Moines et monastères dans les îles des mers Ligure et Tyrrhénienne (Corse, Sardaigne, archipel toscan et archipel ligure)

The monastic phenomenon in the insular Tyrhenian space has two big moments but, from a territory to an other, the development is done very differently. If, in the small islands, the terms of implementation, since the fifth-sixth centuries, concerning folded on themselves communities, wich we still don’t know the form, we know them more in Sardinia where it’s essentially urban or sub-urban monasteries. A first ephemeral wave is from the Vandal time, limited in Cagliari and related to the bishop Fulgence of Ruspe, wich stayed in exile there, before to return in Africa during the byzantian reconquest. Then, we have to wait the correspondence of Grégoire le Grand to find stabler forms, this time mostly related to the management of the heritage legated from rich families. However, the Corsica seems to stay totally out of this first expansion. In the Middle Age, micro-territories like the islands of Montecristo, Gorgone, Tino, Gallinara, Bergeggi... retain a strong attraction for structurated monastic communities wich act as a basis for the development of big monasteries wich the radiation has not any common measure with this islands’ modesty. They find political support strong enough to build powerful territorial lordships in Tuscany and in Liguria, but also in Corsica. However, there isn’t any monastery implanted in the island. It’s quite different in Sardinia where, both bishops and judges-kings, ask for the installation of big abbeys and promote very soon their development.