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Profile of a Plant: the Olive in Early Medieval Italy, 400-900 CE By Profile of a Plant: The Olive in Early Medieval Italy, 400-900 CE by Benjamin Jon Graham A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Professor Paolo Squatriti, Chair Associate Professor Diane Owen Hughes Professor Richard P. Tucker Professor Raymond H. Van Dam © Benjamin J. Graham, 2014 Acknowledgements Planting an olive tree is an act of faith. A cultivator must patiently protect, water, and till the soil around the plant for fifteen years before it begins to bear fruit. Though this dissertation is not nearly as useful or palatable as the olive’s pressed fruits, its slow growth to completion resembles the tree in as much as it was the patient and diligent kindness of my friends, mentors, and family that enabled me to finish the project. Mercifully it took fewer than fifteen years. My deepest thanks go to Paolo Squatriti, who provoked and inspired me to write an unconventional dissertation. I am unable to articulate the ways he has influenced my scholarship, teaching, and life. Ray Van Dam’s clarity of thought helped to shape and rein in my run-away ideas. Diane Hughes unfailingly saw the big picture—how the story of the olive connected to different strands of history. These three people in particular made graduate school a humane and deeply edifying experience. Joining them for the dissertation defense was Richard Tucker, whose capacious understanding of the history of the environment improved this work immensely. In addition to these, I would like to thank David Akin, Hussein Fancy, Tom Green, Alison Cornish, Kathleen King, Lorna Alstetter, Diana Denney, Terre Fisher, Liz Kamali, Jon Farr, Yanay Israeli, and Noah Blan, all at the University of Michigan, for their benevolence. Jeremy Ledger and Kate Wright have been my closest allies since matriculating to the University of Michigan; they have read countless drafts of fellowship applications and chapters and listened patiently over lunch breaks as I talked through olive problems. The Department of ii History, the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Program, the Eisenberg Institute, and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan all provided critical funds as I researched and wrote up my dissertation. The Council on Library and Information Resources awarded me a Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research for the 2010-11 academic year, which allowed me to spend a year in Rome, accessing libraries and archives that proved invaluable to this study. While in Italy, I enjoyed the kindness and hospitality of Federico Marazzi and Nanni and Laura Ceci. In the last phases of this project, Ian Mladjov accepted the unenviable task of mapping obscure early medieval toponyms—thanks to him. Deeper in the past, Rob Babcock, Jessica Coope, Vanessa Gorman, and Bob Gorman set me on the path that eventually led to Ann Arbor, for which I will be eternally grateful. Coming from a family of farmers, it is unsurprising that I settled on an agricultural topic for my dissertation. That those farms were set on the Great Plains, however, makes it a rather long leap to early medieval olive trees. I attribute the brazen decision to pursue such an odd and foreign subject also to my family, because they never made me think it was silly. Also, my parents and grandparents, to a person, are voracious readers, agile thinkers, and hard workers, qualities which continue to inspire me; thanks to Tim, Terri, Pat, Rich, Helen, and Pete for providing me with an embarrassingly sublime childhood. Emily has shared my life for going-on ten years now, the majority of which have been in the pursuit of the completion of this document. Her resolve, patience, and detachment from all things early medieval and academic made her instrumental in doing it. Finally, the daughters I share with Emily, Eloise and Adeline, in no way made it easier to finish this dissertation. Like the Mediterranean climate, they impose harsh conditions on my life—diapers, bottles, sleepless nights, etc. The olive tree, however, requires those seemingly inhospitable Mediterranean seasons to bear fruit. Likewise, in some iii inexplicable, but very real way, this dissertation and my life required Eloise and Adeline. Thanks to them. iv Preface Map 1. Climatological and topographical limits of olive growth. v Map 2. Political divisions in Italy around 700 CE. vi Map 3. Tuscany in its regional context. vii Map 4. Southern Sabina with fiscal toponyms viii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... ii Preface............................................................................................................................................. v List of Maps ................................................................................................................................... xi List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... xii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 I. The Early Medieval Mediterranean: An Overview .............................................................. 9 II. Roman Olives .................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 1 The City and the Country: Olives in the Lucchesia ..................................................... 34 I. Enduring Walls and Cadasters: Roman Lucca ................................................................... 42 II. Dead Cities: The End of Empire in Historiography .......................................................... 47 III. Settlements and Olives in the Lucchese Countryside: 713-750 CE ................................ 51 IV. Urban Olives: Sicherad, Pertuald, and Sigemund ........................................................... 69 V. Sustaining Bodies, Souls, and Walls: Olives in Early Medieval Tuscany ....................... 80 VI. Accessing the Arcane: Olives in Systems of Medical Knowledge ................................. 90 VII. Lubricating Industry: Olives in Metal Production ......................................................... 98 VIII. Conclusions: New Settlements, New Olives .............................................................. 106 Chapter 2 The Fruits of Farfa: Dark Age Sabina ....................................................................... 108 I. The Late Antique Landscape; Rome’s Hinterland ........................................................... 113 II. Pope Gregory’s Sabina .................................................................................................... 120 III. Mountains and Valleys: The Rise of Farfa .................................................................... 130 IV. Conclusions: Shunned Olives ........................................................................................ 148 ix Chapter 3 Combusting the Olive: Artificial Illumination in Early Medieval Italy ..................... 157 I. Papal Dearth: Supplying Rome’s Lights .......................................................................... 164 II. The Origins of the Eighth Century Olive Oil Crisis: An Illuminative Turn ................... 171 III. Locating the Lights: The Liber Pontificalis ................................................................... 177 IV. The Meaning of Light: Changes in the Church ............................................................. 183 V. Reflecting Light: Changes in Buildings .......................................................................... 195 VI. Reading the Light: How Artificial Illumination Manipulated Time ............................. 203 VII. Defining Space; Lights in the Liturgy .......................................................................... 214 VIII. Conclusion: the Carolingians and Beyond .................................................................. 218 Chapter 4 Olive Semiotics in Early Medieval Italy .................................................................... 223 I. Holy Oil in the Early Medieval Mediterranean ................................................................ 228 II. Alexandrian Oils: Menas ................................................................................................ 232 III. Fragments of Oil: The True Cross ................................................................................. 237 IV. Anatolian Oils: Nicholas of Myra ................................................................................. 240 V. Literary Oils: Euthymius and Andrew ............................................................................ 243 VI. Eastern Oils: Byzantine Olives ...................................................................................... 247 VII. Oil in the Italian Imagination ....................................................................................... 249 VIII. Oil Dearth in Early Medieval Italy ............................................................................. 262 IX. Charged Anew: Oils in Late Eighth and Ninth Century Italy ....................................... 272 X. Conclusions: Infused Oils ............................................................................................... 285 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................
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