Settimana di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo

Settimana di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo. An annual academic conference dedicated to the study of the Early Middle Ages, held in Spoleto, Italy. Founded in 1952 by Giuseppe Ermini, it is organized by the Fondazione Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo and has become one of the world's most prestigious and enduring forums for medievalists. The conference gathers leading scholars to present interdisciplinary research on the political, cultural, religious, and social history of the period between Late Antiquity and the year 1000.

History and origins

The conference was established in the post-war period as part of a broader revival of historical studies in Italy, spearheaded by the jurist and rector Giuseppe Ermini. Its inaugural meeting in 1952 was held under the auspices of the University of Perugia and aimed to create a dedicated, rigorous space for advancing knowledge of the Early Middle Ages, a field then undergoing significant reinterpretation. The choice of Spoleto as the permanent venue was strategic, given the city's historical significance as the capital of the Lombard Kingdom of Spoleto and its rich medieval heritage. The founding was contemporaneous with other major scholarly initiatives like the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and influenced by the methodologies of historians such as Henri Pirenne and Marc Bloch.

Organization and structure

The conference is organized annually by the Fondazione Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, an institution created to manage the event and its related publications. Each "Settimana" is a week-long intensive program typically held in April at the former monastery of Santo Stefano in Spoleto. The structure revolves around a central, unifying theme selected years in advance, with days dedicated to specific sub-topics. Proceedings involve a series of keynote lectures, panel discussions, and presentations by invited specialists from across Europe and North America. The organization maintains close ties with major research institutions, including the École française de Rome and the German Historical Institute in Rome.

Themes and research focus

The conference's thematic focus is deliberately interdisciplinary, examining the Early Middle Ages through the lenses of archaeology, art history, philology, palaeography, and social history. Recurring themes have included the transformation of the Roman world, the barbarian invasions, the rise of monasticism, the Carolingian Renaissance, and the development of feudalism. Specific meetings have addressed topics such as "The Church and the Economy in the Early Middle Ages", "The Mediterranean between the 7th and 9th Centuries", and "The Kingdom of the Lombards". This approach has fostered comparative studies between regions like Byzantine Italy, Visigothic Spain, and the Frankish Kingdom.

Notable participants and contributions

The conference has attracted the most eminent medievalists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Early influential participants included Ottorino Bertolini, Giovanni Tabacco, and Philip Grierson, whose work on numismatics was frequently featured. International scholars like Peter Brown, Jacques Le Goff, Walter Ullmann, and Michael McCormick have presented groundbreaking research there. Italian historians such as Cinzio Violante, Ovidio Capitani, and Andrea Giardina have also been central figures. Their collective contributions, published in the conference's prestigious proceedings, have fundamentally shaped modern understanding of periods like the Age of Charlemagne and the Ottonian dynasty.

Impact and legacy

The enduring impact of the Settimana di Studi is profound, having established Spoleto as a global epicenter for medieval studies. Its published proceedings, the *Atti delle Settimane di Studio*, constitute an essential and vast scholarly corpus, cited universally in the field. The conference has nurtured generations of scholars and facilitated crucial international dialogue, often bridging different national historiographical traditions from France to Germany. Its model of sustained, thematic inquiry has influenced other major conferences, including the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University. The ongoing work presented at Spoleto continues to drive reinterpretations of pivotal transitions, such as the end of the Western Roman Empire and the formation of Christian Europe. Category:Academic conferences Category:Medieval studies Category:Organizations based in Italy