Iacopo Stefaneschi

La relazione si propone di rintracciare la ricaduta in termini architettonici dell’evento più importante nella storia della città dell’Aquila: l’incoronazione di Celestino V nella basilica di Collemaggio, frutto di un’operazione religiosa e politica consapevolmente condotta intorno all’eremita del Morrone che, secondo la cultura millenaristica del tempo, realizzava l’avvento dell’età dello Spirito Santo di tradizione gioachimita, collocata in una nuova Gerusalemme.
In particolare ci si soffermerà sul significato e sulla funzione del portico a doppio fornice inserito nel primitivo fronte della basilica aquilana alla luce dei versi dell’Opus metricum con i quali il cardinale Jacopo Stefaneschi tramandò la cerimonia di incoronazione di Pietro del Morrone.

Between ancient and modern: Iacopo Stefaneschi and the literary culture of his time ·
This paper focuses on the so-called Opus metricum by Iacopo Stefaneschi, an important witness of the complex papal vicissitudes in the period between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It pays particular attention to the Prefatiuncula, in which Stefaneschi claims he wants to use the vetustior stilus and not the modernus. This statement, compared to some similar ones delivered by authors of the same period (from Dante to Giovanni del Virgilio), allows us to recognize as modernus the stilus of the Curia Romana (dominant in those centuries), characterized by metaphorical inventiveness and by plenty of cursus velox. In this way, Stefaneschi places himself on the same cultural line as other contemporary authors: a line of self-conscious rejection of the curial dictamen that will lead, with many variations, to Dante and Petrarch.

In this article I examine the first Christian jubilee of 1300, organised by Pope Boniface VIII, from a new narrative viewpoint. I argue that Boniface VIII successfully invented and used this new religious tradition and with it the time itself as an instrument of papal power. The main source is De centesimo seu iubileo anno by the pope's Cardinal Giacomo Gaetani Stefaneschi.

I answer the questions: (1) how does Stefaneschi’s story about the background of the first Christian jubilee justify the foundation of this new religious tradition?; (2) on what basis were the extent of the jubilee indulgence and the duration of the jubilee year decided?; (3) how were the practical time limits of the pilgrimage determined and controlled?; (4) was there any connection between the first Christian jubilee and the ancient Roman ludi saeculares?; and (5) how did Boniface VIII use the jubilee as an instrument for gaining more authority for the Church, the pope, and the city of Rome?

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This research is part of a project that was carried out in the Finnish Institute in Rome: https://brill.com/view/title/58331