IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 1313: Travelling to Rome, II: Politics and Petitioners

Wednesday 14 July 2010, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:	Benjamin Weber, Départment d’Histoire, Université de Pau-Pays de l'Adour
Moderator/Chair:	Kirsi Salonen, Department of History & Philosophy, University of Tampere
Paper 1313-a	Propter multos nostros contrarios: The Misadventures of Pontifical and Bulgarian Legates in the First Half of the 13th Century (Language: English) Francesco Dall'Aglio, Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, Napoli Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Mentalities, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1313-b	Pilgrimages as Sources of Political Power and Legitimacy: Real and Invented Albanian and Walachian Journeys to Rome in the 1400s (Language: English) Alexandru Simon, Center for Transylvanian Studies, Romanian Academy of Sciences, Cluj-Napoca Index terms: Politics and Diplomacy, Religious Life
Paper 1313-c	Ethiopians in Rome in the 15th Century: To Visit the Shrines, Discuss the Union, or Organise a Crusade? (Language: English) Benjamin Weber, Départment d’Histoire, Université de Pau-Pays de l'Adour Index terms: Crusades, Ecclesiastical History, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1313-d	Petitions and Appeals to the Holy See by the Spaniard Believers of the New World (Language: English) Benedetta Albani, Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte, Frankfurt am Main Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Lay Piety, Religious Life
Abstract	Rome was one of the most attractive places throughout the Middle Ages. People from all over the Christian world undertook this travel, with very various motivations: pilgrimage, political embassy, ecclesiastical affairs, economic bargains, artistic or historical curiosity. These sessions will try to understand the real meaning and respective importance of all this motivations. Where people coming to Rome for the pope? For the shrines? For indulgences? Where political matters really dealt with in Rome or in local courts? Was Rome a centre of economic life in the Middle Ages? And what was the impact of the city's history on this travels (internal struggles, Great Schism, affirmation of papal authority)? The papers will examine these questions on a large chronological period (13th-16th century), using both local and pontifical sources and trying to include the entire Christian area from Sweden to Ethiopia.