Edizioni FrancoAngeli - Last issue of SOCIETÀ E STORIA (140/2013)

The composite seigneury. Seignorial powers at Montevergine from Normans to Swabians (second half of the twelfth century - first half of the thirteenth century)

Thu, 15 May 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Potito d'Arcangelo
The paper focuses on the political, social and economic aspects of the seignorial power held by the rich abbey of Montevergine (Mercogliano, Avellino) nearby mount Partenio between the second half of the twelfth century and the first half of the thirteenth century. Until now, few scholars have turned their attention to Montevergine, in spite of the fact that several survey articles dedicated to feudalism in southern Italy are partly bassed on documents concerning the abbey. What emerges is an astonishingly complex reality, which is impossible to comprehend only considering the well-known grant of jurisdictional power by Emperor Henry VI dated 1195. In a restricted space, Montevergine experimented with different ways to build its seignorial power around two distinct settlements, the castle of Mercogliano and the casale of the Hospital, not so far from each other and destined to be included in a single manor, but able to perpetuate themselves until the middle of the thirteenth century.

The monetary decline of a dominion. The reforms of the last Scaligeri lords

Thu, 15 May 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Federico Pigozzo
The lordship over Verona and Vicenza by the three last members of the Scaligeri family is examined through monetary policy and the reform of the offices in charge of the mint. At the end of Cansignorio’s government, a new authority was attributed to the administration in order to boost silver coin production. When Cansignorio’s sons Bartolomeo II and Antonio became governors, new coinages were made to effectively represent the refined characteristics of the Della Scala dynasty as well as to promote economic exchanges through coins which could be more easily used in transactions. In the final period of Antonio’s administration there was a further growth of the financial offices of Verona and Vicenza but they were unable to make good use of the potential of the mint activity in order to finance the rising military costs. Following the defeat of the Scaligeri family and the occupation of the Visconti family the currency lost all connection to the effective Veronese currency and was transformed into a ‘fossil currency’: it would continue to exist in this form even after the Venetian conquer.

The Society of Jesus, the war and the image of the soldier from Ignatius to Possevino (1546-1569)

Thu, 15 May 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Gianclaudio Civale
Analyzing the language of early Jesuit writings, the essay examines the representation of the Society of Jesus as a spiritual militia and the justification of the use of arms within a more complex campaign of religious conquest waged against heretics and infidels. With the participation of the first Jesuits in the Spanish armies involved, in the mid-sixteenth century, in the Mediterranean theatre of war against the Turks and Barbary corsairs, the Order developed a particular pastoral sensitivity towards men-atarms. This concern, under the direction of Francis Borgia (1510-1572), third Jesuit General, led to a structural commitment of the Society in the Catholic armies. In the transition from confrontation with the Muslims to European confessional conflicts, one of the most significant advances of the Jesuit attitude towards the military lay in the adoption of religion as a ‘disciplining’ resource, in order to maintain cohesive and motivated armies. In the France of the first wars of religion, the works and the apostolate of Jesuits such as Emond Auger (1530-1591) and Antonio Possevino (1533-1611) led to the rise, on both confessional sides, of a common requirement of "moralization" of the profession of arms and to a parallel effort to put religious observance at the base of martial discipline. This phenomenon could be regarded as an attempt to the "confessionaliza tion" of the military profession aimed at the definition of a new model of an ideal soldier, which lies between the decline of chivalry and the looming neostoic archetype delineated by Justus Lipsius.

Pilgrims and alms in Loreto between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries

Thu, 15 May 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Marco Moroni
The essay focuses on the economic aspect of pilgrimage. The case analyzed is the Holy House of Loreto, which after the Council of Trent imposes itself as the largest Marian shrine of Catholic Europe. After listing the essential stages in the gradual rise of the Loreto cult, from the fourteen century to the final triumph in the two decades following the mid-fifteenth century, the essay analyzes the evolution of the pilgrim phenomenon. When the flow of pilgrims takes on mass dimensions, the urge is to provide not only religious services, but also reception services to meet their needs. The paper then focuses on the theme of alms. In the case of Loreto it is possible to quantify accurately (for almost four centuries: from the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury to the early twentieth century) the flow of offerings left by pilgrims in the coffers of the sanctuary of the Holy House. It is a very detailed and extremely significant record, enabling us not only to understand the inner financing of a large sanctuary, but also to outline a kind of trend in the religious behaviour of Europe during the modern age. These data should not be overvalued, due to the problems of interpretation they raise, but anyway they have an unquestionable value. In the last half-century researching historians have been searching for quantitative indicators that would allow a serial study of religious attitudes and practices: the Loreto records can now offer a supplementary contribution in this direction.

Genova e Napoleone 1805-1814

Thu, 15 May 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Maria Elisabetta Tonizzi
From June 1805 to April 1814 Genoa was annexed to the Napoleonic Empire and underwent a process of modernization, intense but effective in the long run. Unlike other important Italian cities subjected to the French domination, this phase of the Genoese history has never been extensively researched. The related body of literature is extremely small and fragmented and an updated compendium does not exist. Drawing on the few available studies and some primary sources, the author aims at providing a preliminary outline of the actual effectiveness in the most important sectors (i.e. institutions, élite composition, economy and infrastructures, education and others) and of the impact on the different social segments of the modernization the Napoleonic regime brought about.

Abstracts

Thu, 15 May 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Schede

Thu, 15 May 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Libri ricevuti

Thu, 15 May 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Elisa Marazzi