La questione delle chiese doppie medievali presso i nuclei episcopali dell' Italia del Nord (secoli IX-XII): appunti per uno catalogo e una ricerca

Abstract

The author summarises and revises some of the details of his 1990 book on the double church in Lombardy and northern Italy. He briefly sketches its medieval evolution with the apparition of the cathedral parish, the privatisation of the liturgy of the hours and the creation of chapters. He draws attention to the multiple sanctuaries of the monasteries, to which further study must be devoted. This its followed by "cards" containing bibliographical and archaeological data, classified by regions, on what, presumably, are double churches: in Lombardy, Milan, Brescia, Pavia, Bergamo, Como, Cremona, Mantua; Aosta in the Val d'Aosta; Albenga in Liguria; in Piedmont, Susa, Turin, Asti, Vercelli, Biella; in Emilia-Romagna, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, San Leone; in Veneto, Verona, Torcello, Trevisa, Feltre; Aquileia, Grado, Trieste in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Plans are not reproduced; they are mostly hypothetical and given in the 1990 book. In the conclusion, the author underscores the continuity from Late Antiquity. No double church seems to date from Carolingian times, but the canonical reform, disturbed by the Ambrosian tradition, creates a division between the bishop and the chapter, and engenders the distinction between maior and minor, and between hiemalis and aestiualis. However, a total separation does not occur. During the Romanesque period, new double cathedrals appeared. At this time the concept of a cathedral parish is attached to one of the churches.