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Representing the space of papal government at the time of Lothar I: the claim of fines Romani

  • Maddalena Betti

Studying the extent of the physical space over which papal policy was implemented between the late eighth and ninth centuries is extremely complex. The sources are ambiguous and difficult to interpret: the territory over which the popes claimed to exercise their jurisdiction was not necessarily that over which they actually managed to enforce their authority, especially after the fall of the Lombard kingdom; the practices of papal government on their territory are elusive and lacking continuity. Historiography oscillates between an either overplaying or underplaying both the papal political activity in this territory, and the consistency of papal policy. I will deal with the problem of the representation of physical boundaries of papal territory in the biographies of the popes included in the Liber pontificalis during the years of the Emperor Lothar I’s rule. Before doing so, I will dwell on the break represented by 774, the year when the lives of the popes lose their narrative sections and are reduced to a list of reports on building interventions and papal donations for the benefit of Roman churches. From 774 onwards, therefore, the action of the popes is limited to the Roman urban space. I will then deal with the lives of Paschal I (817-824), Sergius II (844-847) and Leo IV (847-855), to show how the authors of the three lives attempted, first covertly and then more openly and clearly, to address the question of how the papal territory outside Rome is actually defined in political terms.

  • Keywords:
  • Middle Ages,
  • 8th-9th centuries,
  • Rome,
  • Italy,
  • Lothar I,
  • Pope Paschal I,
  • Pope Sergius II,
  • Pope Leo IV,
  • Patrimonium sancti Petri,
  • Liber pontificalis,
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Maddalena Betti

Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-3666-598X

PDF
  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Pages: 177-192
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2024 Author(s)

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  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2024 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Representing the space of papal government at the time of Lothar I: the claim of fines Romani

Authors

Maddalena Betti

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3.14

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond

Editors

Maddalena Betti, Francesco Borri, Stefano Gasparri

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

354

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0415-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0416-3

eISBN (xml)

979-12-215-0418-7

Series Title

Reti Medievali E-Book

Series ISSN

2704-6362

Series E-ISSN

2704-6079

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