Kleine Welten in der Toskana. Lokale Gesellschaft und sozialer Wandel in der Karolingerzeit

The concepts of local societies and local identities have been broadly examined, in particular by sociologists, anthropologist and archaeologists. These studies have found that it is possible to find symbols that corroborate the feelings of identity and the sense of belonging to single communities on the local level. These general reflections allow an examination of the links between the construction of local societies and identities, the management of political issues and the different forms of communities in Northern-Central Italy after they became part of Carolingian Europe. Tuscan regional society and identity were neither exclusive nor opposed to others, but part of a series of multiple and overlapping identities that were structured within a hierarchy of places that reached down to, and interacted with, county, diocese and village level. The intention of this article is to offer a survey of important aspects of the major social transformations in Northern-Central Italy through the analyses of the Western part of Tuscany – more precisely the areas of Lucca and Pisa –, which was a core part of the Lombard Duchy of Lucca. The situation here may be seen as particularly representative of a more widespread situation for several reasons: firstly, it was an area in which Lombard central institutional power, traditionally strong in the Northern part of the Peninsula, had one of its most important foci in Lucca. Secondly, the city kept a central administrative role in a vast territory even under the Carolingians; it progressively became the capital of the marca of Tuscia and it consolidated its important function even in subsequent periods. Finally, Lucca’s ecclesiastical archives, and in particular those of the Archdiocese have preserved one of the largest collections of original documents in Europe for the period we are here considering.

Nel contributo si mettono in evidenza le specificità di una società locale toscana e le sue trasformazioni principali nel passaggio tra la dominazione longobarda e quella carolingia.