5 - Was There a Carolingian Italy?

Summary

That the kingdom of Italy was ‘Carolingian’ was obvious to everyone in the ninth century. Political integration was achieved. By the 810s, one generation after the conquest, the ruling counts were Franks, Alemans, Bavarians. With Louis II, Italy had a king physically present from 840, and from 850 an emperor totally devoted to the kingdom. Legislation, justice, ecclesiastical reforms were going in the same direction on both sides of the Alps. By contrast, the area of culture illustrates the limits of integration. Of the 7,650 manuscripts attributed to the ninth century and summarily catalogued by Bernhard Bischoff, not even one in ten was copied in the peninsula. Was the need for books less urgent here than in the north? The type of intellectual production was also different. The genres considered as ‘typically’ Carolingian – the exegetical commentaries, the mirrors of princes, the theological and doctrinal treatises – these are decidedly not the work of Italy, or of Italians. Not only was Italy not producing much, but it was not very receptive to what was going on elsewhere. It seems to be because the culture of the kingdom of Italy had a strong secular stamp, which distinguished it from that of the others.