Fulgens regina: modelli femminili nella scrittura storica longobarda

FULGENS REGINA. FEMALE MODELS IN LOMBARD HISTORIOGRAPHY The female models depicted in Lombard historiography will be examined assuming that not always the figures represented in historical and narrative texts have truly played an equal role to their subsequent fame in chronological basis reference. And, on the other hand, it is also the case of events and central figures on certain epochs that, in the shared memory creation processes, have suffered an actual removal process, until they were forgotten and somehow deleted from history as if they had never existed. Ermengarde and some Lombard queens knew different modes of variation in the continuous changing process of formation of historical memory: in some cases, their figure was amplified or even re-invented - as it happened for the young wife of Charlemagne - in other cases it was resized, in certain others it remained adherent to their effective role in contemporary society. Broadly it is possible to identify, within the Lombard textuality, two predominant female models: the queen legitimizing the kingship and holder of a real power of mediation and political negotiation; the woman as prey or loot, or instrument of a male action that, even when makes her become queen, keeps her in a state of awe or outrage. The alternation of these models and the potential dominance of one of the two are the core of this brief analysis.