Hortus Artium Medievalium

The early medieval church of Montecorvino Rovella (Salerno) has been known since the 1980s for its high-quality wall paintings - a Virgin Theotokos surrounded by Saints Ambrose, Simplicianus, Gervasius and Protasius - which raise important iconographic and historical questions."This contribution illustrates the first results of a multidisciplinary project, with observations on the cultural links between Montecorvino Rovella and the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno. Initial results suggest that the church was closely linked to the Carolingian world, although standing firmly in Lombard territory. Stratigraphic analyses have identified a unitary campaign of paintings covering the entire church, and ultraviolet/infrared photography has revealed geometric preparatory drawings in the apse. The review of old excavation reports also allows us to propose a new interpretation of the site as an elite funerary church. Finally, the geophysical surveys conducted inside and outside the church open promising avenues for a new campaign of excavations.

The aim of the paper is to show how raw materials were reaching the San Vincenzo al Volturno abbey, and to identify where they were temporarily stored before the manufacturing process. I will focus on worked bones and leather that have been aplenty found during the recent excavations of the quays. The docking of San Vincenzo comprised a masonry quay which was flanked by two piers, a large wooden platform and a waterfront made of half-poles.

The article discusses the origin and dating of pre-Romanesque chancel screen arches and gables. The discussion was occasioned by the finding of a stone architrave with obliquely cut endings at Bribir in the hinterland of Šibenik, which can be explained as part of a new type of gable composed of two angled architraves. Attention is also drawn to the numerousness of such findings in Dalmatia when compared to other parts of Europe. The example of a chancel screen gable from Cista, probably the earliest of all, speaks in favour of the idea that this particular element of early medieval liturgical furnishings may have originated in Dalmatia.

El acta de consagración de la Seu d'Urgell, fechada en el año 819, es uno de los documentos más controvertidos y conocidos de la historia medieval catalana. Su antigüedad, así como el número de parroquias sujetas a la sede episcopal de Urgell que recoge, han convertido este documento en una fuente básica de muchos estudios históricos y de otras disciplinas. Aun así, el acta en cuestión presenta un conjunto de contradicciones internas que han obligado a considerarlo un documento facticio, elaborado a posteriori de la datación textual que presenta. En las últimas décadas, los estudios sobre este documento, tanto si los autores lo consideran un falso elaborado con la voluntad de engañar como si le otorgan veracidad, se han centrado en intentar fechar el momento de su elaboración. En el presente estudio, a través del análisis del acta y del contexto histórico del territorio, intentaremos acotar la cronología de su elaboración y explicar los motivos que habrían llevado a un obispo urgelitano de principios del siglo xi a fabricar este documento.