RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

Exchanges, the interaction of persons, the circulation of cultural models and symbolic interferences in religious, political and social life. Studies on Religious Orders in the late Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Age in Italy.

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi di TORINO - STORIA - ()

Research Unit Leader

Laura Gaffuri

Description

The purpose of this research project is to identify the typologies of churchmen, monks and friars working in the “subalpine” area of the Savoy dukedom between 14th and 16th century. In particular, the RU will explore the origin, the milieu, the culture, the forms of recruitment of the clergy by different istitutional subjects: the high clergy (bishops, abbots, confessors, preachers and almoners) by Savoy Court and ducal aristocracy; the low clergy (capitular canons, parish priests but also preachers belonging to religious Orders) by local powers (towns and city-councils; bishops and episcopal curia). The data will compose both a mapping of the ecclestical staff and a prosopographic list. The area of ancient “Piedmont” will be the research domain.

Main directions of the research:

I. The politicy of the Dukes towards the mobility both of the clergy and the members of religious Orders (mainly by: the “Protocolli ducali”; the testamentary wills of the Savoys family; the reports of general Treasury, preserved by the Archivio di Stato of Turin). Data emerged until now suggest some areas of employment of the urban clergy and religious Orders: as legates (mainly the bishops), as confessors, chaplains, “familiares” and personal counsellors of the Counts and the Dukes, as professors in the “Studium”, as protagonists – the friars – of the only initiatives of religious “reformation” tolerated in the State. Moreover, the theme of “oratori ducali”, well-known in the Este state (thanks to studies of Gabriella Zarri and Marco Folin), presents in the Savoys area some developments till now unexpected.
II. A systematic check of the “Libri consiliorum” of some “sample-towns” (Torino, Moncalieri, Cheri, Ivrea) to catch the stance of the ruling élites towards both the religious Orders and ecclesiastical institutions, and towards their mobility. Foundation of sacred spaces, endowment of chapels, suffrages, burials, strong private devotions are the terms of a relation with ecclesiastical institutions which involves everywhere upper-class but also the whole of local society, as from 14th century at least. Otherwise, the involvement of new Orders of “Osservanza” in the towns and the foundation of their convents are the privilege of the ruling class: the members of Acaia and Savoy families, and the urban élites too. To that end it is inevitable that the documentation of the Court is flanked by the “Libri consiliorum” of the communities, which are well kept in Piedmont. From this point of view, and with reference to the Lent preachers recruitment too, it seems to exist a complete agreement between two levels of governance: of the court and of the town.
III. The circulation of the members of the religious Orders and of theirs writings from a country to an other (within Italy or elsewhere). In connection with the forms of religious communication, the attention will be fixed on preaching, liturgy, cult of the saints, intended both as languages involved in the legitimation and consolidation of the power and as channels of communication of religious feeling of groups and communities. The relevance of this further development is cleared by the growing dominance of the Prince on local powers, not only in the field of politics and law but also at religious level: it is the case of “Decreta seu Statuta Sabaudie” emanated by the Duke Amedée VIII en 1430, but also of the attention turned by the Court to the cult of Amedée IX. It is exactly hagiography which documents some states of tension which don’t exist in the other typologies of documents: the cults express identity needs of a community, of a group, just when become stronger the engagement of the prince to build a “società sovraregionale omogenea”, also with the help of religious language.
IV. The origin of confessors, almoners, and monks working in the ducal Court, and its connection with cultural and dynastic inclinations of this Court; evaluation of the relevance of the foreign staff within the local ecclesiastical élites (the cathedral chapters in the episcopal towns; the collegiate church chapters in the others). Will be desirable to extend the research to the consultation of Vatican Registers and of Pleas Registers in the Vatican Archives. The crossing of these three levels of documentation (Court, local communities and Curia) is particularly desirable to verify the credibility, for subalpine area, of full “dipendenza dei frati dal principe” observed by Paul Nyhus in German world.
V. An assessment of the growing involvement, during the 16th century, of bishops and abbots in diplomatic missions (temporary or not), which involve the mobility of both of these prominent figures and their entourage;
VI. An assessment of the influence of a new and foreign eccesiastical authority, as the “nuntius” and his “curia”, indipendent from political institutions of the Savoy dukedom, which supervises the local ecclesiastical structure and the religious life.