Bibliothek des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom

How did Italian, German, and French socialists deal with fascism and National Socialism between 1919 and 1960? This study focuses on the plurality of their experiences, expectations, and memories in the tension between dictatorship and democracy. The volume makes a contribution to the transnational history of the European workers’ movement of the twentieth century.

This study analyzes the military administration established by the US and Great Britain in Sicily, Calabria, and Campania from summer 1943. It identifies the goals, tasks, and practices carried out by the occupying forces, interactions with the Southern Italian population. In particular it examines local features of the occupation, with a special focus on the actions of US occupation officers.

No longer a mere finding aid, the Repertorium Germanicum has become a complex register volume on church and curia history that, together with the sub-project Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum, aims to meet ever increasing demands. This volume addresses new questions to both repertories.

This study draws out the multifaceted impact the religious and political expansions between 800 and 1200 had on the city of Palermo by analyzing how urban spaces transformed under Muslim and Christian rule. This focus provides new insights into local processes of social negotiation which were also of major transregional significance in the (central) Mediterranean.

After experiencing fascism and occupation, did the Jewish community in Rome try to pick up where they had left off before the passing of the Italian racial laws? Or did the Shoah lead to a radical break with the past? This book shows that continuities outweighed breaks by looking at some of the central dimensions of Jewish identity: the attitudes toward Zionism, Israel, and the Italian nation; and the emerging culture of remembrance.

The chronicle of Richard von San Germano is a volume of fundamental significance for the history of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II in Italy. This volume is the first to analyze and explain Richard’s life and work in depth. The chronicle links the history of the Kingdom of Sicily in the twelfth and thirteen centuries with events in the region. It also provides insights into how medieval government worked.

The founding of the Kingdom of Sicily was a conflict-laden and eventful process of upheaval, of which we are informed by two historical works by immediate eye witness: the Ystoria by Alexander of Telese and the Chronicon by Falco of Benevento. For the first time, this study consistently analyzes both texts from the perspective and local context of their creation and with regard to their specific pragmatic function.

The study explores the experiences of Italian Jewish women in the context of Italian politics and society since the inception of the liberal unitary state, during the First World War, and under the fascist dictatorship through 1945. Using sources accessible for the first time, the study casts new light on 19^th- and 20^th-century Italian and Italian-Jewish history and its European and international connections.

In the Middle Ages, Italian communes coordinated their political relations through leagues. The Popes were confronted with this phenomenon as they set up their secular dominion in the 13^th century. The study analyzes the terms and texts of the alliances in the Patrimonium Petri, examines their impact on the region, and investigates how the Roman Church dealt with its subjects’ autonomous interactions.

This study investigates for the first time in detail the specific context for the use of documents prepared for recipients in Italy by the Staufer Frederick II (1198–1250). It compares the texts used for typical writings in communal Italy with the bureaucratic Regnum Siciliae, thereby addressing the issue of the function of written documents with a focus on the symbolic communication of authority.

Between 1750 and 1850, Rome represented a unique crystallization point for the European art market. These conference proceedings examine key players and places and the diverse manifestations of the Roman art market. Discussed topics include local processes of exchange and creative appropriation, negotiations about price and value, and the influence of artists and buyers on the production and reception of visual artworks.

The methodology of cultural history opens new pathways for researching diplomatic figures and structures in the premodern era. However, until now, early modern knowledge cultures have not been researched in terms of their cultural impacts on diplomats and their role in producing knowledge. This volume examines this topic in the context of “spaces of experience” and “places of knowledge production” in early modern diplomacy.

Demonstrating feelings of grief was of great importance in the elite culture of liberal Italy. At the same time, mourning the dead flew in the face of societal trends toward secularization. The study analyzes the background of this ambivalent situation of conflict, examines the role of religion and nation in relation to death, discusses the relationship between body and emotions, and shows how grief was expressed across space.

About 500 years ago, Martin Luther visited Rome. Reflections about his journey often inquire as to its having been a critical factor for the Reformation, a prejudicial perspective often leading to a negative view of the trip and the city. The volume seeks to free up the theme from this paradigm, and to impart a differentiated picture of the city of Rome, Luther’s Roman journey, and the recollected images associated with it.

Once Germany invaded Italy in September 1943, the Jews of Italy became part of the Final Solution. The author examines a brief but important phase of their history by looking at the fate of those Jews who were able save themselves in Switzerland. They became actively engaged in politics, education, and journalism while also providing support to the partisan struggle and to the Jews who remained in occupied Italy.

Martin Luther’s Theses against indulgences (1517) provided the impetus for the Reformation. This volume examines the context of this epochal moment against the backdrop of the extensive campaigns against indulgences that had roiled Church life over the previous two centuries. The essays explore theological, canonical, societal, economic, and cultural aspects of the sale of indulgences in the Late Middle Ages.

Until the 20^th century there were brothels throughout Europe where prostitution was controlled by the state. The study examines factors in the German, French, and Italian parliaments that gave impetus to the abolition of this system. Besides hygienic, moral, and human rights concerns, the discussion also involved questions of security and foreign policy.

For the first time, the book examines the emergence of the Habsburgs as a leading ruling dynasty under Maximilian I from the perspective of its most important diplomats. It analyzes their influence on European power politics, while also describing their career paths and their role as cultural communicators. This perspective from the field of communication history additionally offers insight into the process of diplomatic exchange during the era.

After the demise of the House of Montefeltro in 1508, rule shifted to the House of della Rovere, situated in the small but culturally important and geostrategically well-positioned Duchy of Urbino. This study sheds new light on the hypothesis about the cultural-political rise and fall of the Urbinos in the 16th century.

This study undertakes a detailed examination of the role of chaplains in the Kingdom of Sicily. It analyzes sources and terminology, the chaplains’ life circumstances and areas of activity, and how they were seen by their contemporaries. The study shows that in southern Italy, chapels royal did not function as instruments of royal power. Instead, chaplains exerted influence at an informal level.

In the course of the French expansion around 1800 large territories were incorporated into the Empire and, one by one, affected by the reforms of the Revolution. This volume seeks to redefine the character of Napoleonic rule, engaged in conquest and integration, by examining key themes such as geography and politics, society and war, economy and environment. The geographic focus extends from the Rhineland and Switzerland to southern Italy.

In early modern Rome, thousands of Protestants converted to Roman Catholicism. Based on numerous unpublished Vatican sources, this study examines the institutional, political, and religious aspects of this phenomenon as well as the individual fate of the converts. This approach illustrates that the history of conversions provides a fruitful starting point for exploring aspects of cultural contact, exchange, and adaptation.

The Alexandrine Schism (1159–1177) has generally been interpreted as a conflict between Pope Alexander III and Frederick I Barbarossa. In contrast to past research, this study uses private documents to examine different perceptions of this ecclesiastical crisis and explore the strategies of action pursued by those on lower levels of political power in dealing with demands for absolute obedience.

2008 marked the 150th birthday of Nobel Laureate Ludwig Quidde, who led the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome from 1890 to 1892. During his time there, he initiated the Repertorium Germanicum, which remains one of the most important undertakings in pure historical research to this day. This anthology pays tribute to Ludwig Quidde’s life and work, focusing in particular on his activities within the peace movement.

After its foundation on November 14, 1960, the Musicology Department of the German Historical Institute in Rome very soon developed into a forum for the interaction of experts in “Italian” and “German” musicology and became an important meeting place for researchers, both nationally and internationally. On the occasion of the Department’s 50th anniversary, this volume presents a collection of contributions that deal with its history and activities against the backdrop of academic and cultural-political discourses.

This study is the first extensive scholarly treatise on the Chapter of St. Peter’s in the Vatican since the 18th century. It analyzes the statutes of the Chapter, its prosopographical composition as well as the relationship to the popes. The appendix contains concise biographies of the canons and an edition of the two oldest interest registers of the Chapter of St. Peter’s. A comparison with the chapters of St. Giovanni in Laterano and St. Maria Maggiore reveals the outstanding position of the Chapter of St. Peter’s with respect to the structure of the city and to the Curia.

Santa Maria del’Anima has existed for over 600 years. Besides the Campo Santo Teutonico, the hospice and church are among the main stops for pilgrims from the Northern Alpine region. Processes of cultural transfer have always been associated with pilgrimages, which have not only been a key focus of Rome-oriented research, but also of great interest to research with a more modern cultural historical orientation. This volume explores different aspects of the institution’s history, spanning various epochs and from an interdisciplinary perspective.

How did family, relatives and friends grieve for the dead of the First World War? What were the forms in which the dead were remembered in families and local communities? How was death in action interpreted, and how were the bereaved comforted? The book deals with these questions using Italy as its exemplar. It takes as its sources the commemorative volumes which were widely published by middle-class families and their friends for individuals killed in action. They provide a unique testimony of how “the great seminal catastrophe of this century” and the trauma of death in war were processed in the European middle classes.

The constitution issue exercised 19th century Europe, particularly in 1848/49. Even before the outbreak of the revolution, the four monarchs of the Italian territorial states reacted to pressure and proclaimed constitutions. The present study is concerned with their genesis, their contents and the models on which they were based. At the same time, it analyses the actors involved, their intentions, the latitude they had, and the means and procedures adopted in giving the constitution and demanding one. Thus a complete socio-historical picture is formed of a European phenomenon in its Italian manifestation.

In the period from 1268 to 1271 the Church was without a Head; for nearly three years, the cardinals were unable to agree on a successor for the deceased Pope Clemens IV. The study examines the causes and effects of the longest sede vacante in the history of the Church up to the present day. What split the College of Cardinals above all was the territorial political rivalries between the Italian cardinals. Nonetheless, the cardinals were able to agree on common action in the administration of the Papal States, on the appointment of bishops and the despatch of Papal Legates.

The Norman conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily heralds a significant epoch in European and German history. In this, Count Roger I. made a contribution to the rise of the Norman Sicilian kingdom which goes far beyond the conquest of a territorial power-base. It was due to his realistic and considered policies that the heterogeneous Sicilian conditions could be stabilised and the various cultural, religious and ethnic groupings within the population could be integrated under Norman rule.

For 17th and 18th century Bavaria, the political and diplomatic relations with the Papacy were one of the most important constants in its foreign policy. The Bavarian Legation in Rome was the central conduit for representing Bavaria’s interests there. Bettina Scherbaum examines the time, staffing and organisational frameworks of the legation and elaborates its manifold activities and functions. Her study affords detailed insights into the practice of diplomacy in one of the most important European diplomatic centres of that time.

This collection documents the contributions made to an international colloquium organized in Rome in 2005 by the German Historical Institute on the subject of the international relations entertained by the Roman curia under Paul V Borghese. The proceedings were based on the three-volume edition of the main directives of this pontificate by Silvano Giordano published in 2003. Alongside more general issues (implementation of the reforms adopted at the Council of Trent, jurisdiction, military matters, the relationship between micro- and macro-politics), there is also discussion of the (confessional) political contacts between Rome and the main territories of the orbis catholicus (legations, nunciatures), including those outside Europe.

From 1158 to 1162 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa waged war on Milan in an attempt to assert his imperial rights in Upper Italy. This study is the first to examine the military history of that period. The central issues are the controllability of high-medieval warfare as a political resource in the hands of Frederick I and the use of military technology for sieges, which together with devastation campaigns were the main form of hostility resorted to. The findings of recent studies on the medieval history of warfare are applied to the situation in Lombardy and examined for their validity.

The influence of the Popes on the choice of recipients for prebends in the Middle Ages is the subject of controversy among scholars. This EDP-assisted study is designed to supply a more accurate picture of the influence the curia wanted, and was able, to exert on the award of benefices in the sacrum imperium. A comparison of the provisions identifiable in the papal registers with the actual local incumbents produces a surprising result: for almost all kinds of benefice in the empire, papal influence was in fact much less marked than has frequently been supposed.

The volume assembles most of the papers presented at the conference of the same name at the German Historical Institute in Rome from 29 to 31 October 2003. They provide both general outlines of German-Italian relations in the post-war era, with special reference to cultural policy, and individual descriptions of the fate undergone by German institutes and libraries in Rome: the German Historical Institute, the German Archeological Institute, the Roman Institute of the Görres Society, the Villa Massimo, the Bibliotheca Hertziana, the German Library (later the Goethe Institute), and the German School.

The reign of William II of Sicily (1166-1189) was regarded both by contemporaries and by subsequent generations as a Golden Age in the Norman empire. The present study aims at a critical stocktaking and an overall assessment of William II as king. On the basis of documentary and narrative sources it takes a close look at the various sectors of royal activity - administration and law, urban and ecclesiastical policy, business and trade, the status of Muslims and Greeks, the representation of power, and foreign policy. The image that takes shape is that of a decisive king who was at the same time greatly enamored of regal pomp.

In the 19th century one of the notions widely entertained by Italian scholars was that Dante (1265-1321) was an early champion of national unity. This study is the first to examine this process of national reinterpretation from the French Revolution to Italy's involvement in the First World War. It takes a close and detailed look at academic and political debates, Dante festivals, societies, monuments, and instruction in schools. It shows how the national cult of Dante was able to spread through all regions of the country until 1861 but encountered increasing resistance after the foundation of the Italian nation state.

This volume collects the contributions to an international conference held in March 2003 at the German Historical Institute in Rome. In the history of canon law, the late medieval period has been consistently neglected in comparison with the so-called classical epoch. Now historians and jurists want to cast new light on the later period. Dealing with individual institutions and legal subjects, the authors try to define general tendencies in canon law and relate them to the heuristic query reflected in the title of the volume. Special attention is given to the institutions of the Roman curia and its legal practice. The hitherto underestimated value for the history of canon law of the curial sources published by the German Historical Institute in Rome (»Repertorium Germanicum« and »Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum«) is emphasized.

This book draws on the files contained in numerous archives with a view to transposing for the first time the study of the political use of patronage and clientele relations and social networks (micropolitics) from internal power structures in early modern polities to the relations of those polities with other states. The central focus is on the wide-ranging interaction between the Roman curia of Pope Paul V. (1605-1621) and his family, on the one hand, and Spain (including Naples and Milan) and the financial centre Genoa, closely associated with Spain, on the other.

Historical societies are part of the social development observable in all European countries. The present comparative study examines the memberships, activities, social aspects, and historical images of such societies in Germany and Italy throughout the 19th century. These societies were much less bourgeois than one might initially suppose. In many areas, the aristocracy was the prime mover, both in Germany and in Italy. The societies were devoted to the cultivation of a very regional form of historical culture. National history, by contrast, was given little attention.

18 December 1935 was the date of what was almost certainly the Italian Fascist regime's most elaborate act of self-dramatization. In the course of an unprecedented donation campaign to finance the war in Ethiopia, millions of Italian couples traded in their wedding rings for worthless metal replicas. The study is the first to cast light on the background to this remarkable event. In it, the collective sacrifice of wedding rings is foregrounded as a key factor in the understanding of fundamental aspects of Fascism - notably the central significance of militarism as an instrument of political mobilization on the domestic front.

The study focuses on the earthquakes of 5 June 1688 and 14 March 1702 in Benevento, an enclave of the Papal States in the monarchy of Naples. In a multi-perspective analysis, it discusses the mental, political, and socio-economic attempts of the elites in local government and the Papal States to cope with these events. Response to these earthquakes proves to be an essential element in the struggle for supremacy, finally decided in his favour by the Archbishop of Benevento, Cardinal V.M. Orisini (later Pope Benedict XIII), who in contemporary historiography was feted as the ‘saviour of Benevento’.

In one of the largest cities of western Christendom, the trading metropolis Venice, writing and reading had ceased to be the preserve of the clerical body as early as the 11th and 12th centuries. Several thousand Venetian documents from the period prior to 1200 reveal that large sectors of the population already had elementary writing skills. The study examines the use made of writing by merchants, the role of the written medium in everyday Venetian life, and schools and teachers in Venice. The study is the first to provide detailed insight into the progress of literacy in a major medieval European city.

In the late Middle Ages, the post of canon of Magdeburg cathedral assured its incumbents material security, political influence, and prestige. Accordingly, it was one of the most attractive church appointments in all central Germany. On the basis of the Papal registers in the Vatican and documents preserved in Magdeburg itself, the study inquires into the methods employed by clerics to thwart their rivals in the bid for appointment to the chapter. Comparative analysis reveals the legal parameters and the social relations operative in the allocation of these stipends in the 14th and 15th centuries.

In the 12th century, notarial documents in Upper and Central Italy achieved the status of fides (publica/maxima, plena or plenissima). The study proceeds from the observation that this term implied not only 'internal evidence'/'probatory force' but also 'faith'/'trust' and 'credibility'. With reference to the standing of individual notaries, the deposition of documents, the choice of location and witnesses, and intervention on the part of local urban governments, it goes on to trace the formation of trust in documentary procedures, the factors this trust was based on, and the processes of change it underwent.

Three case studies trace the history of urban fraternities in the church state of the 14th and 15th centuries. The central example is Viterbo, a commune on the Via Francigena to the north of Rome, where, after an enthusiastic start, the development of flagellant and other fraternities displayed a more subdued development in the subsequent course of events. The comparison with Orvieto and Assisi, where economic and political conditions were similar but the ecclesiastical background was very different, indicates that the structure of local churches is the main factor determining the history of late medieval fraternities.

Between 1943 and 1945 there were almost half a million Italian military internees working in the German arms industry. Their recruitment for this purpose represents the final major stage of National Socialist policy in the employment of foreign workers. On the basis of in-depth archive studies, oral and written inquiries and the relevant memoir literature, the volume provides a detailed survey of the social context in which these prisoners lived and worked. In so doing it casts light not only on decision-making processes in the ultimate stages of the National Socialist era but also on the effects disparate policies had on the lives of the affected group. The book appears doubly topical against the backdrop of the ongoing discussion about appropriate recompense for forced labor victims.

The 14th century was the high-point of German mercenary activity in the service of Italian princes and cities. For the first time in 60 years, this study addresses the multifarious implications of this intriguing subject. On the basis of newly discovered sources, it analyzes the general parameters defining international mercenary service in 14th century Italy and describes the life-situations of German mercenaries in war and peacetime. Inquiry into the motives of the mercenaries extends the purview to their geographical origins north of the Alps.

In an alphabetic catalogue the volume lists the Roman churches described in the most important medieval guide for pilgrims to Rome, the »Indulgentiae ecclesiarum orbis Romae«, a source hitherto remarkably neglected by historical research. The list begins with the 7 main churches in Rome, followed by some 170 further places of worship. In each case the information found in the medieval sources is grouped under different headings (e.g. Relics, Indulgences, Interiors/Features). The catalogue thus provides a swift overview of the knowledge available in the late Middle Ages about Rome's churches and their characteristic features.

The study examines Italy between 1935 and 1963 with reference to the high-speed structural transformation in that period, technological renovation, reconstruction after the War, Italy's participation in European integration, and the features of the Italian 'economic miracle'. The findings point to continuities in structural change and economic policy in the transition from a semi-agrarian to an industrial economy. From 1935 to 1963 the dominant strategy was neo-mercantile and implemented most forcibly by the technocrats, who had risen to great power. Thus it is the year 1963, and not 1945 or 1950, which represents the central divide in 20th century Italian economic history.

The external relations entertained by the Curia have always been a focal point of research interest. This volume can justly claim to stand as the first comparative study at the European level. On the basis of sources taken from the Vatican Archives it concentrates on beneficiary systems, financial levies and international policy with special reference to Borgia pope Calixtus III, Cibo pope Innocent VIII and Medici pope Leo X. The results are set in relation to the church and Curia policies of the Catholic nations and the widespread criticism of the Curia prevalent at the time. Of special moment here are Spain and above all France.

The 18 authors in this volume, which presents the fruits of a conference of the German Historical Institute in Rome, are specialists in history, archaeology, musicology and art history. Their joint concern is to delineate how Italy was experienced, perceived, presented and evaluated in the German-speaking culture of the 19th century. From the different perspectives of the various disciplines represented, the articles both reflect the biographical constellations and the institutional parameters involved and study the experiences of Italy gathered in the risorgimento period not only by scholars, journalists and artists but also by craftsmen and beggars, examining the preconditions and the effects of those experiences against the backdrop of the history of ideas.

The study examines the appointments to the office of Bishop in two Italian church provinces (Milan and Salerno) in the period from 1676 to 1903. It covers the legal and political parameters, the state and ecclesiastical bodies selecting the candidates, and the social prerequisites for advancement to higher church orders. The study draws on extensive material from the Vatican archives on the personnel policy of the Roman curia from the pontificate of Innocent XI to that of Leo XIII and casts an unusual light both on the relations between the Papacy and the Italian states and on the social history of the Roman Church.

Most of the medieval documents stemming from Italy were written by notaries. Here the history of notaryship is viewed from a comparative perspective encompassing the whole of the Regnum Italiae. The existing normative and documentary source material is drawn upon in its full range and scope, including a prosopographic study of the notaries themselves. From this perspective the Tuscan city of Lucca displaces Genoa and Bologna as a pioneering centre. From 1120/30 onward the notaries not only wrote the documents, they also filed them in their archival registers. Today, the comparison of the body of parchment documents and the notarial registers shows what and how much of the former volume of source material is still extant. A complete collection of notarial emblems illustrates the way in which ornamental practice of the day was subject to regional and fashionable influences.

Papal collectors recovered monies due from the clergy to the Apostolic Chamber and in the late Middle Ages were an important factor in the communication between the Papacy and the Church as a whole, particularly as in some countries they assumed the functions of diplomatic representatives. The study examines all aspects of collectorship including a comparison of the financial revenue it yielded it different European countries. The volume also includes a prosopographic study of the collectors and sub-collectors in the German-speaking areas of Europe, complete with bibliographic references on the members of this group.

After St. Peter's, S. Giovanni in Laterano and S. Maria Maggiore were the most important collegiate churches in Rome. Among their clergy in the 14th century were canons regular whose descent from usually prominent Roman families has been largely uninvestigated up till now. Using the prosopographic method (i.e. collating all available information on a group of persons) it is possible to reconstruct important elements of the social, cultural and economic environment of these priests. This in its turn yields new insights on the higher Roman clergy in the Middle Ages.

The Colonnas were among the most prominent families in medieval Rome. Between 1278 and 1348 three members of the College of Cardinals came from within their ranks, thus giving them a preeminent position at the curia, the Papal court. The author shows how such a family cardinal could make use of the prebend market to provide his relatives, the members of his household (the so-called familiares) and the further clientèle of his family with sources of income from the Church. The study also extends to cover the 30 years up to the outbreak of the schism in 1378, showing how the Colonnas contrived to offset the loss of an intermediary between themselves and the curia.

The volume contains 22 papers delivered at an international colloquium on the present state and future prospects of research on nunciature reports which took place at the German Historical Institute in Rome, 9-12 October 1996. As in the case of similar conferences at the Institute in the past (in 1971 and 1985), the colloquium assembled historians whose concern with the nunciature reports (a permanent research priority at the Institute) is both editorial and investigative. On this occasion the editing problems were given less prominence, the overriding topic being how research can be used for more far-reaching studies. In the papers themselves, the customary preoccupation with the central items of traditional nunciatorial correspondence is balanced by a noticeable upswing in recent research centering on the Papal Instructions.

This is the first comprehensive exploration of agricultural policy in Fascist Italy. Drawing on a wealth of sources, it describes the major agricultural campaigns of the Fascists and situates them in the economic and social context of the times. A further central focus is on the ideological notions fueling Fascist 'ruralism' and the question of the exercise of power in rural areas. It transpires that the policy of autarchy was in itself largely successful, whereas the regime's objectives in the field of social and settlement policy came to nothing. After initially effective mobilization drives, the mid thirties saw an increasing loss of identification with Fascism among the rural population.

The Hohenstaufen king Frederick II was a figure of all but mythical dimensions. The 800th anniversary of his birth in 1994 was noted with particular interest in Italy, where Frederick reigned as King of Sicily from 1198. Later, as Emperor, he also gave Italy a prominent place in his policies. The German Historical Institute in Rome decided to mark this anniversary by organizing a large-scale review of the present state of research on the power claims implicit in Frederick's policy towards Italy and the implementation of those claims. Thus the 25 articles making up these conference proceedings pay as much attention to the latest editorial ventures as to ongoing discussion about the efficiency and modernity of the King of Sicily's administrative and economic reforms. Other major topics dealt with in the volume are the cultural setting, the religious mood of the epoch, the repercussions that Emperor Frederick's power claims had on Italian regions such as Tuscany and Romagna, and the architecture of the Hohenstaufen fortresses in Southern Italy.

In an initial evaluation of the source material contained in RPG IV (cf. Neuerscheinungen 1995/II, p. 60) the editors analyze 4028 regesta from German-speaking areas recorded by the Penitentiary during the pontificate of Pius II. (1458-1464). This is the first time the registers of the supreme Papal tribunal on penance and dispensations have been examined in this way and it provides an entirely new perspective on the religious situation in the mid 15th century.

In diesem Buch wird das Privatleben der über 700 Familien betrachtet, die in den anderthalb Jahrhunderten vor dem Ende der Republik den venezianischen Adelskörper gebildet haben. Unter Rückgriff auf Kirchenbücher, Haushaltszählungen, Testamente und andere serielle Quellen werden die demographischen Schicksale, das Heiratsverhalten sowie die sehr eigentümlichen Familien- und Haushaltsstrukturen rekonstruiert. In den vermögenden Familien, welche die Schalthebel der politischen Macht monopolisierten, blieben in den meisten Fällen noch bis zum Untergang der Republik selbst so persönliche Entscheidungen wie Heirat oder Ehelosigkeit, Wahl des Ehegatten, das Leben in einem eigenen Haushalt oder in einer Fraterna mit allen männlichen Verwandten (unter Verzicht auf wirtschaftliche Unabhängigkeit) den Geboten der Familienräson untergeordnet. Denn um einen ehrenvollen Platz im öffentlichen Leben und in der Adelspyramide zu behaupten, mußten die Familien geeint und ihr Besitz ungeteilt bleiben und durften nicht mehr Söhne heiraten, als für die Fortdauer der Familie in einer einzigen Linie unerläßlich schienen. Hautpsächlich daran, daß die reichen Familien die Anzahl der für die Fortdauer notwendigen Ehen zu knapp kalkulierten, lag es, wenn im Verlauf von anderthalb Jahrhunderten über die Hälfte von ihnen erlosch. Einer völlig anderen Strategie folgte dagegen eine Minderheit von Adeligen oder 'Plebejern', die munter drauflos heirateten und so viele Kinder in die Welt setzten, daß auf sie am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts fast zwei Drittel der Sitze im Großen Rat entfielen. Dieses Anwachsen eines adligen Proletariats, das fast ausschließlich von Sinekuren und staatlichen Almosen lebte, zerstörte vollends den inneren Zusammenhalt des Adelskörpers und schwächte die politische Handlungsfähigkeit der tausendjährigen Republik so sehr, daß sie 1797 kampflos vor dem korsischen Aggresor kapitulierte.

This study delineates and investigates the structure of crime in the city of Rome in the late 16th century, with research methods developed in Britain, America and France applied here for the first time to Italy. The objective of this study is less to point up the interaction between delinquency and ruling class repression than to inquire into the causes behind the obviously endemic and staggeringly high rate of crimes of violence in Rome, which far exceeds anything to be found in contemporary crime records for other cities of the period.

Um die Wende zum 13. Jahrhundert erfolgte an der sozialen Spitze der römischen Bevölkerung ein umfassendes Revirement, ein gesellschaftlicher Umbruch, in dem praktisch nichts beim Alten belassen wurde. Die bis dahin dominierenden Geschlechter mußten weitgehend zurücktreten. Für sie kam eine neue Gruppe von Familien, unter ihnen die Orsini, die Conti und die Annibaldi, etwas später auch die Savelli und die Colonna. Sie sollten die Geschichte Roms das ganze Spätmittelalter hindurch und noch weit darüber hinaus entscheidend mitbestimmen. Die Entstehung dieses neuen Adels, die naturgemäß mit einem tiefgreifenden sozialen Wandel und hoher sozialer Mobilität verbunden war, ist ein wesentlicher Gegenstand des Buches.

Die Vorgehensweise der Abhandlung ist zweigleisig. Der zeitliche Rahmen wird von den Eckdaten 1191 und 1268 abgesteckt. Ein erster Hauptteil widmet sich vornehmlich dem römischen Adel in seiner Zusammensetzung. Im Zentrum stehen hier unterschiedlich ausführliche genealogische und prosopographische Abrisse der Geschichte von 42 adligen oder adelsähnlichen Familien und Verwandtschaftsgruppen. In einem zweiten, chronologisch ausgerichteten Hauptteil werden die politischen Entwicklungen in Rom unter dem Leitgedanken der adligen Vorherrschaft detailliert beschrieben und dabei die politischen Grundhaltungen im römischen Adel, auch in ihrer Abhängigkeit von den sozialen Prozessen, aufgezeigt. Dem Kräftedreieck von römischem Adel, Papsttum und Kaisertum kommt in diesem Zusammenhang besondere Bedeutung zu.

Die Abtei SS. Trinità di Venosa (bei Melfi, Provinz Potenza) wurde als Hauskloster und Grablege der normannischen Herzogsfamilie der Hauteville um 1040 gegründet. Während der Herrschaft Robert Guiscards (1057-1085) erreichte sie unter dem normannischen Abt Berengar große Bedeutung. Mit der Verlagerung des Zentrums der normannischen Herrschaft nach Sizilien verlor sie allmählich an Bedeutung. 1297 wurde sie von Papst Bonifaz VIII. aufgelöst.

Da sich aus ihr Urkunden und erzählende Quellen erhalten haben, die in der vorliegenden Studie im Anhang ediert werden, wurde sie als Ausgangspunkt für eine vergleichende Untersuchung der Rolle der Benediktinerklöster in Süditalien vom 11. bis 13. Jahrhundert gewählt.

Es zeigt sich, daß die Bedeutung des benediktinischen Mönchtums seit dem 12. Jahrhundert langsam zurückging, ein eigentlicher Niedergang aber erst im 13. Jahrhundert einsetzte. Die Gründe dafür liegen u.a. in der Isolierung der Abteien von der sich wandelnden Gesellschaft, in der die Bettelorden den geänderten religiösen Bedürfnissen der Laien entgegenkamen.