BullettinoDELL’ISTITUTO STORICO ITALIANO

PER IL MEDIO EVO

114

ROMANELLA SEDE DELL’ISTITUTO

PALAZZO BORROMINI___

2012

DELL’ISTITUTO STORICO ITALIANO

PER IL MEDIO EVO

ISSN 1127 6096

Direzione: MASSIMO MIGLIO

Comitato scientifico: FRANÇOIS BOUGARD, FRANCO CARDINI, TOMMASODI CARPEGNA, ERRICO CUOZZO, MARIA CONSIGLIA DE MATTEIS,GIACOMO FERRAÙ, SALVATORE FODALE, JAMES HANKINS, GIORGIOINGLESE, PAULINO IRADIEL, UMBERTO LONGO, ISA LORI SANFILIPPO,WERNER MALECZEK, GHERARDO ORTALLI, GIUSEPPE PETRALIA,GABRIELLA PICCINNI, ANTONIO RIGON, GIUSEPPE SERGI, SALVATORESETTIS, 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 diGioacchino da Fiore e il dibattito trinitario in curia (1180-1215)

In the wake of the new critical edition of the Confessio fidei byJoachim of Fiore (published together with the De articulis fidei byISIME), the main objective of this study is to propose for discussiona series of assumptions about the dating of this short text, about theaims which led Joachim to use the literary genre of the confessio fidei,and about the doctrinal context in which his ideas matured. I examinethe links between the Confessio fidei and the tractatus seu libellus De unitateseu essentia Trinitatis, Joachim’s treaty that the Fourth Lateran Councilcondemned in 1215 (Canon 2). The Confessio was written in the years1183-1184, at the Cistercian abbey of Calamari or at the papal curia inVeroli, because the abbot had to defend his positions about the divineunity of the Trinity and his theological methods, based on analogy, ashe had shown them in the lost De unitate seu essentia Trinitatis. For thistext, Joachim wanted to get a licentia scribendi. I argue that the De unitatedid indeed exist (against the hypothesis that identifies it with the firstbook of Psalterium decem cordarum) and was composed before thePsalterium, written in 1184. Finally, this essay examines the positions ofsome Trinitarian theologians related to the papal curia to show howthe Council’s verdict was prepared in opposition to the abbot’s ideas.

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

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

however, the example presented in this paper is explicitly attributed toThaddeus 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 theidentity 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 instituzioneeorum 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 howthe Byzantine scholar, who had come to Italy to teach Greek, con-tributed to the fifteenth-century debate about the education of theprince and good government. In line with the tradition of the speculaprincipum as well as with the encomiastic–hortatory literature aboutregality, the treatise, on the one hand, provides advice and rules forgood behavior and, on the other, praises the virtue of the receiver, mostlikely Giuliano de’ Medici. The analysis of this work furthers our knowl-edge of the Byzantine scholar and provides a starting point from whichto 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 Aragonesemonarchy to quantify the royal patrimony of feudal Sicily remainedsteady. After the Amprisia that carried him to the throne of Naples in1442, Alfonso the Magnanimous ordered his Sicilian feudatories toseek investitura, to subject their titles to regal control, and to take an oakof fidelity and homage. At first the extent to which the order wasobserved was uncertain. Yet after the decree of 1452, an arrangementwas reached: all noblemen were required to seek investiture and tomake 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 thechancellery of the Reign, now in the State Archives of Palermo. After

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Alfonso’s death in 1458, in a critical moment for the monarchy, theSicilian barons asked King Giovanni/John to cancel the defunct king’sdecree, particularly the obligation to require confirmation for theirassets. From 1459 to 1460, 350 feudatories, many of whom hadalready 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. Togetherwith the volumes that collect the confirmation privileges, this quaternusis an important source for the reconstruction of Sicilian feudality infifteenth–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 transmissionof medieval documents, and pays special attention to the active roleplayed by those involved in these processes. A substantial number ofdocuments are considered, and the most outstanding contributions tothis 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 monarchyof Aragon. Due to immigration from the territories of the Crown ofAragon, Naples experienced profound changes. The economic andsocial 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 majorEuropean 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

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

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

The court literature of Alfonso the Magnanimous raises severalissues of great interest, not only because of the role that it plays in thehistory of humanism, but also because it represents a turning point inthe encomiastic tradition. It was in this historical setting that Angelusde Grassis (in his Oratio panigerica) first used the Panegyrici latini, whichhad been discovered only a short time before by Giovanni Aurispa.This period also saw the first applications of celebratory models ofhistoriography, which were introduced by the Catalan doctor GasparPelegrí, but developed in the course of the heated debates betweenLorenzo Valla and Bartolomeo Facio. Supported by Panormita, Facioset the guidelines for the official history of the period, in which deco-rum verisimile was to be preferred to veritas, with obvious implicationsfor 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 ofAlfonso of Aragon’s culture and figures him as typical of his histori-cal period. The choice of an Arthurian emblem corresponds to thehabits of a time of crisis and in change, in which the symbols of thepast coexist with those of the future. Yet, beyond constituting a cul-tural trait of the Renaissance, the choice of the siège perilleux emblemis part of the intense self–glorification promoted by Alfonso since his

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youth. This campaign was designed with different elements, fromthose more elitist and courtiers, such as laudatory texts by humanistsof the Neapolitan court, to those more explicit and public, as in thecase of a number of published images, from devotional works to spec-tacles, such as the royal entries. The Arthurian emblem belongs to thissecond group and contributed to projecting a rhetorical image of themonarch to all kinds of viewers. The goal was clear: to propose anArthurian metamorphosis of the king. Thus through the power ofimages and symbols, Alfonso the Magnanimous was able to appearbefore his subjects as the most perfect knight and the most glorious ofkings.

S. Maddalo, Immagini di Roma alla corte dei principi: storia e significato di unmito 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, whoowned in his palagio in Firenze one panel painting with Rome and «unacarta dentrovi Roma».In the same historical context, in the second half of the 15th cen -

tu ry, three Tolomeo’s Cosmography manuscripts were illustrated withRome illuminated ‘maps’, whose miniaturist was Pietro del Massaio.The patron of one of these illuminated manuscripts, was, according towhat I suppose, Alfonso of Aragona. The Naple’ king was fully con-scious of the great role ascribed to the Rome idea in the humanisticculture. This awareness tooks root not only in the cultural but in theideological sphere. The Eternal city, with his history and his classicaltradition, 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 theCrown of Aragon, describes his multinational attitude in an epigramplaced at the end of his famous Carmen bucolicum. This epigram revealshis strong attachment to the three terrae of Italy, Spain, and Sicily. This

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

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