The project on the archives of the Abbey of Santa Maria di Pomposa concerned, among other documentary nuclei, two large groups of parchments: the one preserved in the State Archive of Modena and the one kept in the Abbey of Montecassino. A really interesting combination from many points of view: the material one linked to the physicality of the documents and the historical one connected to what the documents tell.

Ancient and precious membranous sheets, but also fragile to handle, more than a thousand years old: this is what my archival work looked like at the very beginning. A very distant beginning if you think that the first document dates back to 932! Kept in Montecassino, among the pompous parchments (with the significant markings fasc. I, n. 1) it records a deed with a grant of emphyteusis. It is difficult not to give in to curiosity and wonder who the married couple, Ugo and Berta, were, and how it was that on 18 September, 1,089 years ago, they approached Onesto, subdeacon of the Church of Ravenna and abbot of the monastery of Saints John and Barbaziano, to ask him for sortes et porciones in the Monesteriolo estate, in the territory of Imola. The concession would have allowed them to enjoy the fruits derived from the use of the monastery’s fund, on condition that they improve the income and pay a fee.

So many stories have come to me, working on the parchments preserved in the Archives of the Abbey of Montecassino: 131 documents written between 932 and 1070, for which I have had to verify the original signature and date (chronical and topical), detect the type of act and the names of the legal authors (and the recipients of the legal action), identifying the name of the notary (for private documents) or the name of the chancellor (for public acts).
Interweaving human relationships punctuated the route: From the emperors Conrad II and Henry IV, who placed the Pomposian abbey under their protection in 1037 and 1066 respectively, to the vicissitudes of everyday men and women, “photographed” while selling plots of land (such as Felice, who with his wife Adelberga sold to Urso in 996, for 16 silver denarii, a piece of arable land in a place called Mandriole, in the territory of Rimini; or the husband and wife Mauro and Petornia, who in 1025 sold a vineyard in Rovereto, in the mass of Fiscaglia, to Maiulfo) or even engaged in the stipulation of agrarian contracts, such as emphyteusis, levels and exchanges.
There is no shortage of particular documents, allowing us to grasp, for example, pieces of ‘female’ history: this is the case of Dominicia and Dominigelda, who, in 977 and 996, received twenty soldi as a gift from their future husbands Martino and Urso; or the stories of Maria and Erica, to whom their husbands Peter and John offered, in 980 and 1015, the morgengabe, i.e. the tribute of the morning after their wedding night, or, again, the choice of another Dominicia, who in 1011 promised to Paolo and Ermiza (husband and wife) that she would remain in their service for the rest of her life, with an annual payment of six denari.

Equally stimulating was the work on the documentation conserved in the State Archive of Modena: if the data collection was carried out with the same method used for the parchments of Montecassino, the general picture of the Modenese nucleus appeared different from an initial investigation. Alongside original documents, there are other types of tradition (simple copies, authentic copies, simple copies of authentic copies, etc.), which have come down to our time in at least three different forms (single parchment sheet, membranous dossier, paper dossier), demonstrating a significant richness (and complexity).
The 123 documents testified (contained in 92 archival units) cover a wide temporal acreage: the oldest document is the copy of the concession of Otto III, dated 22nd November 1001, with which the archbishop of Ravenna was assigned wide jurisdiction over the whole territory controlled by the Church of Ravenna, receiving the sovereign for concambium the Abbey of Santa Maria di Pomposa; the “most recent” document is an inventory of goods dating back to the 18th century.
Also for the “Modenese” documentation the red thread of History (and of stories) runs in a double warp: between popes and emperors, Pomposa bishops and abbots, women and men of the people. In this interweaving of events, people and territories, the work and professionalism of the archivist is inserted, who reads, interprets and describes (without getting lost), in a correct and effective manner, the very documents that will be consulted – with this project also on-line – by researchers and scholars, not excluding young students and/or enthusiasts, who may be looking for a bit of their own roots in these ancient parchments.

– contribution by Francesco Nocco (Homme de lettres) –
– cover image from shot by Roberto Romagnoli –

For those who want to read with their own eyes the oldest pomposian document and learn more about the story of Ugo and Berta, for those who want to understand in detail what the privileges of the emperors Conrad II, called the Salian or the Elder (990 ca. – 1039 AD) and Henry IV (third emperor of the Salic dynasty, 1050 – 1106 AD) provide, to learn something about Urso who buys a plot of land in Mandriole and Maiulfo who buys a vineyard in Fiscaglia, to discover something about the wedding of Dominicia and Dominigelda or Maria and Erica, to put yourself in the shoes of Dominicia who put herself at the service of six deniers, just click on their names or alternatively on this list which runs through the order of their mention:

Montecassino, fasc. I, n. 1: doc. del 932/09/18 (emphyteusis)
Montecassino, fasc. V, n. 78: doc. del 1037/04/18 (privilege)
Montecassino, fasc. VII, n. 128: doc. del 1066/03/11 (privilege)
Montecassino, fasc. I, n. 14: doc. del 996/06/10 (sale/purchase)
Montecassino, fasc. IV, n. 59: doc. del 1025/10/25 (sale/purchase)
Montecassino, fasc. I, n. 6: doc. del 977/12/14 (donation)
Montecassino, fasc. I, n. 15: doc. del 996/10/30 (donation)
Montecassino, fasc. I, n. 8: doc. del 980/03/29 (morgengabe)
Montecassino, fasc. III, n. 42: doc. del 1015/02 (donation)
Montecassino, fasc. III, n. 32: doc. del 1011/06/11 (promise).