There remains a significant lacuna in the narrative sources about the aristocracy in Ravenna during the age of Lothar I. For example, the Liber Pontificalis of Ravenna offers very little on account of its focus and defective ending, while Riccobaldo of Ferrara, who was able to work in the episcopal archives in the end of the thirteenth century, also leaves only traces in his histories of either Lothar or the city. The charters from the church of Ravenna, on the other hand, demonstrate a significant change during Lothar’s 37-year reign in Italy. They are witness to a period of Frankish integration into Ravenna’s aristocratic elites through marriages, a phenomenon referenced for later periods in the literary sources. By 855, at the end of Lothar’s reign, the charters allude to a shift in the composition of Ravenna’s aristocracy, having transformed into an elite admixture of noble Franks and the landholding elites of Ravenna who saw the identity of their lineage as «descended from dukes». The post-dating or even absence of this shift in later narrative sources reveals that it was not the first half of the ninth century but later realignments of Ravenna’s urban elite that left a stronger mark on the city’s past.
University of Nevada, Reno, United States - ORCID: 0000-0002-1416-1222
Chapter Title
Aristocracy in Ravenna in the age of Lothar I: integration and historical memory
Authors
Edward M. Schoolman
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0771-3.16
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Aristocratic networks. Elites and social dynamics in Italy in the age of Lothar I
Editors
Giuseppe Albertoni, Manuel Fauliri, Leonardo Sernagiotto
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
350
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0771-3
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0770-6
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0771-3
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0773-7
Series Title
Reti Medievali E-Book
Series ISSN
2704-6362
Series E-ISSN
2704-6079