IMC 2012: Sessions

Carolingian perceptions of Italy as a political and historical space, the negotiation of power and the establishment of Carolingian control over the region south of the Alps were influenced by numerous actors and factors: kings and popes, the transfer of knowledge and manuscripts, and the movement of people and goods. This session approaches such perceptions and connections from either side of the Alps, examining both Carolingian perspectives on Italy and Italian perspectives on Carolingian rule. The first paper (Katharina Winckler) sets the stage by examining the natural space separating the centres of Carolingian power in the North and Italy: the Alps. But rather than viewing them as an obstacle for communication, it examines the natural and material preconditions for the exchange of ideas, manuscripts and people, the routes of communication and the impact of Carolingian rule on local elites and structures of power along these routes. Two papers discuss two specific manuscripts and their role in negotiations about Carolingian power, papal-Frankish relations and the shape of post-Lombard Italy. Giovanna Tondini proposes an interpretation of the aims and functions of a historiographical compilation (the so-called Epitome Philippsiana) for the creation of a new political ideology and the legitimation of Carolingian rule in the regnum Italiae. Dorine van Espelo offers a fresh look at the context and relevance of the 8th-century collection of papal letters, the Codex Carolinus.