Patron Saints of Early Medieval Italy, AD c. 350–800: History and Hagiography in Ten Biographies. Translated with an introduction and commentary by Nicholas Everett. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2016, x, 276 pp.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 362-363
Author(s):  
Scott G. Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Gregory The Great ◽  
Patron Saints

Like a modern-day Gregory the Great, Nicholas Everett has assembled a collection of little-known saints’ lives from early medieval Italy: the Life of Gaudentius of Novara; the Life of Barbatus of Benevento; The Sermon of the Notary Coronatus on the Life of Zeno, Bishop and Confessor; The Book Concerning the Apparition of St. Michael on Mount Gargano; the Life of Senzius of Blera; the Passion of Cetheus of Pescara; the Passion of Vigilius of Trent, Bishop and Martyr; the Passion of Apollinaris of Ravenna; the Passion and Life of Eusebius of Vercelli; and the Life of Sirus of Pavia.

Lands and Lights in Early Medieval Rome

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Story
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Gregory The Great ◽  
Large Estate ◽  
Shed Light

This chapter analyses the text and epigraphy of two monumental inscriptions in Rome; both are important sources of information on landholding in early medieval Italy, and both shed light on the development of the Patrimony of St Peter and the evolving power of the popes as de facto rulers of Rome and its environs in the seventh and eighth centuries. Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604) commissioned the earlier of the two inscriptions for the basilica of St Paul, where it still survives (MEC I, XII.1). The inscription preserves the full text of a letter from Gregory to Felix, rector of the Appian patrimony (Ep. XIV.14). It ordered Felix to transfer the large estate (massa) of Aquae Salviae, with all its farms (fundi) as well as other nearby properties, from the patrimony into the direct control of the basilica of St Paul in order to fund the provision of its lighting; it was one of the last letters that Gregory wrote. The patron of the second inscription was Gregory’s eighth-century namesake and successor, Pope Gregory II (715–31), indignus servus (MEC I, XIV.1). This one is fixed in the portico of the basilica of St Peter, where it stands alongside another eighth-century inscription, namely, the epitaph of Pope Hadrian I that was commissioned by Charlemagne after Hadrian’s death in 795. Gregory II’s inscription also records a donation in Patrimonio Appiae, this time to provide oil for the lights of St Peter’s. This chapter investigates the form, content, and historical context of the production and display of these two inscriptions, analysing parallels and differences between them. It considers what they reveal about estate organization and the development of the territorial power of the papacy in this formative period, as well as the role of Gregory the Great as an exemplar for the early eighth-century popes.

Urban Change in Early Medieval Italy: The Example of Pavia

1966 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 82-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Bullough
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Social History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Warm Hospitality ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Prefatory Note.—My interest in Pavia goes back at least to 1951 when I was elected Rome Scholar in Medieval Studies. I began seriously to collect material for the history of the city in the early Middle Ages in the winter and spring of 1953 when I enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Collegio Ghislieri, thanks to the efforts made on my behalf by the late Hugh Last, to whose memory this article is dedicated. The published proceedings of the Reichenau and Spoleto congresses on ‘The early medieval town’ in the 1950s clearly underlined the need for detailed studies of particular towns; but the lack of adequate archaeological evidence discouraged me from attempting such a study of early medieval Pavia. In 1964, however, Dr. A. Peroni, Director of the Museo Civico invited me to read a supplementary paper on this topic to the Convegno di Studio sul Centro Storico di Pavia held in the Università degli Studi at Pavia on July 4th and 5th of that year. The present article is an amplified and corrected version of that paper: I have made no substantial alterations to my account of the ‘urbanistica’ of early medieval Pavia—written for an audience of architects and art-historians as well as of historians—but have dealt more fully with the social history of the city in this period. Professor Richard Krautheimer read a draft of the revised version and made some pointed and helpful comments. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Peroni, not merely for the invitation to present the original paper but also for supplying illustrations and answering queries at a time when he and his staff were engaged in helping to repair the ravages of the Florence floods.

Spoken Latin behind written texts

Diachronica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-449
Author(s):  
Timo Korkiakangas
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Free Part ◽  
Conservative Form ◽  
Written Texts

Abstract This study uses treebanking to investigate how spoken language infiltrated legal Latin in early medieval Italy. The documents used are always formulaic, but they also always contain a ‘free’ part where the case in question is described in free prose. This paper uses this difference to measure how ten linguistic features, representative of the evolution that took place between Classical and Late Latin, are distributed between the formulaic and free parts. Some variants are attested equally often in both parts of the documents, while perceptually or conceptually salient variants appear to be preserved in their conservative form mainly in the formulaic parts.

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