L’organizzazione territoriale delle province minoritiche dell’Italia settentrionale nella prima metà del Duecento

Abstract

The contribution intends to focus on the subdivision of the provinces of the Friars Minor in northern Italy during the first half of the thirteenth century. Originally, the whole territory north of Tuscia between the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and the Alps constituted a single province (called Romagna or Lombardy). Pope Gregory IX’s letter Quo elongati (28th September 1230) marked the beginning of a new phase for the Order of Friars Minor, which led to an increase in pastoral and ecclesiastical activities and, within a short time, as regards territorial organisation, to the division of northern Italy into four provinces: Marca Trevigiana, province of Genoa, province of Milan, province of Romagna (or Bologna). A careful examination of the papal letters addressed to the Friars Minor of northern Italy, together with a comparison with other documentary sources, allows us to offer new considerations regarding this fluid phase, also in the terminology of the tasks undertaken by the friars. This is a fundamental moment in the history of the Order, in which it is important to take into consideration the mobility of the Friars Minor, in particular that of the provincial ministers, and the scholastic organisation.