Before the canon houses. A reform at the domus episcopi of Lucca in the Lombard period

Abstract

The essay investigates the repercussions of mid‐eighth‐century reforms on the urban clergy of northern Italy. A detailed study reveals that a hitherto unknown reform project was undertaken in Lucca. The evidence comes from the analysis of numerous surviving manuscripts: these yielded some interesting findings that, after an introduction to the state of the field, are discussed in the central part of the article. The final part contains a brief reflection on some canonical collections that allows us to draw out some connections between western Tuscany and Verona and the Po Valley, thus indicating greater concerns with the state of the urban clergy in the Lombard kingdom than was hitherto thought.