The Commune of Benevento (1128–1131): A South Italian Contribution to the Communal Movement

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the formation of a commune at Benevento in the twelfth century. In this south Italian city, which was under papal overlordship, a commune emerged, briefly but spectacularly, in the years 1128–31. Its existence has been almost completely overlooked in the wider narrative of the rise of medieval urban communes and in Beneventan scholarship itself. The particular value of an understanding of the Beneventan Commune is threefold. Firstly, the timing of its creation situates it firmly within an important formative and contested stage in the wider communal movement. Secondly, the Commune’s emergence was recorded in a contemporary chronicle by Falco of Benevento. Thirdly, Falco, a layman, was a highly acute observer of and participant in urban affairs, and was arguably the ‘first notary-chronicler of Christian Europe’. His chronicle precedes the more recognised body of works by notary-chroniclers produced from around the mid-twelfth century onwards in northern and central Italy, the hotbed of the communal movement. As a city notary (and judge) Falco was a well-informed observer, close to several of the key actors in the dramatic events he records. Moreover, his perspective on the communal movement deviates from other dominant contemporary discourses disseminated in often hostile ecclesiastical narratives. His voice on the commune is well worth listening to. An analysis of the Beneventan Commune—of its origins, agenda, organisation, and Falco’s perspective on it—therefore offers a unique contribution to the narrative of the wider emergence of the medieval commune.