Le reti relazionali degli abati di S. Maria di Farfa, 1045-1125. Analisi diacronica di una costellazione di rapporti in movimento

This paper aims at investigating under what circumstances and for what reasons the abbots of Farfa adjusted their relationship network in a period of structural change (1050–1125). For this abbey, traditionally linked to the rulers but also located near Rome, a context of cooperation between popes and emperors represented the best possible scenario. This becomes particularly clear under Abbot Berard I (1047–1089) who built a wide, qualified and global network of relationships, involving the highestranking figures of Christianity and various players within a Euro-Mediterranean framework. The multiple connections with superregional actors also compensated for the relative weakness of Berard I’s relationship network at a local level. A significantly different picture emerges under Abbot Berard III (1099–1119). New socioeconomic dynamics at a local level increasingly enabled the abbey’s leaseholders, vassals, and 'milites castri' to exert their influence on Farfa. The earlier pattern of relationships narrowed its horizons but locally grew in depth, moving from internationalisation to regionalisation. Rather paradoxically, at that time Farfa provided the Romano-Germanic Empire with unprecedented levels of intellectual, political, logistical, and informational support. A further change occurred in the later years (1119–1125), when the competition among three different candidates to lead the abbey caused the fragmentation of the previous relationship capital. Three main suggestions for future researches come from this case study. Firstly, a moderate – and not radical – revision of the notion of the 'Investiturstreit', eventually postponing the period of highest tension from the earlier to the mature phase of the contest. Secondly, an invitation to reshape the notion of 'Reichsabtei' also in terms of ecclesiology. Thirdly, it seems that the more an actor perceived the processes of change of his time as a deadly threat, the more he became willing to engage in an allround confrontation.