Writing a Book about the Barbarians in Italy during Fascism and Reading It from the 1940s to the Early 2000s

Abstract

Abstract Il Medio Evo barbarico d’Italia (Italy’s Barbarian Middle Ages) by Gabriele Pepe, published in 1941 by Giulio Einaudi Editore, is undoubtedly the longest selling Italian book about the Middle Ages. The goal of this article is to examine the reasons for this success, how the period in which the book was written influenced the depiction of the early medieval period in Italy, and how the volume was interpreted and used from the 1940s to the early 2000s in Italy and abroad. Challenging the conclusions of many scholars who have maintained that this work represents a “Fascist product,” this essay also argues that several parts of this book can be interpreted as a criticism of the rise of the Nazis and of the alliance between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.