IMC 2026: Sessions

The Lombard period remains an enigmatic and uncertain moment in international scholarship, often understood more through our historiographical constructions than as a historic entity. Indeed, whilst previously emerging in older, nationally-inclined historiography as a temporary, Germanic disruption in the teleological progression of Italian history, research from the last decades has focused more upon deconstructing this than actually understanding who the Lombards were. Critically therefore, there is still need to reflexively consider how we perceive them by exploring these philosophical and epistemological frameworks. This will build upon recent developmental research upon topics such as Lombard religion, law, language, ethnic identity, ritual, and gender. Significantly, this also includes consideration of the diatopic and diachronic difference between the polities, particularly the South which presents different aspects relating to the expression and survival of Lombard identity after the regnum’s fall in 774. This strand of sessions focuses on these evolutions of Lombardic identity complexified through re-examination of emic and etic perspectives and sources through time. This session (III) seeks to understand how Lombard Identities were developed and utilised in Southern Italy via its application and reinterpretation in Law and Custom.