto del quartiere cambiò profondamente quando i Chiaromonte s'insediarono alla Kalsa e vi edificarono un imponente palazzo, detto Steri. In seguito alla loro ascesa politica, il quartiere divenne una zona residenziale, dove vivevano famiglie alleate con i potenti signori. Dal censimento effettuato nel 1480 emerge la presenza d'importanti burocrati, giuristi e note famiglie nobiliari che costruirono eleganti palazzi in stile gotico catalano.
Nella Sicilia del Trecento Federico III incoraggia la creazione di nuovi centri urbani in luoghi difficilmente espugnabili. Le fondazioni delle famiglie nobiliari emergenti si rivelano più durature e riflettono il loro peso politico-territoriale. Basti ricordare Castelbuono, centro dei Ventimiglia nelle Madonie; Chiusa, opera del conte Matteo Sclafani; Mussomeli Favara e Siculiana erette dai Chiaromonte per estendere il controllo territoriale a sud di Palermo.
Sulla scorta soprattutto della Cronica di Salimbene da Parma, il contributo esamina le diverse fasi, a partire dal movimento dell'Alleluia del 1233, che portarono all'insediamento dei frati Minori e Predicatori all'interno di Reggio Emilia. Sono poi esaminati gli sviluppi della religiosità e delle devozioni promosse dai frati in ambito cittadino, che contribuirono a fare delle loro chiese e conventi, pur tra contrastanti e a volte ostili prese di posizione, un punto di riferimento per la vita politica e religiosa della città nella seconda metà del XIII secolo.
Il saggio analizza comprativamente il cambiamento del modello di monarchia nei regni di Sicilia citra e ultra Pharum in conseguenza della rivolta antiangioina del Vespro in Sicilia e dell'immissione del regno isolano nell'orbita della Corona d'Aragona. La forte spinta della Curia pontificia nel senso del tempramento della fiscalità e del minor peso degli ufficiali stranieri nel governo del regno angioino conduce a un'assimilazione delle strutture e delle dinamiche politiche e istituzionali di questo con quelle del nuovo regno siciliano, sul quale ha forte influsso la tradizione "pattista" aragonese. L'analisi è condotta prevalentemente sulle fonti normative dell'epoca, rivelatrici di tale trasformazione rispetto al modello della monarchia federiciana e angioina dei primi tempi. ; The essay is a study on the constitutional changes that can be observed both in the new Sicilian kingdom born after the Vespers of 1282 and the Angevin kingdom of Naples. The problem of achieving the consent from the society of the kingdoms was a compelling one for the Angevin king, who suffered the rebellion in Sicily, due – as said – to bad government; in the insular kingdom of Sicily, which was in the sphere of influence of the Crown of Aragon, the Aragonese model of a 'constitutional' monarchy, with a multiplicity of subjects (cities, nobles) involved in the government of the land contributed to shape a new order. The remarkable fact is that, despite the different reasons and trends, both institutional models followed the same trend. It is also due to the influence of the political culture of the Papacy – who supported the Angevins - and to the role played by outstanding personalities like Arnau de Vilanova in Sicily. In conclusion, both the 'separated' kingdoms followed a similar way in shaping the relationship between rulers and subjects: tax moderation, limits to the powers of king's officials and – in Sicily – rising of parliamentary assemblies and of self-administration of the cities.
The essay summarizes the main trends of the studies in Mediterranean medieval history to introduce the case of the "Crown of Aragon", whose expansion between 13th and 14th Centuries has been a turning point on the political and commercial equilibria of the area.
