From Theophilus to C.S.Smith: Discovery of an Eleventh Century AD Bell-Casting Mold From Venosa (Southern Italy)

1992 ◽  
Vol 267 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Vidale ◽  
A. Melucco Vaccaro ◽  
M.R. Salvatore ◽  
M. Micheli ◽  
C. Balista
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Casting Mold ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Medieval Church

ABSTRACTThe recent discovery and excavation of the remains of a well preserved mold for bell-casting below the floor of the medieval church of the SS. Trinita′ of Venosa (southern Italy) provides a singular opportunity to reconstruct aspects of ancient bell-making technology and to compare the new archaeological data with the textual evidence on the same subject written by the famous monk Theophilus in the XIth chapter of his treatise “De Diversis Artibus”. Stratigraphical excavation and video-endoscopic inspection of the mold's interior allowed a preliminary reconstruction of the structure and use of this unique craft installation.

Social Change in Town and Country in Eleventh-Century Byzantium

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
South West ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

The history of Byzantium pivots around the eleventh century. For it was then that it reached its apogee, in terms of power, prestige, and territorial extension, only to plunge into steep political decline in the second half of the century. It is therefore well worth taking a thorough look at the social order in this age of change, to see how it was affected by economic growth and political expansion, and what were the consequences of the social changes which occurred. The approaches of individual contributors vary according to their subject matter. The social order is surveyed from the bottom-up in four archaeologically founded papers which examine three regions of the Byzantine world (Asia Minor, in general (Niewoehner) and with respect to the Sagalassos area (Kaptijn and Waelkens), Greece (Armstrong), and Southern Italy (Noye)). The top-down view, drawing on textual evidence, documentary and literary, is presented by four contributors, who again focus on different places—the metropolis (Cheynet), the country in the core regions of Asia Minor and Greece (Smyrlis), and two peripheral regions, Taron in south-west Armenia (Greenwood) and southern Italy (Noye). These detailed studies are complemented by a venture into the sphere of political ideas, as manifest in the thinking of one high-flying servant of the state (Krallis), and an overview of eleventh-century developments (Howard-Johnston).

Beneventan (South Italian/Langobardic) Script

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-142
Author(s):  
Francis Newton
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Important Center

This chapter surveys Beneventan script, the distinctive hand of southern Italy which is particularly associated with the most important center of its use, the Abbey of Monte Cassino. Beneventan arose in the late eighth century and continued in common use through the thirteenth--and even later in isolated instances. Distinct calligraphic high points were achieved in various cities, regions, or centers at different periods, including Naples in the tenth century, Monte Cassino in the second half of the eleventh century, and the region of Bari at the same time. Caroline script was used side-by-side with Beneventan at some centers, until Caroline and Gothic scripts finally replaced Beneventan as the standard bookhand in southern Italy.

Byzantine Religious Law in Medieval Italy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Religious Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Church

This book is a historical study of these manuscripts, exploring how and why the Greek Christians of medieval southern Italy persisted in using them so long after the end of Byzantine rule. Southern Italy was conquered by the Norman Hauteville dynasty in the late eleventh century after over 500 years of continuous Byzantine rule. At a stroke, the region’s Greek Christian inhabitants were cut off from their Orthodox compatriots in Byzantium and became subject to the spiritual and legal jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic popes. Nonetheless, they continued to follow the religious laws of the Byzantine church; out of thirty-six surviving manuscripts of Byzantine canon law produced between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, the majority date to the centuries after the Norman conquest. Part I provides an overview of the source material and the history of Italo-Greek Christianity. Part II examines the development of Italo-Greek canon law manuscripts from the last century of Byzantine rule to the late twelfth century, arguing that the Normans’ opposition to papal authority created a laissez faire atmosphere in which Greek Christians could continue to follow Byzantine religious law unchallenged. Finally, Part III analyses the papacy’s successful efforts to assert its jurisdiction over southern Italy in the later Middle Ages. While this brought about the end of Byzantine canon law as an effective legal system in the region, the Italo-Greeks still drew on their legal heritage to explain and justify their distinctive religious rites to their Latin neighbours.

scholarly journals Understanding the settlement dynamics of the Ionian coastal area of Salento (Puglia, Southern Italy): the contribution of new archeological data from the fortified Messapian centre at Li Schiavoni

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Giovanna Cera
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Area ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Settlement Dynamics ◽  
Imminent Threat

Located about 4 km northeast of the Ionian coast, the small fortified Messapian settlement at Li Schiavoni (Puglia, Southern Italy) occupy an extensive plateau, controlling the territory. The stratigraphic research has revealed part of a house, remains of burials and some sections of the fortification wall. The walls, built during the Archaic period, was restored and reinforced during the Hellenistic
Age, perhaps because of an imminent threat. Thanks to the special focus on the new archaeological data from the Li Schiavoni settlement, we can highlight some aspects related to the settlement system on the Ionian coast of the
Salento (Puglia, Southern Italy).

The Byzantine Background

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Unleavened Bread

Chapter 4 examines the surviving nomocanonical manuscripts from the period of Byzantine rule in early medieval southern Italy (tenth–eleventh centuries). Very few manuscripts survive from before the twelfth century, so their content must be reconstructed from later codices. Nonetheless, this chapter argues that enough evidence has been preserved to prove that Byzantine canon law was firmly established in southern Italy from the time of the empire’s ecclesiastical and administrative reorganisations of the ninth and tenth centuries. The chapter shows that, as the Byzantines reconquered territories from the Lombards and established new ecclesiastical centres in Reggio, S. Severina, and Otranto, they introduced the Nomocanon in Fourteen Titles, the Nomocanon in Fifty Titles, and the Synopsis of Canons to serve as legal reference works. It then focuses on the Carbone nomocanon (Vat. gr. 1980–1981), the only complete nomocanon to survive from the era of Byzantine rule, arguing that it was probably produced in the eleventh century for use by a Greek bishop in Lucania. The manuscript’s contents and marginalia indicate that its owner was fully aligned with the legal system of Constantinople and show no influences from neighbouring Latin jurisdictions. Finally, the chapter looks at evidence from the period of Norman conquest in the late eleventh century, revealing how the resulting tensions between Latin and Greek Christians in the region left traces of contemporary Byzantine polemic against the azyma (unleavened bread in the Eucharist) in Calabrian nomocanons of the twelfth century.

Byzantium in the Eleventh Century

2020 ◽  
pp. 220-248
Author(s):  
James Howard-Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social History ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Specific Topic ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
Village Communities ◽  
The Military

The various studies of Byzantium’s social history in the eleventh century presented in this volume, each with its specific topic (regional, thematic, archaeological), are placed in a wider context. A head-on challenge is made to the long-standing view, promulgated by George Ostrogorsky, that Byzantium’s rapid descent from its apogee in the middle of the eleventh century had two prime causes, a deliberate run-down of the military by the ascendant civil party in the administration, and the absorption of the peasantry into large, aristocratic estates with a consequent weakening of a fiscal and military system founded in the peasant village. Different aspects of eleventh-century history are covered: (1) the accelerating cultural revival, sponsored by emperors, and an attendant growth in numbers and importance of the intelligentsia; (2) evidence, primarily numismatic and archaeological, for demographic and economic growth, and its beneficent effect on town life; (3) a re-examination of the documentary and other evidence for the decline of the independent peasantry, which concludes that predatory landowners encountered serious resistance from tight-knit village communities and the justice system and that the process of social change in the countryside had not advanced as far as Kostis Smyrlis suggests; (4) finally, it is accepted that attitudes changed, that the interior provinces were demilitarized, but not that there was a deliberate attempt to reduce spending on the army, now confined to the imperial periphery—the defeats and losses suffered are attributed primarily to the strengths of Byzantium’s chief adversaries, Turks and Turkmen in the east, Normans in southern Italy.

The Beneventan apostrophus in south italian notation A. D. 1000–1100

1983 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Boe
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Partial Explanation ◽  
Early Use

A mysterious note vaguely resembling the apostropha of St Gall is often found in Beneventan manuscripts dating from the first half of the eleventh century. The note is named acuasta in one of the lists of Beneventan neumes. It is found less often in later manuscripts from southern Italy. Its appearance but not its meaning is briefly described under the title ‘strophicus” in volume 15 of Paléeographie Musicale. I have noted hundreds of instances of its use in Beneventan manuscripts from all periods except the last. It is easily mistaken for a sign for liquescence. Sometimes it is indeed thus used in the late gradual Benevento, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS VI. 35; but earlier it is so often employed for open syllables and simple vowels not subject to liquescence that a liquescent interpretation, even as a partial explanation for its early use, must be given up.

Abbot Desiderius of Montecassino and the Gregorian Papacy

1979 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-326
Author(s):  
G. A. Loud
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Single Institution ◽  
Latin Church ◽  
Gregorian Reform

Of all the churches affected by the Gregorian reform movement few were more notable than the monastery of Montecassino. Not only the latter's own writers but even Pope Gregory vii himself described it as famous throughout Christendom. In southern Italy it was undoubtedly the most important single institution of the Latin Church. Founded by St Benedict in 529, by the eleventh century it was exempt from normal ecclesiastical jurisdiction and was the centre of a franchise free from the obligations of lay society. Under the abbacy of Desiderius of Benevento (1058–87) it enjoyed its golden age of political, intellectual and artistic influence. Its monks filled many south Italian bishoprics, and a number of them were promoted to be cardinals. Three times in sixty years, in 1057, 1087 and 1118, a Cassinese monk attained the see of St Peter. Desiderius himself was elected to succeed Gregory vii in 1087, with the title of Victor iii.

scholarly journals A sanctuary screen from the island of Kolocep

Zograf ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 51-75
Author(s):  
Valentina Babic
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Architectural Sculpture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Period

The paper discusses the structure and carved decoration of the restored marble sanctuary screen from the island of Kolocep near Dubrovnik. Based on the early medieval history of present-day southern Dalmatia and the fragmentary inscription commemorating a queen as the donor of the screen, it may be concluded that she was one of the Serbian Doclean (Duklja) queens from the second half of the eleventh century. The inscription is the only evidence that the kings of Dioclea ruled over the Elaphite islands. The carved decoration is typical of the Middle Byzantine period (9th-12th century), with some regional traits. The only exceptions are the figures of putti. They can be associated with Romanesque architectural sculpture in southern Italy created in the late eleventh century, after the Norman conquest of this region. The author puts forward the hypothesis that the donor was Queen Jaquinta, wife of King Bodin (1081-1101), who was a Norman woman from Bari.

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