Whereas recent research on monasteries, their properties, and their social networks in Carolingian Italy mostly focused on some very rich and well-documented institutions, the available charters offer glimpses of a much richer monastic landscape. A number of local monasteries of very different condition in terms of political, social and economic power punctuated this landscape as players in the networks of relationships and power balances running through it. Though sparse and frequently scarce, the sources allow to a certain extent to appreciate their presence and activities and the development of their patrimonies and social positioning over time. Resuming a recent definition formulated by Steffen Patzold and Carine van Rhijn for local priests as “men in the middle”, this paper provides a definition for these institutions as “monasteries in the middle”, thus highlighting their role and functions as intermediaries between different social players and groups. The examination of three case-studies located in Carolingian Lombardy on the grounds of the ninth century evidence provides an initial framework for testing the suitability of this definition, as well as the opportunities it opens for better appreciating and understanding the complexity of the local contexts in which these monasteries operated.
University of Padua, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-2189-1485
Titolo del capitolo
Monasteries in the middle? Local elites and monastic landscapes in Carolingian Lombardy
Autori
Francesco Veronese
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0771-3.07
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2025
Copyright
© 2025 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Aristocratic networks. Elites and social dynamics in Italy in the age of Lothar I
Curatori
Giuseppe Albertoni, Manuel Fauliri, Leonardo Sernagiotto
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
350
Anno di pubblicazione
2025
Copyright
© 2025 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
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
Collana
Reti Medievali E-Book
ISSN della collana
2704-6362
e-ISSN della collana
2704-6079