Carolingian Narratives in Italy (matière de France)

Carolingian, from Carolus, Latin for Charles, refers to the tradition of Charlemagne and his descendants. “Carolingian narratives” is the expression used here for what the French call “matière de France,” fictional accounts of Charlemagne and his court’s realm. Based on historical reality, Charlemagne’s reputation and deeds expanded rapidly in myths and models that continue into the present. The stories spread throughout western Europe, including the Italian Peninsula. Scholars are interested in how the stories spread, where they were popular and they developed, and how they were expanded over time. To respond to these directions, studies examine, first, when tales about Charlemagne and his court arrived in the Italian Peninsula, and how they got there, through physical evidence: legal registers, frescoes, sculptures, topographical and personal names, books, and other artifacts. Second, they study what was written about Charlemagne and where, in any language or genre: chronicles and fiction in French, Italian, Latin, dialect or combinations of them by Italians or those from Italy. And finally, they study the contexts in which the phenomenon of Charlemagne narratives appeared. Contexts in the plural, since the Italian Peninsula was a group of cities and city-states, some ruled more or less closely by outside parties. The best-known locales are Ferrara and the Veneto; Naples and Florence play important roles as well. It is difficult to separate “medieval” from “Renaissance” in Italian tradition; this article stops at the end of the fifteenth century, to encompass the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire (1453), the surrender of the last Muslim stronghold in Spain to Catholicism at Granada (1492), the landing of Columbus in the Americas (1492), and the invasion of the Italian Peninsula by Charles VIII (1494), which together signaled major changes in the geographical and cultural map of the time, and are, therefore, frequently heralded as the beginning of the Renaissance. History, art, and literature progress or change at different tempos and therefore a few indications of future directions conclude the article. Few scholars are able to follow all trends at once in multiple subject areas and geographical zones. The study of Carolingian material in Italy is therefore the ultimate in interdisciplinary study. This article is thus divided into five main areas: background surveys and reference materials; materials and references demonstrating the arrival of Carolingian materials in the Italian Peninsula; historical works of the time and historiography concerning them; critical approaches; and specific literary works.