Il monastero di S. Zeno e Berengario: alle fonti di un rapporto speciale

This essay investigates the privileged relationship between King and Emperor Berengar I and the monastery of San Zeno in Verona, situating it within the broader political, religious, and cultural landscape of northern Italy between the late ninth and early tenth centuries. By combining diplomatic analysis of royal charters with a close reading of narrative, hagiographical, and liturgical sources, the authors reconstruct the long-term roots of this connection, tracing them back to the Lombard and Carolingian periods. Particular attention is devoted to the monastery’s role as a focal point of royal patronage, symbolic legitimation, and urban devotion, as well as to its close ties with the episcopal seat of Verona, often designated as the domus sancti Zenonis. The study highlights how Berengar’s repeated concessions and privileges to San Zeno fit within a wider strategy of political consolidation, territorial control, and reward of loyal ecclesiastical actors. A significant contribution of the essay lies in its integration of material and visual evidence—most notably graffiti, inscriptions, and architectural remains from the basilica of San Zeno—which reveal patterns of cultic practice, collective memory, and social participation otherwise invisible in normative documentation. Through this multi-layered approach, the essay demonstrates that the relationship between Berengar and San Zeno was not episodic but structurally embedded in the political culture of the Regnum Italicum, making the monastery a key node in the articulation of power, devotion, and memory in the post-Carolingian world.