Bullettino DELL'ISTITUTO STORICO ITALIANO - PER IL MEDIO EVO - Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo

Bullettino
DELL’ISTITUTO
DELL’ISTITUTO    STORICO
              STORICO       ITALIANO
                      ITALIANO
          PER
          PER IL MEDIO
                 MEDIO EVO
                       EVO

                     114

                    ROMA
            NELLA SEDE DELL’ISTITUTO
              PALAZZO BORROMINI
                      ___
                      2012

ISSN 1127 6096

Direzione: MASSIMO MIGLIO
Comitato scientifico: FRANÇOIS BOUGARD, FRANCO CARDINI, TOMMASO
DI CARPEGNA, ERRICO CUOZZO, MARIA CONSIGLIA DE MATTEIS,
GIACOMO FERRAÙ, SALVATORE FODALE, JAMES HANKINS, GIORGIO
INGLESE, PAULINO IRADIEL, UMBERTO LONGO, ISA LORI SANFILIPPO,
WERNER MALECZEK, GHERARDO ORTALLI, GIUSEPPE PETRALIA,
GABRIELLA PICCINNI, ANTONIO RIGON, GIUSEPPE SERGI, SALVATORE
SETTIS, MARINO ZABBIA
Segretario: AMEDEO DE VINCENTIIS
A cura di ISA LORI SANFILIPPO e ANNA MARIA OLIVA
Impaginazione: SALVATORE SANSONE

Summaries

V. De Fraja, «Arbitrantes nos unitatem scindere». La Confessio fidei di
Gioacchino da Fiore e il dibattito trinitario in curia (1180-1215)

     In the wake of the new critical edition of the Confessio fidei by
Joachim of Fiore (published together with the De articulis fidei by
ISIME), the main objective of this study is to propose for discussion
a series of assumptions about the dating of this short text, about the
aims which led Joachim to use the literary genre of the confessio fidei,
and about the doctrinal context in which his ideas matured. I examine
the links between the Confessio fidei and the tractatus seu libellus De unitate
seu essentia Trinitatis, Joachim’s treaty that the Fourth Lateran Council
condemned in 1215 (Canon 2). The Confessio was written in the years
1183-1184, at the Cistercian abbey of Calamari or at the papal curia in
Veroli, because the abbot had to defend his positions about the divine
unity of the Trinity and his theological methods, based on analogy, as
he had shown them in the lost De unitate seu essentia Trinitatis. For this
text, Joachim wanted to get a licentia scribendi. I argue that the De unitate
did indeed exist (against the hypothesis that identifies it with the first
book of Psalterium decem cordarum) and was composed before the
Psalterium, written in 1184. Finally, this essay examines the positions of
some Trinitarian theologians related to the papal curia to show how
the Council’s verdict was prepared in opposition to the abbot’s ideas.

F. Delle Donne, Ancora sullo Studium di Napoli in epoca sveva: una nuova
lettera per la morte di Giacomo Baldovini

     This paper presents a new edition and discussion of a consolatio for
the death of the famous jurist Iacobus Balduini († 1235). A similar con-
solatio from the letters of Petrus de Vinea has already been published;

302                                   SUMMARIES

however, the example presented in this paper is explicitly attributed to
Thaddeus de Suessa, a judge of the Magna Curia. This epistle demon-
strates good rhetorical skills and follows the topoi of the literary genre,
but its particular importance lies in its connection to Iacobus and the
identity of its author: this is the only surviving text that can be attrib-
uted with certainty to Thaddeus.

A. Cariello, Un trattato politico tra Bisanzio e l’Italia. Il De instituzione
eorum qui in dignitate constituti sunt di Giovanni Argiropulo

     Written by John Argyropoulos between 1472 and 1473, the De insti-
tutione eorum qui in dignitate constituti sunt is an interesting example of how
the Byzantine scholar, who had come to Italy to teach Greek, con-
tributed to the fifteenth-century debate about the education of the
prince and good government. In line with the tradition of the specula
principum as well as with the encomiastic–hortatory literature about
regality, the treatise, on the one hand, provides advice and rules for
good behavior and, on the other, praises the virtue of the receiver, most
likely Giuliano de’ Medici. The analysis of this work furthers our knowl-
edge of the Byzantine scholar and provides a starting point from which
to delve into his teaching activities and his role in humanistic culture.

A. Costa, Potere regio e aristocrazia signorile nella Sicilia del Quattrocento

     Throughout the fifteenth century, the need of the Aragonese
monarchy to quantify the royal patrimony of feudal Sicily remained
steady. After the Amprisia that carried him to the throne of Naples in
1442, Alfonso the Magnanimous ordered his Sicilian feudatories to
seek investitura, to subject their titles to regal control, and to take an oak
of fidelity and homage. At first the extent to which the order was
observed was uncertain. Yet after the decree of 1452, an arrangement
was reached: all noblemen were required to seek investiture and to
make an act of vassalage within one year from the death of their pred-
ecessor. Between 1453-1454, approximately 330 feudatories demon-
strated their titles and asked for confirmation of their assets. The con-
firmation of their privileges were annotated in the registers of the
chancellery of the Reign, now in the State Archives of Palermo. After

SUMMARIES                             303

Alfonso’s death in 1458, in a critical moment for the monarchy, the
Sicilian barons asked King Giovanni/John to cancel the defunct king’s
decree, particularly the obligation to require confirmation for their
assets. From 1459 to 1460, 350 feudatories, many of whom had
already obtained the reaffirmation of their titles, took an oak of fideli-
ty and homage.
     In the State Archives of Palermo there is a quaternus containing the
official registration of the fideomaggi taken from the Lords. Together
with the volumes that collect the confirmation privileges, this quaternus
is an important source for the reconstruction of Sicilian feudality in
fifteenth–century.

F. M. Gimeno Blay, «Scribe ergo quae vidisti et quae sunt et quae opor-
tet fieri post haec»

     The present article falls within the interdisciplinary field of litera-
cy. It deals with different modes of production, use and transmission
of medieval documents, and pays special attention to the active role
played by those involved in these processes. A substantial number of
documents are considered, and the most outstanding contributions to
this field of study are critically analyzed.

A. Feniello, Tracce dell’economia catalano aragonese a Napoli

     The Catalan presence in Naples was linked to the new monarchy
of Aragon. Due to immigration from the territories of the Crown of
Aragon, Naples experienced profound changes. The economic and
social life expanded, but, above all, trades underwent a deep transfor-
mation. Catalans represented the largest merchant group in the capi-
tal, and, thanks to their contribution, Naples became one of the major
European cities.

A.M. Oliva, Percezioni di identità catalana in fonti italiane

    Between the fourteenth and fifteenth century the Aragon’s Crown,
union of more kingdoms, has been strongly marked by a preeminent

304                                SUMMARIES

Catalan identity than others present in the different kingdoms of the
Crown. The study outline, using four indicators: nationality, monarchy,
language and consulates, the Mediterranean expansion of Catalan
identity. Between the late fifteenth-early sixteenth century, the sources
show the strong exploit of other identities: Valencian, Aragonese and
Majorcan. In the same time, in Rome, the sources show only a strong
and pervasive Catalan presence and don’t record others identity. This
is a result of the Ferdinand II the Catholic’s careful ideological poli-
tics, that had been thought to join an inclusive national identity to the
monarchy.

F. Delle Donne, La letteratura encomiastica alla corte di Alfonso il Magnanimo

     The court literature of Alfonso the Magnanimous raises several
issues of great interest, not only because of the role that it plays in the
history of humanism, but also because it represents a turning point in
the encomiastic tradition. It was in this historical setting that Angelus
de Grassis (in his Oratio panigerica) first used the Panegyrici latini, which
had been discovered only a short time before by Giovanni Aurispa.
This period also saw the first applications of celebratory models of
historiography, which were introduced by the Catalan doctor Gaspar
Pelegrí, but developed in the course of the heated debates between
Lorenzo Valla and Bartolomeo Facio. Supported by Panormita, Facio
set the guidelines for the official history of the period, in which deco-
rum verisimile was to be preferred to veritas, with obvious implications
for the creation of propaganda.

J. Molina Figueras, Un emblema arturiano per Alfonso d’Aragona. Storia,
mito, propaganda

    The use of the siège perilleux emblem reveals some aspects of
Alfonso of Aragon’s culture and figures him as typical of his histori-
cal period. The choice of an Arthurian emblem corresponds to the
habits of a time of crisis and in change, in which the symbols of the
past coexist with those of the future. Yet, beyond constituting a cul-
tural trait of the Renaissance, the choice of the siège perilleux emblem
is part of the intense self–glorification promoted by Alfonso since his

SUMMARIES                                 305

youth. This campaign was designed with different elements, from
those more elitist and courtiers, such as laudatory texts by humanists
of the Neapolitan court, to those more explicit and public, as in the
case of a number of published images, from devotional works to spec-
tacles, such as the royal entries. The Arthurian emblem belongs to this
second group and contributed to projecting a rhetorical image of the
monarch to all kinds of viewers. The goal was clear: to propose an
Arthurian metamorphosis of the king. Thus through the power of
images and symbols, Alfonso the Magnanimous was able to appear
before his subjects as the most perfect knight and the most glorious of
kings.

S. Maddalo, Immagini di Roma alla corte dei principi: storia e significato di un
mito umanistico

    The Rome images exerted, at the end of 14th and in the 15th cen-
tury, a huge fascination upon kings, princes, states men and humanists.
The best example of this fascination is Lorenzo il Magnifico, who
owned in his palagio in Firenze one panel painting with Rome and «una
carta dentrovi Roma».
    In the same historical context, in the second half of the 15th cen-
tury, three Tolomeo’s Cosmography manuscripts were illustrated with
Rome illuminated ‘maps’, whose miniaturist was Pietro del Massaio.
The patron of one of these illuminated manuscripts, was, according to
what I suppose, Alfonso of Aragona. The Naple’ king was fully con-
scious of the great role ascribed to the Rome idea in the humanistic
culture. This awareness tooks root not only in the cultural but in the
ideological sphere. The Eternal city, with his history and his classical
tradition, meets king’s requirements of political and cultural legitima-
tion.

M. Früh, Antonio Geraldini: dimensiones europeas de un humanista umbro

     Antonio Geraldini, a neo–Latin poet laureate and official of the
Crown of Aragon, describes his multinational attitude in an epigram
placed at the end of his famous Carmen bucolicum. This epigram reveals
his strong attachment to the three terrae of Italy, Spain, and Sicily. This

306                              SUMMARIES

article explores this attachment, by examining each terra separately, yet
ultimately emphasizes the European dimensions of Geraldini’s poster-
ity, which transcends even denominational boundaries.