Venice and Its Neighbors from the 8th to 11th Century (Medieval Mediterranean)

201 Pages·2017·8.945 MB·English

by  Gelichi Sauro

Venice and Its Neighbors from the 8th to 11th Century
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The Medieval Mediterranean
Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500
Managing Editor
Frances Andrews (St. Andrews)
Editors
Tamar Herzig (Tel Aviv)
Paul Magdalino (St. Andrews)
Larry J. Simon (Western Michigan University)
Daniel Lord Smail (Harvard University)
Jo Van Steenbergen (Ghent University)
Advisory Board
David Abulafia (Cambridge)
Benjamin Arbel (Tel Aviv)
Hugh Kennedy (soas, London)
VOLUME 111
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mmed
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Venice and Its Neighbors from
the 8th to 11th Century
Through Renovation and Continuity
Edited by
Sauro Gelichi
Stefano Gasparri
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Drawing of a fragment of mosaic from the monastery of Sant’Ilario and Benedetto di
Mira (9th century?), Southern Venetian Lagoon.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
lc record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2017040756
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0928-5520
isbn 978-90-04-35240-7 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-35361-9 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Contents
List of Figures  vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction 1
Stefano Gasparri and Sauro Gelichi
1 The First Dukes and the Origins of Venice 5
Stefano Gasparri
2 Archival Documents as Narrative: The Sources of the Istoria Veneticorum
and the Plea of Rižana 27
Annamaria Pazienza
3 The Waterfront of Istria: Sea and Identity in the post-Roman
Adriatic 51
Francesco Borri
4 Disputes and Connections: Venice’s Affairs in the Regnum Italiae 68
Chiara Provesi
5 The Insula Equilus: A Lagoon Community in
the Early Middle Ages 90
Silvia Cadamuro, Alessandra Cianciosi and Claudio Negrelli
6 Setting the Scene: The Role of Sant’Ilario Monastery in Early Medieval
Venice in Light of Recent Landscape Studies 116
Elisa Corrò, Cecilia Moine and Sandra Primon
7 Comacchio: A Liminal Community in a Nodal Point during the Early
Middle Ages 142
Sauro Gelichi
Conclusion 168
Sauro Gelichi and Stefano Gasparri
Bibliography 173
Index 182
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List of Figures

5.1 Jesolo in relation to Venice 91
5.2 Aerial photograph of the Jesolo coast (1977) 92
5.3 Jesolo and Eraclea lagoons before the 16th century 94
5.4 A comparison between ancient cartography (a): the map drawn by Angelo dal
Cortivo (1532) and (b) photo-interpretation by Sandra Primon 95
5.5 The map by Nicolò dal Cortivo (1539), interpreted by Sandra Primon 96
5.6 Aerial photograph (ReVen, Venice, 2005) 97
5.7 Archaeological evaluation, interpreted by Paolo Mozzi and Sandra Primon 98
5.8 Interpretation of landscape around Jesolo during the Middle Ages 99
5.9 Jesolo, Le Mura: archaeological excavations (2013–2015) 101
5.10 Jesolo 2014: excavation of the late ancient settlement: thick yellow sandy fills
prepare ground for the construction of buildings 101
5.11 Jesolo 2015: orto-photo of the late ancient building (5th century) 102
5.12 Plan of the 7th-century cemetery: 48 tombs excavated (three examples
shown) 103
5.13 Jesolo 2015: African and Oriental imported finds during excavation 105
5.14 Jesolo 2015: One of the structured fireplaces that equipped the 5th-century
building 106
5.15 Jesolo 2014: Interpretation of buildings and workshops used for iron-working
activities 107
5.16 The Cathedral of Jesolo: a comparison between historical photo, before 1903
and today’s ruins 108
5.17 Jesolo 2015: A recent orto-photo of the Cathedral’s ruins 109
5.18 Interpreted plan of older religious buildings 109
5.19 A fragment of geometric patterned mosaic floors from the Basilica 110
5.20 North African Red Slip ware from Jesolo 112
5.21 The iron-working activities in the site are attested by carbon layers (a), forges
(b), and a well (c) 113
6.1 Location of the ancient site of Sant’Ilario monastery 117
6.2 Diagram of the area controlled by the monks when they moved to
Sant’Ilario 121
6.3 Distribution of religious institutions during the 9th century 121
6.4 Diagram of the present landscape around the ancient site of Sant’Ilario
monastery 124
6.5 Geomorphologic structure of the area around the monastery of Sant’Ilario 127
6.6 Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of Sant’Ilario: Early Middle Ages 129
6.7 Distribution of farms outside Saint’Ilario boundaries in the 9th century 132
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viii List of Figures
6.8 Diagram of the area controlled by the monks of Saint’Ilario after Pladano 133
6.9 Geomorphologic structure of the area around the monastery of Sant’Ilario: the
Early Middle Ages 133
6.10 Geomorphologic structure of the area around the monastery of Sant’Ilario after
the arrival of the Brenta River 136
6.11 Diagram of the landscape of Saint’Ilario after the arrival of the Brenta
River 136
6.12 Distribution of farms between the 11th and 12th centuries 139
7.1 Location of Comacchio 143
7.2 Plan of Comacchio and the main excavation areas: (1) Piazza xx Settembre, (2)
Villaggio San Francesco 145
7.3 Reconstruction of the territory of Comacchio during the Early Middle Ages
(land and lagoons) 147
7.4 The inscription of the first bishop of Comacchio (about 723?) 149
7.5 The inscription of Exarch Isacius 150
7.6 Comacchio, piazza xx Settembre. Workshop in Comacchio 154
7.7 Comacchio, piazza xx Settembre. Small necropolis (second half of 8th
century) 155
7.8 Comacchio, piazza xx Settembre. Evidence of glassmaking 156
7.9 Comacchio, piazza xx Settembre. Matrix for glass cameos and related cameo on
the capsella from Cividale 157
7.10 Comacchio, piazza xx Settembre. Matrix for bronze letter 158
7.11 Comacchio, unglazed ware (8th–9th century) 159
7.12 Comacchio, piazza xx Settembre. Spolia from the early medieval episcopal
church 165
7.13 Comacchio, cathedral. Sarcophagus of Stefanus (9th century) 166
7.14 Comacchio, piazza xx Settembre. Early medieval decorative stone from the
episcopal church 167
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Notes on Contributors
Francesco Borri
is Lecturer at the University of Vienna and Research Fellow at the Institute for
Medieval Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Among his most recent
publications: Alboino: Frammenti di un racconto (vi–xi secolo) (Rome: Viella,
2016).
Silvia Cadamuro
holds a Masters Degree in Medieval Archaeology. Her researches are mainly
focused on the study of Late Roman and early medieval pottery, but also in
the development of settlements between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
She has worked particularly in Northern Italy sites, but also in Montenegro
(Archaeological Research in Stari Bar) in 2006 and 2009.
Alessandra Cianciosi
who holds a Ph.D. in Medieval History, is a post-doc researcher in the Depart-
ment of Humanistic Studies, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice. Her research area
focuses on the landscape archaeology and the development of settlements
between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. She has joined archaeological
projects in Northern Italy, managing different steps of research, from the exca-
vation to the conception of museum exhibitions and workshops. An additional
experience is in student training in field-archaeology and as a museum-based
educator for children.
Elisa Corrò
received a m.s. degree in archeology from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
(2010), a p.m. degree in preventive archaeology and archaeological risk man-
agement from Luiss Business School of Rome (2013) and a Ph.D. in geoarchae-
ology from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2016). Her experience is in risk
modeling and mining, and in various aspects of landscape archaeology, en-
vironmental geology, palaeohydrological, and extreme events of the Po delta
(Northern Italy).
Stefano Gasparri
is a Full Professor of Medieval History at the University of Ca’ Foscari. He has
published monographs and many articles on Italian history of the Early Middle
Ages. He is co-founder of the website “Reti Medievali. Iniziative on line per
gli studi medievistici,” director of the Centro interuniversitario per la storia
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x Notes on Contributors
e l’archeologia dell’alto medio (saame), and president of sismed (Società de-
gli storici medievisti italiani).
Sauro Gelichi
is a Full Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Ca’ Foscari. He
has been director of many archaeological researches both in Italy and outside
(Tunisia, Syria, Turkey, Montenegro) and has published monographs and many
articles on archaeological and historical subjects. He is the main editor of the
Journal Archeologia Medievale.
Cecilia Moine
received a masters in Medieval Archaeology form Ca’ Foscari University of Ven-
ice (2009) with a dissertation concerning the convents of the northern lagoon
and their relationship to landscape (which was awarded the Premio Ottone
d’Assia and published). She received a Ph.D. (2014) on the identity of late medi-
eval convents through material culture. Experienced in Venetian studies, from
2014 to 2016 she developed the landscape analysis project of Sant’Ilario as a
post-doctoral researcher at Ca’ Foscari University.
Claudio Negrelli
has received degrees in Ancient History (University of Bologna) and from the
Graduate School of Medieval Archaeology Late Antiquity-Early Middle Ages
(University of Pisa). He teaches Medieval Topography at the University Ca’ Fos-
cari of Venice and at the Graduate School in Archaeology “sisba,” as well as
Medieval Archaeology at the University of Ferrara.
He has experience both in archaeological excavations and in surface sur-
vey in Italy and in general in Mediterranean area (Turkey, Montenegro). His
researches are on archaeological artifacts, Roman, Late Antique, and early me-
dieval and medieval pottery.
Annamaria Pazienza
who received a Ph.D. (2009) in Medieval History from the University of Padua,
is a research fellow at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice. Her main interests of
study are the history and archaeology of the Lombards in Italy and the early
medieval history of Venice, on which she has published several articles.
Sandra Primon
received a master in Geological Sciences form the University of Padova (1988)
and is now a freelance geologist, with expertise in the geology of plains, remote
sensing, and photo-interpretation applied to the geomorphology of coastal
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