3 - Talking about the Carolingians in Eighth- and Ninth-Century Italy

Summary

One interesting way to discern how Carolingian ninth-century Italy actually was is to look at major narrative sources produced in Italy at that time and see how often and in what ways they talked about the Carolingians. This chapter looks in particular at History of the Lombards in the Gotha Codex, the history of Andreas of Bergamo, the Roman Liber Pontificalis,  Agnellus of Ravenna’s Book of Pontiffs, the Chronicle of Benedict of Monte Casino and the History of the Lombards of Benevento by Erchempert. One finds that Carolingians are mentioned surprisingly infrequently apart from the era of Louis II, and he turns out to have been a rather polarizing figure. Major wars and political struggles in southern Italy feature Carolingians only tangentially. Carolingians appear sporadically on the Roman scene. Carolingians appear infrequently in accounts fo development sin northern Italy. Reading the narrative sources would not lead one to speak of a 'Carolingian' Italy.