Alcune note su San Miniato in età medicea

The link between San Miniato and the Medici, started in 1448 with the financing of the aedicule destined to host the miraculous crucifix of St. John Gualberto, continued with the artistic commissions of Pope Leo X. The contribution goes in particular into the transformations that the monastic complex underwent, at the behest of the family, during the siege of Florence in 1529-30 and in the following centuries, becoming first a vast fortress, then a lazaret; until the sacred value of the site was recovered from the early eighteenth century, with the creation of the Via Crucis and through the research of the bodies of the martyrs promoted by Grand Duke Cosimo III.

San Miniato al Monte e lo spazio politico fiorentino nel XIII secolo

Starting from the example of San Miniato al Monte, the essay dwells on the relationship existing between Florentine aristocracy and religious institutions. These were indispensable elements for the occupation of the urban ‘political space’, thanks to the social networks they controlled. Their political role – until now poorly investigated – was clearly recognised by the new ruling groups (Popolo). For this reason, the Florentine Popolo’s regime at the end of the thirteenth century tried to break the connection between aristocratic families and religious institutions, also through the use of precise rules that had become part of the Ordinamenti di Giustizia.

Vescovi e monasteri in Tuscia nel secolo XI (1018-1120 circa)

The paper deals with foundation and further fortunes of the Florentine abbey of San Miniato, founded by bishop Ildebrando (1018), and discusses the grounds of the strong hostility that Vallombrosan monks demonstrated toward florentine bishops like the same Ildebrando or Pietro Mezzabarba (who 1067 founded the nunnery of San Pier Maggiore). The so-called Vita anonima of John Gualberto, discovered and published by Robert Davidsohn, is particularly hard on these bishops, but it was written around 1120 by a monk of San Salvatore di Settimo (near Florence), in order to discredit the present bishop Goffredo Alberti, brother of count Tancredi Nontigiova. The paper considers also the cases of Pistoia and Pisa, where around the end of 11th century local bishops founded the abbeys of San Michele in Forcole and San Rossore.

La presenza del martire Miniato nelle dedicazioni toscane: alcune occorrenze

The article examines the dedications to San Miniato martyr in the Tuscan area during the Middle Ages. On the basis of the specific literature, while not excluding that other titles may be recovered from specific studies on territories in the future time, it is hypothesized that in the dioceses of Fiesole, Florence and Pistoia the preservation of these titles is linked to the presence of the Vallombrosan monks who, since the origins of their Order, were linked to the memory of the ancient Christian martyr.

La famiglia di Giovanni Boccaccio nelle pergamene olivetane

The essay focuses on a documentary corpus that belonged to the San Miniato archive: the papers of Banco di Francesco Botticini, which came to the monastery at the beginning of the 15th century. Botticini’s legacy can be reconstructed in about fifty parchments (represented here in an Appendix as register or excerpt), and offers interesting evidence on the Boccaccio’s family, linked to Banco Botticini by neighborhood relations and common acquaintances. Eleven ‘Olivetan parchments’ bear references to Boccaccio and are able to show different but still close relationships: from the sincere ones with messer Giovanni to the stormy with his brother, Iacopo, up to the long-lasting bond with the Iacopo’s sons, heirs of Boccaccio, who remained in the legal guardianship of Banco Botticini for many years.

San Miniato e le origini del monachesimo vallombrosano

The paper dwells on Giovanni Gualberto’s relations with San Miniato al Monte and the Apostolic See, and questions some consolidated historiographical paradigms to highlight the elements of continuity the new ‘Vallombrosan’ foundations held with the Benedictine monastic tradition. The thesis is that the very hard opposition to Abbot Ubertus did not lead to a break with the Abbey of the Mons Forentinus. The reinterpretation of the Florentine reforming movement shows how Giovanni Gualberto’s rebellion was linked to practical and disciplinary rather than doctrinal aspects, and how the subversive thrust of his positions, both in terms of Eucharistic theology and the validity of the sacraments administered by unworthy priests, was emphasised by the deforming point of view of the controversies of the time, mainly in the vision of Peter Damiani.

«Situm in loco alto et forti». Una controversia del vescovo Andrea de’ Mozzi per il monastero di San Miniato

The essay analyses a judicial case of the late 13th century (preserved in the archival funds of the Pistoiese bishopric), in which the bishop of Florence Andrea Mozzi and the nuns of Monticelli (one of the earliest Franciscan female communities in Florence) quarrel for the rights on the church of San Miniato, under the protection of the bishop since the origin of the monastic community in the early 11th century. As usual for this kind of sources, the text provides us with an important array of informations: the references to the written records the contenders used draw an image of the documentary landscape of the monastic communities since the 11th century, and at the same time the narrative of the religious practices of the laity around the church are very well described.

Gregorio XI e la rinascita di San Miniato al Monte. Un esempio di riforma monastica promossa nel Trecento dai monaci di Monte Oliveto

The monastery of San Miniato, formerly Black Benedictine, in 1373 was entrusted to the care of the Monte Oliveto’s monks with the favor of pope Gregory XI. The paper retraces the reasons of this passage of observance, which took place during a difficult period for the city of Florence, engaged in the War of the Eight Saints, and in the context of an almost generalized crisis of Benedictine abbeys, analyzing the resumption of regular life and institutional innovations, such as the temporary mandate of abbots; until the site was abandoned after the mid-sixteenth century.

La documentazione archivistica fra tardo Medioevo ed età moderna

The essay, starting from a survey of the tradition of documentary sources related to San Miniato, focuses on the archival papers concerning the abbey in the late Medieval and Modern period, trying to indicate some historical-archival research paths. It is pointed out that much of the documentation is now dispersed or can only be consulted through erudite transcriptions, and possible forms of collating texts are outlined. At the end there is a memorial of 1533 which offers an insight into the conditions of the religious community and the damage the abbey suffered during the siege of Florence period.

Eziologia di una leggenda. Ipotesi sul culto fiorentino di san Cresci compagno di san Miniato

The essay analyses the cult of St. Cresci and its origins. St. Cresci is considered to be one of the companions of St. Miniato, and it is believed he was martyred ‘sub Decio’ in the 3rd century. St. Cresci’s legend must be interpreted in the context of the Florentine hagiographic production of the 11th century, when the local clergy tried to resuscitate old and long forgotten cults of saints whose relics they possessed. The paper argues that the legend of St. Cresci was ‘invented’ to be opposed to that of St. Miniato. Indeed in the 11th century Ildebrando, bishop of Florence, strongly promoted the cult of Minias in order to support his claims on the lands of the newly founded monastery. It was after this that cathedral’s canons, in opposition with their bishop, proposed the martyrial figure of St. Cresci; the cult of which got a great importance under the Medici, and especially during the reign of Cosimo III.