Description
Book SynopsisA pioneering, comprehensive investigation into a major Italian monastery. The Benedictine abbey of Holy Trinity, Cava, has had a continuous existence since its foundation almost exactly a thousand years ago. From its modest beginnings, it developed during the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries into one of the wealthiest and most influential monasteries in southern Italy. This path-breaking study, based on many years research into the, largely unpublished, charters of Cava, begins by examining the growth of the abbey's congregation and property, and its struggle subsequently to defend its interests during the troubled thirteenth century. But, in addition, it uses the extensive evidence available to study its benefactors and dependents, administration and economy, and through this material to analyse the social and economic structures of the principality of Salerno. There is also a re-evaluation of the problem of forgery, practised on a large scale at Cava during the thirteenth century, a factor which has complicated and discouraged previous study of this important institution. A major advance both in the study of the south Italian Church and of the medieval Mezzogiorno during the central Middle Ages, the volume presents a vivid and detailed picture of local society and its workings, and of the families and individuals who had dealings with the abbey.
Trade ReviewThe Social World of the Abbey of Cava represents a deeply impressive piece of work offering a nuanced and multi-faceted reconstruction of a fascinating monastic institution. -- AL-MASAQ JOURNAL
G. A. Loud's thorough and innovative study of the sociopolitical contexts and institutional life of the abbey of Cava adroitly bridges social, institutional, and political history, and will be the standard historical work-for the foreseeable future-on the exterior life of Holy Trinity, Cava during its first three centuries. Loud does not restrict analysis to documents in Pergamene scelte, but provides a historiographically wide-ranging discussion of the administration, finances, political life, and socioeconomic entrenchment of Holy Trinity from its origins under the Lombards to the later thirteenth century. -- Mihow McKenny, University of Notre Dame * Fides et Historia *
Table of ContentsList of maps and charts Acknowledgements Abbreviations A note on the organisation and publication of the Cava archive Dates Currency, weights and measures The Abbots of Cava, c. 1020-1300 Introduction Part I: the Abbey of Cava (1) The Origins of the Abbey of Cava: from hermitage to monastery (2) The Era of growth c. 1076-1190 (3) Defending monastic lordship, c. 1190-1300 (4) Forgery, its extent and purpose Part II: Society and Economy (5) Landscape and Environment (6) Patrons and Benefactors (7) Family Connections (8) Administration and Personnel (9) Lordship (10) Peasants, their obligations and the exploitation of Cava's lands (11) The monastery, the city and the regional economy Conclusion Appendix: Purchase and Expenditure by the Abbey of Cava, at Selected Periods between 1175-1230 Bibliography Index
