Dario Internullo

Dario Internullo is a researcher in medieval history at Roma Tre University. He obtained his doctorate in history at the University of Roma Tre, discussing a thesis on cultural life in 14th-century Rome. He then undertook post-doctoral studies at the Universities of Naples “Federico II”, Turin, Bamberg and Roma Tre.

His research focuses on the multifaceted relationship between writing and medieval society, following a broad chronology (5th-15th centuries) and with particular attention to the cities of Rome and Ravenna and the Mediterranean networks that formed their backdrop. He is co-director, with Paolo Tomei (Università di Pisa), of the PRIN 2022 PNRR Lexiconomy Writing the Structure of Landholding in a Changing Italy (5th-8th century) project. He is currently working on the history of papyrus as a writing material and economic product in the medieval Mediterranean, on the relationship between politics and culture in 12th-century Italy, and on the political and social uses of monuments in the Middle Ages.

The project

Title: Written culture in the Middle Ages

"The aim of the research stay is to carry out some research on written culture in the Middle Ages. In particular, we intend to reflect on two research axes:

1. The cultural changes underlying the emergence of municipal institutions in 12th-century Italian cities, with a particular focus on Rome and Lazio;
2. He history of writing materials, with particular emphasis on papyrus and parchment in Europe.

With regard to the first line of research, the collaboration with professor Florian Mazel at the Université Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne will be fundamental in order to refine the research questions developed in the book Dario Internullo, Senato sapiente. L'alba della cultura laica a Roma nel Medioevo, Rome 2022, trying to place the reflection on secular cultures in a broader comparative perspective, European and (at least partly) Mediterranean. It will also be a necessary basis for formalising a collaboration between the Universities of Paris 1 and Roma Tre. With regard to the second axis of research, the stay in Paris will be fundamental in order to inspect one of the two oldest archives in Europe: that of the monastery of Saint-Denis, whose documents (the earliest of which are on papyrus) are kept in the Archives Nationales. This is an important stage of a research path that will culminate in the publication of a book on “Papyrus in the Middle Ages” in the next few years"."

Hosting institution: Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne

Selective Bibliography

• Du papyrus au parchemin. Les origines médiévales de la mémoire archivistique en Europe occidentale, «Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales» 74/3-4 (2019), pp. 523-557
• Senato sapiente. L’alba della cultura laica a Roma nel Medioevo (secoli XI-XII), Roma, Viella («La corte dei papi» 33), 2022
• The Revival of Cassiodorus’ Variae in the High Middle Ages (10th-11th Century), in Between Ostrogothic and Carolingian Italy. Survivals, Revivals, Ruptures, a c. di F. Oppedisano, Firenze 2022, pp. 127-147
• Una prospettiva politica sui monumenti: il «decoro urbano» di Roma tra Medioevo e Rinascimento, in Paesaggi urbani e suburbani nella Roma dei secoli XIII-XVI, a c. di A. Cortonesi, Roma 2023, pp. 1-18
• Un documento in cerca d’autore. P.Ital. 3 e Ravenna nella prospettiva dei «beni pubblici», «Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome» 136-1 (2024), pp. 53-68