Geistliche Verbindungen mit Rom und kanonische Regeln in der frümittelalterlichen Toskana

This article examines the changing spiritual, political, and cultural ties between north-western Tuscany and Rome from approximately 720 to 820, during the late Lombard and early Carolingian periods. It focuses on Lucca, a major administrative centre and an important stop on the Via Francigena, the route linking northern Europe with Rome. Local charters reveal how churches and religious communities founded by lay elites helped shape these connections. In 720, the nobleman Pertuald founded a church and small monastery after making a pilgrimage to Rome, and set out rules for its communal life that reflected canonical principles. His son Pereteo, later bishop of Lucca, extended the family’s religious patronage and supported institutions that offered food and shelter to the poor and pilgrims. These foundations, including xenodochia, connected charitable practice with the needs of travellers journeying to Rome. The article also traces the role of Lucca’s clergy, scribes, and cathedral school in producing documents and manuscripts, including a Lombard recension of the Liber Pontificalis. In 790, Deacon James founded a women’s monastery placed under the protection of St Peter in Rome and the papacy, a notable expression of Lucca’s growing Roman orientation. The evidence suggests that political and cultural alignment with Rome became increasingly important within the local ecclesiastical hierarchy, particularly amid the rise of Carolingian power in Italy. Taken together, the charters and institutional histories show how pilgrimage, canonical norms, charitable foundations, and changing political alliances reshaped relations between Tuscany and the papacy.

La documentazione toscana di VIII e IX secolo, e quella lucchese in particolare, consente di osservare una particolare attenzione da parte di alcuni soggetti nei confronti del rispetto delle normative canoniche in relazione a nuove istituzioni ecclesiastiche da essi promosse. Il contributo analizza queste informazioni e le riconduce nell'alveo di un intensificarsi delle relazioni della società toscana con Roma nel periodo qui sottoposto ad indagine.