The Templar Order in North-west Italy (1142-c.1330)

This book provides the first reconstruction of the Templar presence in North-west Italy. Based on extensive archival searches, it gives general insights into the development and organization of the Order in this area, also examining the links between the Templar houses and the Latin East and their involvement in the struggle between Papacy and Empire. Recruitment, relations with lay and ecclesiastical institutions and the activities of the Templar settlements are highlighted as significant factors in shaping the particular development of the Order in the region. The trial records also confirm the special nature of the Temple’s establishment in North-west Italy where the vicissitudes of the Templars on trial were intertwined with local factionalism, and positive relations with lay and ecclesiastical authorities continued and in some places even defeated the charges leveled against the Order.

Elena Bellomo, Ph.D. (2001) in Medieval History, Università Cattolica-Milano, is currently teaching at Rutgers University. Her publications focus on the Crusades, the Military Orders and Medieval Genoa including A servizio di Dio e del Santo Sepolcro. Caffaro e l’Oriente latino (Padua, 2003).

'... no serious scholar of the Templars can afford to be without it, and Bellomo has proven her right to be considered among the best of those scholars".
Paul F. Crawford. Review of Bellomo, Elena, The Templar Order in North-West Italy (1142-c.1330). H-German, H-Net Reviews. May, 2011.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=26182
"Ein grosses Desideratum der Templerforschung stellen Monographien über Kommenden in einzelnen Regionen dar... liegt ein Werk vor, das als Muster für andere Regionen nicht nur Italiens gelten darf".
K.B., Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 65,1 (2009), 331-2
"...I Templari «lombardi» della Bellomo costituiscono uno dei tasselli di un vasto mosaico italiano,europeo e mediterraneo e offrono una buona occasione per migliorare le conoscenze sia sulla storia che sul territorio."
Kristjan Toomaspoeg, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa, LXIII/2 (2009)
"...Yet at the same time, particularly in the last twenty years, scholars have been engaged in the extremely important work of reconstructing the history of the order of the Templars under rigorous scientific standards. A valuable addition is Elena Bellomo's Templar Order in North-West Italy (1142-c.1330)...The author's archival work is remarkable and one of the book's strongest assests; she skilfully brings to light numerous unpublished documents by means of which she uncovers unknown facets of the history of the order in the region... To conclude, Elena Bellomo's book breaks new ground in the study of the order of the Termplars in Italy and in history in general."
Judith Bronstein (University of Haifa), Speculum 84/3 (2009), pp. 671-672
"...This extraordinary monograph is the fruit of the author's doctoral research and thesis completed at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, and later at the University of Padua... Her bibliography runs to almost forty pages, and is in itself, a marvellous resource to virtually all primary and secondary sources on the Order of the Militia of the Temple in north-west Italy, and to a large degree, on Italian Templars throughout Italy... This monumental work on the Templars in north-west Italy is by far the most useful, well researched, and complete book on the topic. Every serious library and every scholar interested in the Military Orders in Italy at this time must obtain access to this work. One may only hope that the author or others will provide equally detailed studies of the Order of the Knighthood of the Temple in other parts of Italy."
Anne Gilmour-Bryson (University of Melbourne), Crusades 8 (2009) pp. 213-214