Memorie

Paolo Grillo, «Consules potius quam imperantes»: una proposta di riconsiderazione della magistratura consolare a partire dall’esempio di Milano (1138-1162)

The essay reassesses the consular magistracy in twelfth-century communes, questioning the idea that consuls directly expressed aristocratic dominance. Focusing on Milan (1138-1162), it challenges a rigid link between social supremacy and political [...]]]>

Memorie

Paolo Grillo, «Consules potius quam imperantes»: una proposta di riconsiderazione della magistratura consolare a partire dall’esempio di Milano (1138-1162)

The essay reassesses the consular magistracy in twelfth-century communes, questioning the idea that consuls directly expressed aristocratic dominance. Focusing on Milan (1138-1162), it challenges a rigid link between social supremacy and political power, highlighting citizen participation and individual competence. Prosopographical analysis reveals no stable family hegemonies and shows that appointments were selective and functional. The prominence of judges reflects the judicial bias of surviving sources. Consuls thus emerge as magistrates delegated by the urban community and accountable to civic assemblies.

Paolo Visigalli, Marco Polo and the «Heresy of Evil»: Encountering Manichaeans in Southeastern China

By integrating recent scholarship on the Devisement dou monde with studies on Manichaeism and the Church of the East in China, this paper revisits one of Marco Polo’s most enigmatic narratives: the encounter in Fuzhou involving Marco, his uncle Maffeo, and a secretive religious sect. This episode, documented exclusively in the Latin ‘Zt’ manuscript, captures a rare cross-cultural interaction between two Venetian Catholics and a community the Polos identified as Christian, but which modern scholars recognize as Manichaean. This study provides a comprehensive re-evaluation of this episode, deconstructing its layered voices – from the Fuzhou practitioners to the Latin redactors – while incorporating relevant historical and archaeological findings.

Simone Picchianti, Riflessi economici della Guerra degli Otto Santi (1375-1378). Il conflitto tra Firenze e la Chiesa nella documentazione della Badia a Settimo

The War of the Eight Saints (1375-1378) pitted the Florentine commune against the papacy and produced political, economic, and spiritual consequences. Struck by excommunication and interdict, the Florentines responded by acting harshly toward the ecclesiastical institutions within their dominions: first through heavy fiscal impositions, and subsequently through the expropriation of extensive urban and rural properties. This article examines the effects of the fiscal and expropriative policies implemented during the conflict on the property holdings of ecclesiastical institutions. It takes as its privileged case study the Cistercian abbey of Settimo, located in the Florentine countryside. A particularly detailed accounting register makes it possible to reconstruct the economic situation of the monastery and to assess, with a good degree of reliability, the impact of these policies.

Gigliola Fragnito, Iacopo Bonfadio ovvero della precarietà della vita di corte

This essay reconstructs the life of the Renaissance humanist Iacopo Bonfadio (1509-1550), emphasizing the instability of courtly existence. Through his letters and writings, it traces his constant movements among patrons, intellectual circles, and religious networks in Rome, Padua, and Naples. Influenced by heterodox spiritual currents, Bonfadio experienced both cultural vitality and personal frustration. His career illustrates the precarious dependence of intellectuals on powerful patrons and the uncertainties of life within sixteenth-century courts.

Recensioni [scarica PDF]

Paul Bertrand, Forger le faux. Les usages de l’écrit au Moyen Âge (Serena Galasso)

Guillaume Calafat – Mathieu Grenet, Mediterranei. Storia delle mobilità umane (1492-1750) (Matteo Calcagni)

Ana Lucia Araujo, Humans in Shackles. An Atlantic History of Slavery (Michaela Valente)

Tradizione e modernità. La comunità greca di Livorno tra Sette e Ottocento, a cura di Andrea Addobbati e Umberto Cini (Renato Pasta)

Alessio Petrizzo, Parole di brigante. Scrivere di sé in un carcere dell’Italia unita (Marco Pignotti)

Simon Martin, Il martire. Storia di Giovanni Berta (Alfonso Venturini)

Francesca Pino, Raffaele Mattioli. Una biografia intellettuale (Roberta Garruccio)

Notizie [scarica PDF]

Archivio Storico Italiano – ISSN 0391-7770

Alessandro Giacomelli, Il palatium del vescovo. Mutamento e sperimentazione istituzionale a Lucca (1080-1130 ca.)

The paper investigates the re-functionalization of the highly connoted term palatium in Lucca between the late 11th and early 12th centuries (approximately 1080-1130). Until 1081, the term was reserved for a specific building: the palatium domini Imperatoris, the [...]]]> Memorie

Alessandro Giacomelli, Il palatium del vescovo. Mutamento e sperimentazione istituzionale a Lucca (1080-1130 ca.)

The paper investigates the re-functionalization of the highly connoted term palatium in Lucca between the late 11th and early 12th centuries (approximately 1080-1130). Until 1081, the term was reserved for a specific building: the palatium domini Imperatoris, the core of the power of the Marquises of Tuscia. Following the crisis of the March, the bishops of Lucca appropriated the term, using it to construct for themselves a new seigneurial profile and, at least in the case of Benedetto, to assert a claim to hegemony over the city community.

Ludovica Medved, Un frate e un monaco alla Camera del Comune. Spunti di vita religiosa, economica e sociale a Firenze nel primo Trecento

This essay examines four account books from the early fourteenth century kept by three religious officials serving as treasurers of the Florentine Commune: a Cistercian monk from S. Salvatore a Settimo and two Servite friars from SS. Annunziata. Through an analysis of these records, the study highlights the widespread diffusion of bookkeeping in fourteenth-century Florentine society, shedding light on the social and cultural dynamics of a phenomenon that engaged both clerical circles and the lower urban classes.

Michele Impagnatiello, Libri prodotti, libri rubati: donne e cultura manoscritta tra lavoro, malavita e devozione nella Bologna dei secoli XIII-XV

Focusing on late Middle Ages Bologna, this study explores the presence of women in the production, circulation, and use of manuscripts through notarial records and criminal proceedings. Moving beyond the traditional focus on aristocratic, monastic or sanctified figures, attention is given to women who were not confined to courts or monastic cloisters, whose traces emerge sporadically in judicial and notarial sources. The research reveals a spectrum of female engagement with the written word – as readers, scribes, producers, and patrons.

Vanna Arrighi, La segreteria di Cosimo I de’ Medici: nuovi protagonisti e nuove forme documentarie

This essay examines how Cosimo I de’ Medici reshaped Florence’s chancery, blending republican administrative traditions with new princely structures. It highlights the rise of secretaries and auditors as key actors, the creation of innovative documentary forms, and the growing overlap between court service and public office. Through institutional reforms and personal networks, Cosimo built a centralized, flexible bureaucracy that redefined governance in the nascent Medici state.

Stefano Talamini, Monumenti scritti della piccola Patria. Il patrimonio archivistico dell’Istria e il nazionalismo italiano tra Otto e Novecento

The paper explores the history of Istria’s archival heritage between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, showing how political change and national ideologies shaped the use of records. From Pietro Kandler’s early studies to the nationalist appropriation by Italian elites, documents became tools to assert an Italian identity against emerging Slavic movements. After WW-I, fascist policies reinforced this ideological use, while archives stayed under Italian local elite’s control. After 1945, amid shifting borders and displacement, they became contested symbols between Italy and Yugoslavia.

Recensioni [scarica PDF]

Enzo Caffarelli, L’anima medievale nei nomi contemporanei (Aldo A. Settia)

Luca Molà, Nel segno di Marco Polo. Venezia, l’Asia, la seta (Sergio Tognetti)

Caterina Llull i Sabastida tra Sicilia e Catalogna. Edizione del suo secondo libro mastro (1479-1486), a cura di Martina Del Popolo e Gemma Colesanti (Amedeo Feniello)

Gilles Narcy, Il mondo dei navicelli. Territorio, navigazione e commercio nella Toscana granducale (Alessandro Lo Bartolo)

Giovanna Fiume, Mediterraneo corsaro. Storia di schiavi, pirati e rinnegati in età moderna (David Salomoni)

Giacomo Girardi, La patria e lo Stato. La famiglia Breganze nella storia d’Italia, 1796-1922 (Emilio Scaramuzza)

Notizie [scarica PDF]

Archivio Storico Italiano – ISSN 0391-7770