«Pro tanti beneficii memoria»: i Miracula di Giusto e Clemente, Volterra e la Tuscia tra XI e XII secolo

The Miracula Iusti et Clementis, a hagiography written in Volterra in the mid-12th century, recounts the miracles that Justus and Clement performed in Volterra and Tuscany in the first decades of the 12th century. The essay centers on the causa scribendi of this hagiography. It suggests reading the Miracula as a ‘political’ text with a marked polemical character, supporting the monks of the monastery entitled to the saints against the canons of the cathedral. The monastery (founded by bishop Gunfredo in 1034) was meant to play a new central cultic and political role in a time of political change. The canons perceived this centrality as a threat to their status. The Miracula should then be read as a piece of the political-memorial operation promoted by the monks to vindicate their position.