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Urban communities in Naples, 900-10501

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Patricia Skinner
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 62 , November 1994 , pp. 279 - 299
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Copyright © British School at Rome 1994

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Footnotes

1

The work for this paper was undertaken with the support of a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship held at Birmingham University. I thank Chris Wickham and Cristina La Rocca, who read an earlier version of the paper, for their help and advice. The British School at Rome has provided both financial assistance and a stimulating environment in which to work; the assistance of Valerie Scott there has been invaluable. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the University of Nottingham in February 1993, where it profited from the acute comments of Bernard Hamilton, Ross Balzaretti and Julia Barrow. The enthusiasm of Michael Brooks during a visit to modern-day Naples led to the writing of this paper, and I am grateful for his continuing support.

References

2 Arthur, Paul provides a brief synthesis of recent work in ‘Archeologia urbana a Napoli; riflessioni sugli ultimi tre anni’, Archeologia Medievale xiii (1986), 515–23Google Scholar; this is updated by his most recent work on the city, which argues for a continuity of activity throughout the ‘dark ages’: ‘Naples: a case of urban survival in the early middle ages?’, MEFRM ciii (1991–1992), 759–84Google Scholar. (On the debate on urban survival in Italy generally, see below, n. 4.)

3 Capasso, Primarily B., Regesta Neapolitana, Monumenta ad Neapolitani Ducatus Historiam Pertinentia II,i (Naples, 1885)Google Scholar, hereafter RN and document number.

4 The list of contributions to the debate grows ever longer: Bryan Ward-Perkins outlines the main points of contention in ‘The towns of northern Italy: rebirth or renewal?’ in The Rebirth of Towns in the West, ed. Hodges, R. and Hobley, B. (London, 1988), 16–27Google Scholar. In the same volume, 28-31, David Whitehouse, ‘Rome and Naples: survival and revival in central and southern Italy’, usefully lists the documentary evidence from the latter city antedating the charters, but leaves the question of Naples' survival as a ‘city’ open. Fevrier, P.-A., ‘Permanence et héritages de l'antiquité dans la topographie des villes de l'occident durant le haut moyen age’, Settimane di Studio xxi: Topografia Urbana e Vita Cittadina nell' Alto Medioevo in Occidente I (Spoleto, 1974), 41–138Google Scholar, includes Neapolitan evidence in a discussion of the physical remains of ancient cities and their development in the early medieval period. On Rome, Hubert, Etienne, Espace Urbain et Habitat à Rome (Rome, 1990), 74–83Google Scholar, addresses the problem of ruralization. Other major work, mostly on the North, includes that of Hudson, Cristina La Rocca: ‘Città altomedievali, storia e archeologia’, Studi Storici iii (1986), 725–35Google Scholar; ‘“Dark Ages” a Verona’, Archeologia Medievale xiii (1986), 31–78Google Scholar; and ‘Trasformazioni della città altomedievale in “Longobardia”’, Studi Storici iv (1989), 993–1011Google Scholar; also Brogiolo, G., ‘A proposto dell'organizzazione urbana nell'altomedioevo’, Archeologia Medievale xiv (1987), 27–46Google Scholar (on Brescia). See also C. J. Wickham, ‘L'ltalia e l'alto medioevo’, ibid. xv (1988), 105–24, and id., ‘La città altomedievale: una nota sul dibattito in corso, ibid., 649–51.

5 Cassandro, G., ‘Il Ducato Bizantino’, Storia di Napoli II, i (Naples, 1969/1973)Google Scholar.

6 See, for example, work on nearby Gaeta: Skinner, P., ‘Noble families in Gaeta in the tenth century’, PBSR 60 (1992), 353–77Google Scholar.

7 On the Saracen attacks, Cilento, N., ‘I Saraceni nell'Italia meridionale’, A[rchivio] S[torico per le] P[rovince] N[ apoletane ], n.s.xxxviii (1959), 110–22Google Scholar; the point that city walls were not always defensive is made in Bordone, R., ‘La città nel X secolo’, in Settimane di Studio xxxviii, Il Secolo di Fern: Mito e Realtà del Secolo X (Spoleto, 1991), 527Google Scholar, which also seeks to define what elements made up a tenth-century ‘city’.

8 For a discussion of the walls of the city, Capasso, B., ‘Pianta della città di Napoli nel secolo XI’, ASPN xvi (1891), 834ff.Google Scholar

9 Bordone, ‘Citta’, cit., 528–29.

10 Its nearest rival was the port of Bari in Puglia; these are still the two most important urbancentres of the Mezzogiorno.

11 Kreutz, B., Before the Normans (Philadelphia, 1991), 165Google Scholar, n. 49.

12 Capasso, B., ‘Pianta della città di Napoli nel secolo XI’, ASPN xvi (1891), 832–62Google Scholar; xvii(1892), 422-84; xviii (1893), 679-726, 851-81, 105-25, 316-63.

13 Medieval Milan shows a similar ‘vacuum’ precisely around the area of the ducal palace (pers. comm. Ross Balzaretti; I am grateful to him for this insight); nearer to Naples, it is striking that Gaeta's ducal palace is documented as ‘extending to the sea’ in the will of its duke Docibilis II, Codex Diplomaticus Cajetanus, I (Montecassino, 1887)Google Scholar, document 52 (954); in Amalfi, too, the property controlled by the ducal family seems to have included the flat land near the seashore (the planum Amalfi): in ?1006 a member of a cadet branch is recorded as owning land there, Codice Perris, ed. Mazzoleni, J. and Orefice, R. (Amalfi, 1985)Google Scholar, document 82; the land was still the ruler's a century later, when duke Roger granted it out, Codice Diplomatico Amalfitano, ed. Candida, R. Filangieri di, II (Trani, 1951), document 595 (1104)Google Scholar.

14 Capasso, , ‘Pianta’, cit., part 2, ASPN xvii, 1892, 435Google Scholar.

15 For example, Cristina La Rocca Hudson, ‘“Dark Ages” a Verona’, cit.

16 Arthur, ‘Archeologia’, 522.

17 RN 27.

18 RN 241.

19 RN 118.

20 Regii Neapolitani Archivii Monumenta, ed. Baffi, M. et al. I (Naples, 1845)Google Scholar, document no. 7, describes SS. Sergius and Bacchus as ‘now congregated in the monastery of SS. Theodore and Sebastian’ in 920.

21 Capasso, , Monumenta II, iiGoogle Scholar, Diplomata et chartae ducum Neapolis, document 1, hereafter DCDK.

22 RN 38.

23 Cassandro, op. cit., 21.

24 Ibid.

25 RN 245, 270.

26 See above, n. 18.

27 Magdalino, P., ‘Church, bath and diakonia in medieval Constantinople’, in Church and People in Byzantium, ed. Morris, R. (Birmingham, 1990), 167Google Scholar.

28 Ward-Perkins, B., From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Public Building in Northern and Central Italy 300–850, (Oxford, 1984), 140Google Scholar.

29 RN 11.

30 The cathedrals of Gaeta and Amalfi are sited on earlier foundations in those cities' main thoroughfares, the cathedral of Terracina is associated with the former Roman forum and surviving medieval churches in Salerno also front its main streets. Churches were not simply founded to attract gifts, however; they were also signs of their founders' wealth and generosity and, in cities of Roman origin, may indicate a continuing sense of patronage on the part of surviving noble families: Fevrier, op. cit., 130. In Naples, when bishop Agnellus (late seventh century) founded the church of St. Ianuarius, he made provision for the distribution of wheat, wine, soap and silver, recalling strongly the goods handed out in the Roman period, ibid., 134.

31 RN 206, 286, 364, 421.

32 RN 435.

33 Arthur, , ‘Naples’, 768Google Scholar.

34 In 1040: Codex Diplomaticus Cajetanus I, document 174; later examples occur in 1087, ibid., document 258, and in 1108 and 1119, ibid., II, documents 283 and 292.

35 On houses elsewhere: Ravenna: Ortalli, J., ‘L'edilizia abitativa’, in Storia di Ravenna II, i (Venice, 1991), 167–92Google Scholar; Amalfitan houses are documented as having two storeys in 946, Codice Perris, cit., document 43, but later on seem to have become much higher, owing to the limited room for expansion available in the city: Gargano, G., ‘La casa medievale amalfitana’ Rassegna del Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana ix, no. 7 (1989), 113–28Google Scholar, cites twelfth-century evidence for multi-storey buildings.

36 For example, a wooden house recorded in 980, Codex Diplomaticaus Cajetanus I, document no. 75, measured approximately six metres by seven. This did not, however, belong to members of the nobility, whose properties were probably larger.

37 In a document from Rome a wooden house built in the Forum is recorded as being approached by a reused flight of marble steps in 982: Fedele, P., ‘Tabularium S. Mariae Novae, 982–1200’, Archivio della Società Romana per la Storia Patria xxiii (1900), 182Google Scholar. (My thanks are due to Bernard Hamilton for pointing out this parallel.) On Rome between the tenth and thirteenth centuries generally, Hubert, Espace Urbain, cit.

38 Wings, : RN 237Google Scholar.

39 RN 187.

40 RN 294; for more on the smiths, see below.

41 RN 99.

42 RN 181.

43 It is important to note here that ‘private’ is being used in its sense of ‘away from the public eye’, not as an opposite, in the property-owning sense, to ‘public’. The inhabitants of the Tyrrhenian cities at this time were very well aware of the distinction between private property and that owned by the public authorities, as their attempts to convert the latter into the former attest.

44 RN 19.

45 RN 243.

46 RN 132.

48 RN 203.

49 RN 323.

50 RN 70 (950).

51 RN 468 (1038).

52 For example, gifts or concessions were made to the monastery in 907 (see n. 21), 949 (DCDN 3), 975 (RN 208) and 998 (RN 306).

53 RN 181.

54 For more on John miles and his descendants see P. Skinner, ‘Noble families’, cit.

55 For more on this see P. Skinner, ‘Noble families’, cit.

56 Francesa Lagana, Luzzatti, ‘Le firme greche nei documenti del ducato di Napoli’, Studi Medievali, 3rd series, XXIII, ii (1982), n. 67Google Scholar, links the name with the existence of Isaurians in the army of Belisarius during the Gothic wars in Italy in the sixth century. Could Isauri have derived from ‘Isaurian’, placing the family's origins in the Byzantine East? It is possible, given that Greek culture and religion survived strongly in the city at this date. The family's connection with the city's Greek foundation of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, discussed presently, strengthens this possibility.

57 RN 6, 34, 68, 87, 111, 131, 185.

58 RN 109, 144, 299, 385, 463.

59 RN 6.

60 RN 29.

61 For example, an exchange of land in Caucilione in 936, RN 34; a gift of Balnearia land to the church in 963, RN 131, and another in 970, RN 185.

62 RN 111.

63 RN 185.

64 RN 317, 318.

65 RN 31.

66 RN 186.

67 See above, n. 40.

68 For example, Gregory son of Leo of the Pantaleo/Papalone clan bought land from all of John smith's children of the Cicino clan in 973, RN 195.

69 Miana: Gregory's purchases were in 965 (RN 144, RN 147), 971 (RN 188), 972 (RN 194) and 973 (RN 195, RN 197); Leo is recorded as a landowner there in 994 (RN 284) and 997 (RN 304), and bought more land in 1001 (RN 315) and 1005 (RN 322, RN 325). Marana: Gregory is not recorded as having made any purchases there; Leo bought up a portion of land co-inherited with Bonus the priest in 987 (RN 251) and made further purchases in 996 (RN 291) and 1013 (RN 349).

70 A dispute in 992 over a communal cart-track at Centum in Maranum between Leo and one Aligernus, son of Stephend e Pantaleone (who may have been part of the same smith clan but who cannot be placed with any certainty), ended in victory for Leo, , RN 276Google Scholar. Aligernus had protested that it went through his land; he seems subsequently to have sold the piece crossed by the path to Leo, , RN 296 (996)Google Scholar.

71 RN 305.

72 The execution of Maria's will in 994 reveals her to have owned land in her own right in Miana, , RN 284Google Scholar; her sister, Mira, was forced to pay four solidi for disputed land there in 997, RN 304, but later sold it to Papalone, Leo, RN 315 (1001)Google Scholar.

73 RN 284.

74 For example, Amalfitans, : RN 82, 90, 183, 397, 402, 412, 448, 485Google Scholar; Gaetans, : RN 85, 115, 351Google Scholar; a Pisan, : RN 469Google Scholar; as well as numerous Greeks and Sorrentans. ‘Sorrentinus’ may have become a surname.

75 RN 402.

76 Ficariola, : RN 47, RN 199, RN 387, RN 464Google Scholar; Marmorata, : RN 238Google Scholar.

77 RN 181, 274, 352, 407, 451.

78 Ibn Hawqal, Book of the Routes and the Kingdoms, extract trans. Lopez, R. and Raymond, I., Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (London, 1955), 54Google Scholar.

79 RN 181 (953); a lease document of 982 also specifies a rent partly paid in linen, RN 233, but it is unclear whether the tenant was responsible for growing it.

80 RN 23, 156, 280; all three men mentioned were named Peter, and whilst we cannot definitely relate them to each other the likelihood of this being two or three generations of the same family cannot be dismissed.

81 RN 101, 197; his name was Aligernus.

82 RN 289 (995); he is documented as owning rural land, but it is likely that his trade was urban-based.

83 Again a rural property-owner, RN 89 (956).

84 RN 201 (974).

85 Arthur, , ‘Naples’, cit., 772Google Scholar.

86 Op. cit., 237.

87 Mauro, whose sons are documented: RN 26, 31, 34, 36, 42, 45; John laudibili medicus f. Gregory clarissimi medici: RN 461; John: RN 115, 190, 197, 200; Scauracius: RN 14; Tiberius medicus and prefect: RN 56, 57. The other three are documented in following footnotes.

88 Gregory priest and medicus, RN 146, 148, 162, 179.

89 John, son of Stephen, Franci et medici, RN 440Google Scholar.

90 RN 23.

91 Kreutz, , Before the Normans, cit., 144–47Google Scholar, discusses early evidence of the city's reputation. See also, Kristeller, P. O., ‘The school of Salerno, its development and its contribution to the history of learning’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine xvii (1945), 138–94Google Scholar; idem, ‘La scuola medica di Salerno secondo ricerchee scoperte recenti’, Quaderni del Centra Studi e Documentazione della Scuola Medica Salernitana v (1980).

92 Op. cit., 233.

93 Nova, Porta: RN 274Google Scholar; vico Virginum, : RN 181Google Scholar.

94 RN 423.

95 Although they are always identified simply as ‘Amalfitans’ or ‘Atranians’, never by a specific street.

96 Capasso, , ‘Pianta’, 861Google Scholar.

97 For example, those of Michael, St., RN 421Google Scholar.

98 They may be similar to the localized and group-orientated lay piety, particularly amongst the lower social strata, emerging in northern Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries: Miller, M. C., ‘Donors, their gifts and religious innovation in medieval Verona’, Speculum 66 (1991), especially 34Google Scholar (the convivium of the church of St. Felicita) and 40. (My thanks are due to Cristina La Rocca for pointing out this parallel.)

99 RN 359; the staurites had been in existence since at least 962, RN 124.

100 Another rural church which seems to have been the focus of this type of group was Sossus, St. in Nepetianum (Nipititum): RN 445 (1033)Google Scholar records one Peter priest and staurita. For a discussion of other types of pious association in the Byzantine empire see Magdalino, , ‘Church, bath and diakonia’, cit., 180Google Scholar.

101 RN 96.

102 RN 14.

103 RN 5.

104 RN 243; a Samuel ebreus was a landowner there in 1016, RN 366.

105 RN 234, 332, 419, 479.

106 RN 113 (960) records Pitru's appointment of the priest of the church of St. Peter (modern S. Pietro a Paterno).

107 RN 99 (957), RN 132 (963), RN 141 (965), RN 181 (970).

108 RN 102.

109 RN 113.

110 RN 116.

111 RN 201.

112 RN 211.

113 Benton, J. F., ‘Trotula, women's problems and the professionalization of medicine in the middle ages’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine lix (1985), 30–53Google Scholar; Green, M., ‘Women's medical practice and health care in medieval Europe’, in Sisters and Workers in the Middle Ages, ed. Bennett, J. M. (Chicago, 1989), 39–78Google Scholar.

114 RN 284 (994).

115 Skinner, P., ‘Women, wills and wealth in southern Italy, c. 800–1100’, Early Medieval Europe ii (1993), 133–52Google Scholar.

116 RN 218; this in itself is not a conclusive example, as Gemma was still taking her identity from that of the men around her, and the use of her father's name may simply indicate that the Pappadeum family was richer and/or more important than the Cannabari (if so, they have left no evidence of it in the documents). However, there are so many examples of unidentifiable women who are simply recorded as ‘wife of’, and have no other distinguishing name, that those women who did identify themselves further must have had a reason to do so, perhaps because they were wealthy heiresses. It may be significant in this context that Gemma was a widow; widows as a group seem to have had more independence of action in the Byzantine world, of which Naples and its district was a relic. On this, see Skinner, ‘Women’, cit.

117 RN 428 (1031).

118 A survey of named individuals in Naples to 1050 reveals a total of just under 2900 men and women. Of these about 500 were women, almost half of whom were named Maria or its variant, Maru. Of the c. 2400 men a quarter were named John, 272 Peter, 237 Stephen, 229 Gregory, 216 Sergius, and 160 Leo. Or, to put it another way, three-quarters of the Neapolitan male population had one of these six names. This is only a rough indication of the problem, however; the limited pool of names, many without surnames in the documents, makes secure identification of each individual for the purposes of listing well-nigh impossible.

119 Cassandro, op. cit., 206.