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George Holmes, Florence and Its Church in the Age of Dante, The English Historical Review, Volume CXXII, Issue 498, September 2007, Page 1074, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cem225
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Extract
The church in the age of Dante was pretty fully covered by Robert Davidsohn a century ago in his Geschichte von Florenz (1908) and the four volumes of his Forschungen Zur älteren Geschichte von Florenz (1896–1908, rev. ante, xviii [1903], 156–9 and xxvi [1911], 371–8), with an unrivalled knowledge of the archives of Tuscany. In contrast with Davidsohn, Professor Dameron is aiming at a picture rather than a narrative and his book is largely confined to Florence and its diocese. His book has also been able to use later publications, particularly those by De la Roncière on the countryside. He also makes even fuller use than Davidsohn of the documents among the notarial archives in the Archivio di Stato and of the archiepiscopal and capitular archives. The book in fact extends beyond the ‘age of Dante’ to tell us about events in the mid-fourteenth century, which indicate how similar ecclesiastical history was in Tuscany to other parts of Europe, in the time of falling population and rents and rising wages; it also extends backward to include the life of the Blessed Umiliana Cerchi, who died in 1346. We are given a very full account of the behaviour of priests and archpriests, links with the papacy, including papal attempts to extend control over San Lorenzo, and the patronage rights of the cathedral chapter. There is an interesting account of hospitals, emphasising the large number of beds. Full attention is given to the involvement of major families, such as the Mozzi, Orsi and Frescobaldi, by holding episcopal and other ecclesiastical positions. The thirty-nine confraternities which existed at this period have a section. Dameron provides a great deal of useful information about property held by priests and monasteries in the countryside, tithes and the great importance of the abbey of Passignano in the contado. He is at pains to emphasise the intimate connection between the commune and the bishopric. He sees the clergy as making important contributions to the economic and social expansion of the city during the period of rapid commercial expansion which was Dante's lifetime. He has something to say about notable intellectuals, especially Giordano da Pisa and Remigio dei Girolami, but he does not speculate much about the general intellectual life of the mendicants and their studia, which may have been important for Dante. The Spiritual Franciscans and the inquisition are mentioned. On the whole, however, Dameron avoids attention to controversy. The reader who is interested in the conflict of the Cerchi with Boniface VIII or in the exile of Dante may be a little disappointed. In Italy this was after all a time of violent ecclesiastical and political conflict. Conflict apart, however, Dameron does provide a scrupulously full account of the normal life of the diocese in its peaceful periods, not unlike the accounts of medieval English dioceses to which we are accustomed, and his very full exploitation of unprinted archival sources is impressive.
