Quotquot invenire posset: Inventiones and Historical Memory in Southern Italy, c. 900-1150 by Bridget Kathryn Riley A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Medieval Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Bridget Riley 2020 Quotquot invenire posset: Inventiones and Historical Memory in Southern Italy, c. 900-1150 Bridget Riley Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Medieval Studies University of Toronto 2020 Abstract This dissertation examines inventiones, that is narratives of relic discoveries, written in southern Italy between the tenth and twelfth centuries. During this period, communities dealt with sweeping changes brought on by political upheaval, invasion, and ecclesiastical reforms. Several inventiones written concomitantly to these events have received little scholarly attention. This dissertation has two goals: to enhance our understanding of the genre in general and to explore further the local circumstances that prompted their composition and copying. The following four case studies pertain to Christian communities in Naples, Benevento, and Larino, and the abbey of San Vincenzo al Volturno respectively. This dissertation argues that, because of their “inventive” nature, these sources were powerful means of writing and rewriting history and, more often than not, the exercise of historical memory fueled their production. In particular, this dissertation contends that in eleventh-and twelfth-century southern Italy, as communities underwent the transition from Lombard to Norman authorities, the memory of the Lombard lords of the past was utilized in inventiones as a powerful tool to rewrite the identity of a community as it negotiated the changing political and ecclesiastical landscape. Furthermore, this dissertation argues that because of the devotional nature of inventiones, typically composed for use in the liturgy and thus potentially exposed to a large public, the history encoded within these sources ii was made all the more powerful. Inventiones reveal how the liturgy, ritual, and devotion were mobilized by medieval communities and display an inherent reciprocity between historical and devotional writing and thought. In order to unlock these features as well as the local conflicts and agendas that prompted the production of inventiones, both a close study of the original manuscripts of extant inventiones as well as attention to contemporary liturgical, diplomatic, and material sources are major components of each case study. iii Acknowledgments I owe my gratitude to many, without whom this dissertation would not exist. First, heartfelt thanks goes to my supervisor, Isabelle Cochelin. Isabelle, you championed this project from its nascent stages and you championed me throughout all the twists and turns along the way. Thank you for your many years of support and guidance. Thank you also to Jill Caskey, who introduced me to southern Italy, from my first graduate seminar in my Master’s year at the Centre to our trip to Benevento, up that amazing mountain, and into that hermit’s cave. I cannot express my gratitude enough for your encouragement, kindness, and your friendship along this journey. I am also grateful for the feedback that many others have kindly given. Thanks goes to Nick Everett, who provided valuable insight into this project and advice on the edition of the Vita S. Pardi. Thank you to Professor Richard Gyug and Professor Paul Oldfield, who generously gave their time and invaluable feedback. Thank you also goes to Dr. Julie Anderson. Your kind feedback and your outstanding research helped to shape this dissertation in so many ways. Thank you to members of the Haskins Society, for creating a welcoming space where I felt encouraged to present and discuss chapters of this dissertation. Thanks goes especially to Bill North and Laura Gathagan, the editors of the Haskins Society Journal, for their generosity and encouragement. Thank you also to Grace Desa, the keeper of the Centre’s institutional memory. This dissertation has seen the inside of many libraries. I would be remiss not to thank the outstanding support I have received from many librarians, the unsung heroes of academia. Thank you to Amanda Criss, the Interlibrary Loan coordinator at Herrick Memorial Library of Alfred University. Your ability to track down countless obscure resources from a tiny town in the Southern Tier never ceased to amaze me. I also owe my gratitude to the interlibrary loan staff of Robarts Library of the University of Toronto, with whose support I was able to finish this thesis remotely. I am also grateful for the librarians and staff of the Library of Congress and to Professor Iadanza from the Biblioteca Capitolare in Benevento. I would not have made it through this without the many friendships that have withstood the test of time, distance, and the many trials of the PhD. Lochin Brouillard, Alex Bauer, Daniel Jamison, Terri Sanderson, and Julia Warnes, thank you for your encouragement and love throughout these years. There is no one on earth I would rather have learned Latin and drank wine with. On a more personal note, I am extremely grateful to my parents, my first teachers. Mom, thank you for always encouraging my curiosity and guiding me with love and a sense of humor. Thank you for teaching me that it can be just as powerful to ask the questions rather than to know the answers. Dad, thank you for countless trips to the bookstore, for buying me any book, for teaching me to be a better reader and writer, for instilling in me a love of learning. To my children, Tully and Grace, you did not make this dissertation easier to write but you sure did make it more joyful. Thank you for your smiles, your snuggles, and for constantly reminding me of the beauty and wonder of this world. To Trevor, my partner and my best friend. Your faith, your support, your love, and your ability to talk me off a ledge (which is most often really more of a curbside), have made this dissertation possible. Thank you for believing in me, living in a strange trailer in the middle of Connecticut for a month, for moving to upstate New York to be closer to me, for driving back and forth to Toronto, for supporting our family, for building me a garden. I love you. It is to you that this dissertation is dedicated. Bridget Riley Kensingon, MD iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ...........................................................................................................................v List of Maps ................................................................................................................................ viii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. ix List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................x Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Inventiones ..................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Sanctity and Inventiones in Medieval Southern Italy ..........................................................2 1.2 Scholarship on Inventiones ..................................................................................................6 1.3 Limits of the Present Study ..................................................................................................9 Historical Context, Southern Italy, c. 850-1150 .......................................................................11 2.1 Lombard Authority in Southern Italy ................................................................................13 2.2 The Normans of Southern Italy..........................................................................................17 2.3 The Latin Church in Southern Italy, c. 850-1150 ..............................................................19 Theoretical Contexts .................................................................................................................25 Structure of the Dissertation .....................................................................................................31 Chapter 1: Inventio and Identity in Tenth-Century Naples: The Translatio S. Sosii ............33 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................33 Naples in the ninth and early-tenth century ..............................................................................39 Dating and use of the Translatio S. Sosii ..................................................................................50 The Discovery of St Sosius .......................................................................................................52 Memory and Episcopal Power in the Translatio S. Sosii ..........................................................55 Conclusions: Thematic Reciprocity in the Translatio and Diplomata ducum Neapolis ...........62 Chapter 2: The Discovery of St Pardus of Larino: Remembering the Saints along the Lombard-Byzantine Frontier .....................................................................................................67