Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken

Open Access Published by De Gruyter

Volume 101 Issue 1

Issue of Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available November 10, 2021

Titelseiten

Page range: i-vii

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November 10, 2021

Jahresbericht des DHI Rom 2020

Martin Baumeister

Page range: IX-LVII

Themenschwerpunkt Eugenio Pacelli and Germany. New Archival Perspectives on Papal Politics, 1917– 1958 herausgegeben von Simon Unger-Alvi

November 10, 2021

Introduction: The Political Ambiguities of Pius XII

Simon Unger-Alvi

Page range: 3-13

Abstract

This collection of essays evaluates the relations between Eugenio Pacelli and Germany from the beginning of his career as a papal nuncio in Munich in 1917 until his pontificate during the wartime and post-war periods. The contributions to this volume do not provide a complete overview of this topic. Instead, they should be understood as case studies on certain aspects of Vatican-German history. At the core of this work are the complexities and ambiguities of papal politics between four political systems from the Kaiserreich to the West German Federal Republic. Ultimately, this volume thus touches upon very diverse subjects ranging from Pacelli’s ‚concordat diplomacy‘ in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich to his silence during the Holocaust and the German occupation of Italy, the anti-communism of the Cold War, and the Vatican’s path towards reform in the post-war period.

November 10, 2021

Die Nuntiaturen Pacellis als internationale Drehscheibe des Heiligen Stuhls

Stefan Samerski

Page range: 14-27

Abstract

As nuncio in Munich and Berlin, Eugenio Pacelli had dealt with political issues far beyond the usual scope of his nunciatures. The Papal Secretary of State entrusted him with concordat negotiations with various European countries as well as with foreign policy issues of international significance. This was due not only to Pacelliʼs special expertise but also to the period of major upheaval during and after the First World War and Berlinʼs key geopolitical position as a hub linking the East and the West. It is therefore not surprising that in the papal representative’s correspondence, the Soviet question, as well as the immediate consequences of the Paris Peace Conference, were the clear focal points of his international attention.

November 10, 2021

Die Kritische Online-Edition der Nuntiaturberichte Eugenio Pacellis (1917–1929)

Ansätze für eine digitale Auswertung

Sascha Hinkel, Jörg Hörnschemeyer

Page range: 28-57

Abstract

Eugenio Pacelli, the later Pope Pius XII, was already considered a leading diplomat of the Holy See when he served as nuncio in Germany. Using the critical online edition of his nuncial reports, digital humanities methodologies will be used to explore which topics dominated his reports, the diplomatic style of his nunciature and whether Pacelli adapted the form and content of his reports to the various recipients. To this end, quantitative methods of textual analysis such as the frequency distribution of types in relation to tokens as well as recourse to key terms and multi-word units (N-grams) will be employed. Moreover, methods from the field of corpus linguistics, information retrieval (TF-IDF) and quantitative stylometry (contrastive analyses with Burrows’ Delta and Zeta) are applied to evaluate both stylistic and content-related issues.

November 10, 2021

Il rumore delle onde

L’atteggiamento di Pio XII verso la Germania attraverso la radio. Il caso delle Opzioni sudtirolesi

Camilla Tenaglia

Page range: 58-86

Abstract

This essay addresses the relations between Pius XII and Germany at the beginning of his pontificate through the role of Vatican Media, especially Vatican Radio. During the interwar period, the Vatican media system ( media ensemble ) underwent major transformations, including the creation of a radio broadcasting station in 1931. Pacelli was one of the main agents of these improvements: as Secretary of State supporting Guglielmo Marconi’s project, as Pope through his extensive use of the mass media at his disposal, from radio to cinema. At the end of the 30s the difficult diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Third Reich also had an impact on mass media, as shown by the election of Pacelli in March 1939. The role of Vatican Radio in Vatican diplomacy towards Nazi Germany was already clear during the events surrounding the Anschluss in 1938 and it became a tool for unofficial communication to convey more explicit stances on the regime during World War II. The same strategy was employed during the Option in Südtirol in 1939, when Catholics were able to deliver anti-Nazi propaganda thanks in part to radio in the attempt to avoid the voluntary resettlement of German-speaking Italian citizens from the area. The Holy See maintained a neutral position throughout the events, but at the same time Vatican Radio broadcast programmes in German about the condition of the Catholic Church under the Nazi regime. These broadcasts supported the efforts especially of the Archbishop of Trento Celestino Endrici and his clergy, who opposed the resettlement. Once again Vatican Radio proved a crucial tool for conveying unofficial communications while maintaining the neutral stance typical of the Holy See‘s foreign policy.

November 10, 2021

Storie di gesuiti, popolazione civile e truppe militari nell’Italia occupata (1943–1945)

Nuove prospettive di ricerca

Laura Di Fabio

Page range: 87-106

Abstract

This piece of research aims to present a historiographical and methodological review of the history of the Jesuits, the civilian population and the military troops during the German military occupation in Italy between 1943 and 1945. The analysis of hitherto unexplored sources, accessible since 2 March 2020, allows historians to explore the archival heritage that was produced by the different religious communities of the Society of Jesus present in rural and urban territories, which carried out functions of education, pastoral care and assistance in the communities of reference. The analysis of the role and function of the religious orders as observers of ‚Great History‘ to tell the story of the life of the civilian population in the years of the Second World War and under military occupation represents a privileged point of view that still awaits investigation.

November 10, 2021

Mit Nächstenliebe gegen den Kommunismus

Die Bistümer München-Freising und St. Pölten in der Nachkriegszeit und der Frühphase des Kalten Krieges (1945–1960)

Marion Dotter

Page range: 107-132

Abstract

This study examines the strategies adopted by the Catholic church in the post-World War II German-speaking area to curtail the ‚communist threat‘. The text compares two dioceses, St. Pölten in the eastern part of Austria, and Munich-Freising in Bavaria, that saw the need to react to the rise of communist regimes immediately outside their borders in East-Central Europe with the means at their disposal. The starting point for this analysis is the „Decree against Communism“ of Pope Pius XII, which belongs to a long tradition of ecclesiastical criticism directed against the great ideologies of the 19th and 20th centuries, and which was widely adopted by the German-speaking clergy. The discussion of the methods by which the church attempted to influence the east-west conflict and their constraints will address three topics: aid for refugees, the social question, and issues related to schooling. In these areas, the church used a variety of resources to achieve its aims and exploited the Roman curia’s position as a global actor – from its parishes and monasteries at the local level to its spheres of political influence at the nation-state level.

November 10, 2021

Sex and Birth Control in West Germany

Reacting to Pius XII’s Speeches on the Rhythm Method

Michael E. O’Sullivan

Page range: 133-147

Abstract

Pius XII’s Addresses to the Catholic Union of Midwives on October 29, 1951 and the National Congress of the Family Front and the Association of Large Families on November 27, 1951 were a pivotal moment in the history of sexuality in the Catholic Church because the pope permitted the use of the rhythm method for the purposes of family planning. They occurred at a moment of transition between Pius XI’s condemnation of contraception and abortion in 1930 and Paul VI’s denunciation of the birth control pill in 1968. This essay argues that these two speeches require greater scholarly attention and that West Germany represents a compelling case study for their reception. Other scholars document well the importance of Germany to the life and papacy of Pius XII, but little light has been shed on how Central European Catholics responded to his views about sex. In a fresh reading of the papal intervention, this essay suggests that the speeches only endorsed practices that had been common since the 1930s. In the midst of changing norms about sex and increased access to birth control as well as anxiety about rapid social change, Pius XII’s attempt at conciliation was significant but ultimately failed.

Artikel

November 10, 2021

Dies natalis papae – der „Geburtstag“ des Papstes

Achim Thomas Hack

Page range: 151-169

Abstract

The dies natalis papae has received little attention in the previous literature. This is not the actual birthday of the Roman chief pastor, but the anniversary of his consecration as bishop. Explicit evidence of this has been available since the second half of the 4th century (Damasus I), mainly in letters. However, the recording of the exact consecration dates since the 250s suggests that the day was also celebrated earlier. In any case, it is certain that the dies natalis papae was celebrated as a festival of joy and gratitude for the (albeit undeservedly conferred) Petrine office. Numerous bishops from all over Italy are invited to attend, and, if necessary, these gatherings can also be used for synods. While Leo I regularly exploits this opportunity to preach – five „Sermones“ have survived, after all – 150 years later Gregory the Great flatly rejects the celebration as „superfluous vanity“ and instead refers to the „birthday celebration“ of St. Peter himself. The Roman „Liber Diurnus“ has its own forms of epistolary „invitatoria in natale papae“ as well as „excusatoria quando episcopus infirmatur“, and the sacramentaries of this time contain models for the celebration, i. e. „Orationes in natale papae“ or „in natale episcoporum“.

November 10, 2021

La „Chronica Danielis“: il Barbarossa, i della Torre e la battaglia di Desio (1277)

Roberto Galbiati

Page range: 170-206

Abstract

The „Chronica Danielis“ is a fantastical chronicle dedicated to the mythical Inglexio family, purported to have ruled Milan from the 7th to the 12th centuries. According to this legend, the emperor Frederick I was responsible for the family’s demise: when he destroyed Milan with the help of some Milanese traitors in 1145 (sic!), he either killed the last members of the Inglexio family or deported them to Germany. Jörg W. Busch has proved that the legend of the Inglexio was written during the rule of the della Torre family (1259–1277) to legitimise their power in Milan. The hypothesis is correct, but the „Cronica Federici primi“ – the third part of the text – is not a work of propaganda. On the contrary, it is a fictional reconstruction of the end of the della Torre family’s power after their defeat at Desio in 1277. Specifically, this article analyses the „Cronica Federici primi“ and provides a new edition of the text.

November 10, 2021

Wer ist Fra Dolcino?

Zur Konstruktion eines Häretikers zwischen mittelalterlichen Quellen und moderner Literatur

Michele Spadaccini

Page range: 207-231

Abstract

This paper investigates the image of the heretic fra’ Dolcino as presented in both medieval documentary sources and modern literature. Using a wide range of documentary and literary sources, at least two images of fra’ Dolcino can be outlined: the first is the ‚sharply defined‘ image of the legendary figure featuring in literary texts such as the „Divine Comedy“ by Dante Alighieri or „The Name of the Rose“ by Umberto Eco. The second, which emerges from historical documents, is the ‚blurred‘ image of Dolcino from Novara, the leader of a heretical sect that prospered between the 13th and the 14th centuries. This paper offers a study of the events linked to the figure of fra’ Dolcino and to his group of heretics, considering both the historical perspective and the quality of the information conveyed by literary and documentary sources.

November 10, 2021

Das Rom der Frührenaissance in den Imbreviaturen des Notars Angelo degli Atti da Todi 1423–1432

Tobias Daniels

Page range: 232-347

Abstract

This essay analyses the previously unexplored protocol of the notary Angelo degli Atti da Todi, which contains 141 new sources on the history of Rome – City and Curia – during the pontificate of Martin V and the early pontificate of Eugenius IV. After an overview of notarial research on early Renaissance Rome, it presents Angelo degli Atti’s career and cultural profile, based partly on his will, found in a legal dispute over inheritance with the Florentine Alberti family. Possibilities for analysing the protocol are then discussed. For the first time, this protocol provides insights into the jurisdiction of the Camera Apostolica in the period mentioned and expands our knowledge of the actors and transactions of the Papal Finance at the Curia of Martin V, especially as regards the Florentine merchant bankers, and above all the Alberti and Boscoli. The protocol also contains a wide range of sources on the history of Rome, including its art history and the maritime economy in which the city was involved. The entire protocol is made accessible by regesta including an index of persons and places.

November 10, 2021

Die Fresken des Palazzo Spreca

Oder: Päpstliche Autorität und kommunaler Gehorsam im Viterbo des 15. Jahrhunderts

Petra Schulte

Page range: 348-374

Abstract

In the 1470s, Domenico Spreca, a citizen of Viterbo, commissioned a cycle of virtues for the sala on the upper floor of his palazzo. From 2012 to 2018, the frescoes, largely unknown in (art) historical research, were the subject of legal proceedings and, on a regional level, of public debate over the preservation of cultural heritage. Over these years, it became clear that objects not only require financial resources to protect and preserve them over the centuries, but also need to be part of a narrative. Such a narrative was lost at an early stage, although the frescoes bear extraordinary witness to the negotiation processes of the 15th century concerning political virtues. In this paper, I argue that the cycle of virtues should be interpreted as an allegory of good government. Domenico Spreca addressed the conditions of loyalty ( fidelitas )/obedience ( oboedientia ) on the one hand and the authority ( auctoritas ) of the superiores – the Pope, the Curia and the Rector of the Patrimonium Petri in Tuscia – on the other. To facilitate comprehension of this interpretation, the frescoes will be embedded in the political culture of Viterbo. To this end, their interpretation will be preceded by observations on the institutional establishment of papal authority in the city and on how its citizens dealt with it in the 1450s and 1460s: an authority that they legitimised on the basis of its pacification of factional struggles within the city and demanded for this purpose, from which they benefited and whose arbitrariness they attempted to curtail.

November 10, 2021

Le commende gerosolimitane nella Terraferma veneziana (secoli XVI–XVIII): identificazione e amministrazione

Luigi Robuschi

Page range: 375-403

Abstract

The comparative analysis of the sources preserved at the Archivio del Gran Priorato di Lombardia e Venezia and the Archives of the Order of Malta in the National Library of Malta, have made it possible to quantify and identify the lands owned by the Order of Malta on the Venetian mainland – the Terraferma – between the 16th and the 18th centuries. The archival documentation, further corroborated by research in the Archives of Venice, Padua and Verona, uncovered a vast range of situations, yet to be studied and linked to the properties owned by the knights in Veneto. Furthermore, the documentation sheds some light not only on the knights to whom the Commanderies were assigned, but also on the vast number of people who actively participated in the life and administration of the properties owned by the Order of Malta in the Terraferma .

November 10, 2021

Die Italienreise des Freiherrn Guidobald von Welsperg und Primör 1675–1676

Philipp Tolloi

Page range: 404-420

Abstract

The article exemplifies the role of the Grand Tour as the conclusion and culmination of an aristocratic education. The educational journey of the Tyrolean nobleman Guidobald of Welsperg began immediately after he completed his academic studies at the university of Innsbruck, taking him and his tutor through Italy, which was particularly popular as a Grand Tour destination thanks above all to its political diversity and cultural richness. Although Rome’s importance was waning, it continued to be regarded as the Caput Mundi by Catholic noblemen, especially during the 1675 Jubilee, underscoring the religious aspect of the journey. The advantages Rome had to offer must inevitably have had a formative effect on the young Tyrolean nobleman. The costs of the journey were high and out of reach of the majority, and therefore represented an important element of social distinction. At the same time, such an educational journey was a means of improving one’s education and polishing one’s manners that was almost obligatory for career purposes. Only by visiting foreign countries and courts could one acquire the Weltkenntnis, or knowledge of the world, qualifying an individual for higher posts at court, in the diplomacy or administration.

November 10, 2021

L’inventario della spezieria di Giovanni Zavanti al Cairo (1732)

Una rara testimonianza dell’arte farmaceutica europea ai confini tra Oriente e Occidente

Alessandra Quaranta

Page range: 421-495

Abstract

The inventory of the apothecary Giovanni Zavanti, a Venetian pharmacist who worked in Cairo in the 1730s, was drawn up by the Egyptian city’s British Consulate in 1732. Since this institution ensured formal juridical protection to the English shopkeepers of the Levant Company, but devoted little attention to their need for health care, this historical source can be considered a rare testimony of European medical-pharmaceutical activity in the Levant. The inventory’s importance is also connected with the specific political and socio-cultural context of Egypt, the most economically important province of the Ottoman Empire. Substantial groups of English, French and Dutch merchants lived in the Muslim society of Cairo and were officially represented by their respective nations in the eighteenth century. The Venetian, also active in Cairo, could not count on the protection of their State institutions during the Turco-Venetian conflicts (1645–1718). In this complex context, Zavanti tried to take advantage of his professional activity and built up different socio-cultural relations to defend his properties and commercial interests. He was in contact with fellow countrymen, Arabic Christians of Egypt, Jews, Turkish officials and the Franciscan confraternity Custodia Terrae Santae. As second-generation immigrants from Venice, the Zavantis experienced a difficult process of cultural integration in Egypt.

November 10, 2021

Imperium und Gesundheit

Die italienische Medizin in Libyen von der liberalen Epoche bis zum Faschismus

Alessandra Parodi

Page range: 496-532

Abstract

Libya was a special Italian colony. It was geographically close to Italy and had a similar climate; moreover, it had been part of the Roman Empire, a feature that was equally stressed in the colonial ideology of the liberal and Fascist eras. The aim of this study is to illustrate the role of Italian colonial medicine in Libya from 1911–1912 to the Fascist period. Continuities, resemblances and differences, and the meaning ascribed to the „health“ of the colonizers and the colonized, are investigated using publications by doctors and political writers.

November 10, 2021

Neue Perspektiven auf die questione meridionale

Das Beispiel des Centro per gli studi sullo sviluppo economico (1957–1967)

Antonio Carbone

Page range: 533-559

Abstract

Starting from the determination that the questione meridionale – the southern Italian question – has lost its former centrality in the Italian debate, this article suggests new avenues of research and gives an example of the results that such perspectives can provide. The first section of the article outlines some key positions in the political and historiographical debate on the questione meridionale and identifies the reasons underlying the decline of interest in the history of Italy’s North-South divide in recent years. Based on this analysis, the second part presents new potential prospects for research on the history of Southern Italy, principally by connecting it to recent scholarship in global and international history. The final section of the article applies the proposed research methodology to the specific instance of the Centro studi sullo sviluppo economico, a research centre founded in the mid-1950s to disseminate the Southern Italian economic development model in the Mediterranean and Latin America. The analysis of the history of the Centro studi, born out of a collaboration between the Italian Svimez and the American Ford Foundation, illustrates the ambiguity of the relationship between Italian and American development economists and the way in which the knowledge acquired through economic intervention in Southern Italy became a tool to foster contacts between Italy and other ‚southern‘ countries.

Forum

November 10, 2021

Offenheit für unterschiedliche Formungen der Erkenntnis

Ein Dialog über die Relevanz von Mehrsprachigkeit

Carolin Krahn, Jürgen Trabant

Page range: 563-572

Abstract

Multilingualism is of central importance for the human experience of alterity in culture and scholarship. In this discussion, Carolin Krahn and Jürgen Trabant explore the challenges and benefits of multilingualism in academia, especially in the humanities. The dominance of the English language in global academic life is addressed, as are the Bologna reform and the role of international research institutes such as the German Historical Institute. The dialogue illustrates the importance of language for intellectual life, addressing further topics ranging from Wilhelm von Humboldt and the city of Rome to the relationship between music and language and the question of European identity.

Circolo Medievistico Romano

November 10, 2021

Circolo Medievistico Romano 2020

Andreas Rehberg

Page range: 575-576

Rezensionen

Open Access November 10, 2021

Ricerche storiche sulla canonistica

A proposito della serie „Der Einfluss der Kanonistik“

Silvia Di Paolo, Paola Maffei

Page range: 579-586

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Open Access November 10, 2021

Casi e storia intellettuale

Riflessioni a partire da un recente volume di Carlo Ginzburg

Riccarda Suitner

Page range: 587-590

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Open Access November 10, 2021

Die verdrängte Nationalgeschichte

Amerigo Caruso

Page range: 591-594

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Open Access November 10, 2021

Allgemein, Mittelalter, Frühe Neuzeit, 19.–20. Jahrhundert

Page range: 595-864

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November 10, 2021

Verzeichnis der Rezensentinnen und Rezensenten

Page range: 865-866

November 10, 2021

Register der in den Rezensionen genannten Autorinnen und Autoren

Page range: 867-872

About this journal

Starting 2022, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken will be transferred to a Diamond Open Access yearbook on a year-by-year basis. All articles will thus immediately appear under the Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. There will be no publication costs for the authors. The Open Access transformation is based on Subscribe-to-Open. You can find more information about the model here.

The yearbook covers research topics pertaining to the history of Italy and Italian music as well as the relationship between Germany and Italy in a transregional and transnational context from the Early Middle Ages to the present. It contains peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, and conference reports, written mostly in German or Italian, sometimes in English. The section "Forum" publishes essays discussing current questions of historical research.