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theses

This dissertation examines a series of seven chroniclers and a diarist of L’Aquila, who wrote about local events in verse and in prose between the early fourteenth and the early sixteenth centuries. The city is located in central Italy, but was at the northern end of the kingdom of Naples (the Regno). L’Aquila’s first chronicler, Buccio di Ranallo, began by going back to the city’s foundation in 1254 and then continued to 1362. Subsequent writers carried on the narration almost continuously until Vincenzo Basilii concluded with a description of L’Aquila being subjected to a penalty of one hundred thousand ducats in 1529. Like a biography, L’Aquila’s chronicle tradition covered the city’s life from its birth to its near extinction. I believe that the Aquilan chronicles can be compared with those in northern Italy. For a long time, however, the opposite view has been influential, though less so in recent years. This argument has held that a city in the Regno could not have civic consciousness by the very fact of it being part of a monarchical state. Rather than focusing on the court, the Aquilan writers primarily discussed events relating to the city. Buccio’s description of L’Aquila’s origins, which had value for subsequent writers, emphasized the inhabitants’ unity and examined the qualities of their leaders. He and the later chroniclers continued this internal political theme by assessing the effectiveness of the city’s local administration and its ability to cope with threats. They described complex forms of civic leadership, showing participation in decisions variously by the commune, signori, patrons, and royal captains. The narrations after the mid-1330s also revealed that local crises arose periodically, due to factionalism and the impact of uncertainty at the national level. Finally, just as chroniclers in northern Italy sometimes looked to their cities’ overriding powers, the Aquilan authors portrayed the city negotiating its relationship with the monarchy. While they found that the relationship was usually balanced during the Angevin era, the writers could be critical of the monarchs, especially later, and even depicted the citizens having recourse to the papacy for support.

ETD_6588

doi:10.7282/T3NV9M7M

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Nigel A. Gillah

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.