This paper analyzes how Italian scholarly literature on the early Middle Ages, produced over the last forty years, focuses on culture, political languages, and Christian society. This analysis highlights the marginal role of such researches within the Italian medieval studies, and the need to sustain the study of ecclesiology, theological controversies and biblical exegesis, as it happens in the wider European area (where some of these research fields have already been searched and abandoned, some are just emerging now). The Carolingian society perceived itself as Ecclesia, namely as a society guided by Christian values, in which the sacraments marked the main stages of life, and the social roles of kings, counts, and fathers of families were understood and shaped as religious duties. The reference to Christian principles were dominated a wide range of fields: political and economic languages, processes of construction of historical memory, as well as of ethnic and political identities, and of space (often perceived as defined by sacred places). But at the same time, starting from the ninth century, the concept of ecclesia has been increasingly used to designate not only the Christian community, but mainly the sacred building where the faithful gathered. The "Middle Ages of the Cathedrals" was born, while an ecclesiastical territoriality was defined in more precise terms.

Il contributo analizza gli studi condotti negli ultimi decenni sulla cultura, i linguaggi politici e la società cristiana dell'Alto Medioevo, evidenziando il ruolo marginale di tali ricerche nella medievistica italiana,e l'esigenza di sviluppare filoni di ricerca (talora già avviati e poi abbandonati, talora emergenti tra gli studi d'oltralpe) sull'ecclesiologia, sulle controversie teologiche, sullʼesegesi biblica. La società carolingia percepiva se stessa come Ecclesia, ossia come una società guidata dai valori cristiani, nella quale i sacramenti scandivano le principali tappe della vita ed i ruoli sociali dei re, dei conti, dei padri di famiglia si configuravano come ministeri "pastorali". I linguaggi politici ed economici ed i processi di costruzione della memoria storica, delle identità etniche e politiche e dello spazio (percepito come uno spazio incentrato su luoghi sacri) erano dominati dal richiamo ai principi cristiani. Al tempo stesso il termine ecclesia è stato sempre più sistematicamente utilizzato, a partire dal IX secolo, per designare non solo la comunità cristiana, ma soprattutto l'edificio sacro in cui si riunivano i fedeli: si andava delineando il "Medioevo delle cattedrali", mentre si definiva in termini più precisi una territorialità ecclesiastica.

Cultura, linguaggi politici e società nell’alto medioevo

Raffaele Savigni
2019

Abstract

This paper analyzes how Italian scholarly literature on the early Middle Ages, produced over the last forty years, focuses on culture, political languages, and Christian society. This analysis highlights the marginal role of such researches within the Italian medieval studies, and the need to sustain the study of ecclesiology, theological controversies and biblical exegesis, as it happens in the wider European area (where some of these research fields have already been searched and abandoned, some are just emerging now). The Carolingian society perceived itself as Ecclesia, namely as a society guided by Christian values, in which the sacraments marked the main stages of life, and the social roles of kings, counts, and fathers of families were understood and shaped as religious duties. The reference to Christian principles were dominated a wide range of fields: political and economic languages, processes of construction of historical memory, as well as of ethnic and political identities, and of space (often perceived as defined by sacred places). But at the same time, starting from the ninth century, the concept of ecclesia has been increasingly used to designate not only the Christian community, but mainly the sacred building where the faithful gathered. The "Middle Ages of the Cathedrals" was born, while an ecclesiastical territoriality was defined in more precise terms.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/726598
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