Documenta | 2024 | N. 7

Studies on warfare of late antiquity and early Middle Age are often hindered by the lack of primary sources. Despite being well-known, the registrum epistularum of pope Gregory I was often overlook as a source for military history. This article intends to provide information about the context of warfare in vi-century Italy in light of the many references in Gregory’s epistles, highlightning the characteristics of both land and naval warfare.

This article examines the Liber Cumanus, a Latin poem that chronicles the war between Milan and Como (1118-1127), one of the earliest recorded naval conflicts in communal Italy. The text details amphibious strategies used on Lake Como and Lugano, including landings, sieges, and naval battles. Special focus is given to the different types of boats, from light scaphae to large warships equipped with towers and siege weapons, as well as the strategic use of the Tivano and Breva winds for military maneuvers. The article highlights how this conflict was not just a clash between two cities but a larger struggle involving shifting alliances among smaller towns. Some military tactics, such as transporting ships overland, resemble those later used by powerful maritime States in the fifteenth century. The Liber Cumanus challenges the idea that naval warfare was exclusive to the sea, proving that the skills of Lake Como’s sailors were comparable to those of Italy’s great maritime Republics. This study provides valuable insight into medieval military dynamics in Lombardy.

This contribution illustrates the relations between Emperor Henry VI of Swabia (1190-1197) and Bologna through the analysis of some unpublished imperial documents, currently being published by the «Monumenta Germaniae Historica». The study of these documents sheds light on the political strategy adopted by the Emperor towards Bologna and its territory within the broader context of the clash between the Swabian Empire and the Communes of the Po Valley. The research examines not only Henry VI’s relations with the city of Bologna, in particular with its bishop, Gerard, but also the relations between the imperial power and certain political-institutional realities of the Bolognese territory, such as the presbytery of Santa Maria di Reno and the castle of Monteveglio.

The death of Mehmed II in 1481, amid the Otranto crisis, triggered a Turkish civil war between the Sultan’s sons. The situation raised Genoese hopes of reconquering their lost eastern colonies. The study examines the strategic plans and the decisions of the Genoese government during that period. A secret diplomatic mission reveals the efforts to collaborate with the Tatar Khan of Crimea in an attempt to retake Caffa. The Genoese initially assembled their fleet for the crusade against the Ottomans at Otranto but sought to redirect it toward the eastern Mediterranean. Intelligence gathering on the Turkish civil war played a crucial role in shaping these plans. However, the complexities of the Italian political landscape, ongoing negotiations with the Pope, and Bayezid’s quick consolidation of power upset their execution. Through a network of spies, ambassadors and secret agents, it becomes evident that Genoa was deeply engaged with the East in the late fifteenth century. The so-called «reorientation toward the West» was not the only path under consideration.

The essay presents the heterodox transmission of a poetic text with a courtly flavour produced in the humanistic circles of Bologna in the cultural temperament of the court of Giovanni II Bentivoglio. What makes this testimony of particular interest is the context that accompanies the poetic text. In fact, it is introduced by a prose text that literarily contextualises it, also clarifying the occasion of its composition, and by a drawing that reveals its meaning.

Two old drawings, the first being a plan of the earlier church of Santa Lucia, the second labelled as «Façade of Jesuit college», just recovered from the Archivio di Stato of Bologna and never published until today, gave the opportunity to deepen the early penetration and settlement of the Jesuit order in the urban center and the social life of Bologna, started by mid-1500s and directed, for more than thirty years, by Francesco Palmio, encharged rector of the community, founder and organizer of the schools. By his relentless efforts and multifarious activities, Palmio was able to conquer appreciation and consent, both from the local authorities of the Roman Church and from the upper levels of Bolognese secular society. We must also give him the merit for having laid the foundations of the building complex denominated, even today, insula gesuitica.

The study focused on the writings of the d.s.m. 9. ii Ms. 1, preserved in the Library of the Museum of the Sannio in Benevento, containing the Vaticinia pontificum already attributed to the Calabrian abbot Gioacchino da Fiore. The manuscript tradition was, in particular, the subject of study at the beginning of the 2000s, edited by Hélène Millet, who identified three families of codes: Arundel, Regina and Este; our codex however was not considered. Written by several hands, attributable to a Gothic based model, the manuscript presents realizations that can be ascribed to both the chancery and semigotic type of outcomes. The mutilated codex, based on Millet’s indications could be attributed to the Regina family ; the present writings suggest it can be dated to the first half of fifteenth century. According to the last certain attribution referred to the Pope John XXIII, the manuscript may also have been produced in an Italian environment.