La basilica e il monastero di S. Zeno nel contesto veronese di fine VIII e inizio IX secolo

The history of the church and monastery of St Zeno in Verona between the Lombard and the Carolingian period is a very disputed one for many reasons. Later copies and forgeries of royal diplomatas have been used by historian in order to describe the first phase of its history, placing a new consecration and the establishment of a Benedictine monastery in 807 thanks to bishop Ratold and king Pippin of Italy. This essay enquires the old local tradition and establishes through the analysis of many different kind of sources the role of the basilica and of the cult of the patron saint of Verona Zeno in northern Italy and in the areas where, during the 8th and 9th century, the 4th century bishop and confessor was popular and venerated. Documents, hagiographical texts, political and social analysis, liturgical calendars, archaeological excavations and palaeographical analysis of manuscripts are the main tools used in this paper through which a renovated profile of the late Lombard and early Carolingian church emerges. Moreover, we might be wrong in continuing overemphasizing the Carolingian initiatives in Verona, since the Zeno cult was already popular in the Lombard period, favoured by the high raking Lombard and Bavarian aristocracy; moreover, according to the description of the building by Paul the Deacon, the basilica might have been renovated at different stages.