Networks of bishops, networks of texts : manuscripts, legal cultures, tools of government in Carolingian Italy at the time of Lothar I

This volume is the first one in a collection connected to the PRIN project on 'Ruling in Hard Times. Patterns of Power and Practices of Government in the Making of Carolingian Italy'. Its focus lays on bishops and their networks of relationships in late-8th and 9th-century Italy. The episcopal contribution to the inclusion of the Lombard kingdom in the Carolingian social and political landscape is especially analyzed from the perspective of the cultural exchanges (of ideas, texts, and manuscripts) that bishops created or used to carry out their public and pastoral duties. Each paper focuses on a specific episcopal figure or area, reconstructing the scope and extent of the relationships of which they were the pivot. The aim is to provide as comprehensive a picture as possible of the cultural networks that crossed Carolingian Italy and the ways in which bishops shaped and made use of them. Episcopal authority and networks in Carolingian times: recent approaches and perspectives, by Gianmarco De Angelis, Francesco Veronese 1 1. Carolingian 'ecclesia' and multiple episcopal identities 3 2. Back to manuscripts and politics of textuality: readings from this book 6 Lothar's manuscripts, manuscripts for Lothar, manuscripts of Lothar's time, by Laura Pani 13 1. A Lothar library? 15 2. Lothar’s display codices and the Lothar-Gruppe reconsidered 17 3. Manuscript production in Lothar's Italy 24 A fragmentary story: episcopal culture in Milan during Lothar I's reign?, by Miriam Rita Tessera 33 1. Episcopal culture during the age of Angilbert II: an open question 35 2. Re-building Milanese culture during the age of Lothar I 39 3. Networks of texts and images around the golden altar: Angilbert II and the portrait of Mansuetus, bishop of Milan 44 The struggle for (self-)integration. Manuscripts, liturgy and networks in Verona at the time of Bishop Ratold (c. 802-840/3), by Francesco Veronese 67 1. Introduction 69 2. Bishops coming from across the Alps 71 3. Verona and the 'ordines romani' 73 4. Innovations in liturgy and book production in early Carolingian Verona 77 5. Conclusions. Verona and the Alamannian hub in the first half of the ninth century 81 Canons, books of canons, and ecclesiastical judgments in Carolingian Italy: the Council of Mantua, 827, by Michael Heil 91 1. Introduction 93 2. The Council of Mantua: context 94 3. Maxentius’s canonical argument 97 4. The Council’s decision 102 5. The canonical argument after Mantua 104 6. A Lucchese coda 106 Representations of Lothar I in the 'Liber pontificalis Ravennatis', by Edward M. Schoolman 111 1. Introduction 113 2. Emperors in Ravenna 114 3. The 'Liber pontificalis' as a source for Ravenna and Lothar 116 4. The 'Liber pontificalis' on the Carolingian civil wars 120 5. History and memory of Lothar I in and beyond Agnellus 122 6. Conclusion 125 'Per Padum fluvium termino currente usque [...] Civitatem Novam atque Mutinam'. Consolidation and affirmation of the Church of Modena and its bishops in 9th-century Carolingian Italy, by Edoardo Manarini 131 1. Introduction 133 2. A polycentric and complex territory: the Modena area and royal measures in the eighth century 135 3. The 822 landmark charter of the Church of Modena 138 4. Bishop Leodoin and codex O.I.2: episcopal authority and the exercising of law 142 5. Conclusion: Bishop Gotfredus and the 'castrum' at Cittanova 147 Writing, textuality, politics in the Lucca of Bishops Berengar and Ambrose (837-852), by Paolo Tomei 157 1. The context 160 2. A text 164 Appendix 173 The two versions of the life of Pope Sergius II in the 'Liber pontificalis'. Anti-Frankish feeling in Rome after Louis II's expedition of 844, by Maddalena Betti 181 1. Introduction 183 2. The life of Sergius II in context 184 3. The two biographies of Sergius II: the life and the life with its continuation 186 4. The continuation of the life of Sergius II and the life of Leo IV: a comparison 190 5. The consequences of the 'Constitutio Romana': analysis of the first narrative core of the continuation of the Life of Sergius 192 Conclusions, by Steffen Patzold 199 Index of names 209 Index of manuscripts 217 The analysis of the two versions of the life of Pope Sergius II (844-847) published by Louis Duchesne in his edition of the Liber pontificalis aims at identifying and discussing the tools developed by the Lateran to illustrate the relationship between the Apostolic See and Carolingian power at the time of the Emperor Lothair. I will first present the two versions of the life of Sergius and their circulation, then highlight the rhetorical strategies employed by the author to diminish the political significance of Louis II's journey to Rome (844). Secondly, I will refer to the second part of the so-called Farnesianus version of the life of Sergius II. In this particular section, the author, before the incomplete report of the Saracen raid on the mouth of the Tiber and the sack of St. Peter's Basilica (846), critically describes the pontificate of Sergius II, dominated by the negative figure of the pontiff's brother, Benedict, who imposed his tyranny over Rome and its territory on behalf of the emperor (most likely as a missus on the imperial side). In this regard, it is interesting to evaluate which are the concealed arguments introduced here to represent the alleged effects of the application of the Constitutio Romana (824) on the socio-political structures of the city and on the history of the Roman Church, to offer a hypothesis on the context of the composition of this version of the life of Sergius II. In particular, I will dwell on the denouncing of the simoniacal heresy, shown to be have been triumphant during the pontificate of Sergius II, as sign of the re-emergence in Rome of a theme particularly strongly felt among the Carolingian reformers, and one which can perhaps be most associated with the pontificate of Sergius' successor Leo IV (847-855) Lothar looms large in the Liber pontificalis of Ravenna, an episcopal gesta composed after 846 by a local cleric of that city named Agnellus. In its prefatory verse, Lothar was tied to the memory of his grandfather Charlemagne, and afterwards was presented as an ally of the city and its church, a relationship sealed by the service of the bishop George (837-846) as godfather to Lothar's daughter Rotruda. Furthermore, upon the death of Louis the Pious, as part of an embassy attempting to resolve the conflicts between Lothar and his brothers, George sought to affirm Ravenna privileges on the eve of the battle of Fontenoy, an event described quite differently from other sources. Completed following these struggles, the Liber pontificalis of Ravenna used this image of Lothar to further claims of the special status of the city, especially in its independence from Rome and longstanding imperial connections, and actively sought to legitimize Lothar's own position through a juxtaposition with Charlemagne. Although preserved in the accounts of the bishops of Ravenna, the singular efforts to elevate and memorialize Lothar differ from other contemporary institutional chronicles, and underscore the tension inherent in the narrative Dealing with episcopal culture in Milan during Lothar I's age (822-855), that is the age of Archbishop Angilbert II (824-859), is a difficult task, because of the lack of sources and uncertain origin of many extant manuscripts. As a matter of fact, Angilbert II shared a common cultural background with his transalpine colleagues, but he had to face the loss of the schools in Milan and to rebuild a cultural system which could also improve the political role of his see to the detriment of Pavia. This paper analyses some main features of his cultural policy: the activity of masters accustomed to the new ideas of Carolingian schools, in particular the role played by Hildemar and his library in Civate; the renewal of St. Ambrose's cult and Angilbert's iconographical choices on the golden altar of Sant'Ambrogio, in connection with literary activity in Milan (as for the case of bishop Mansuetus' letter copied in Montpellier, Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire, Faculté de medicine, H 233)