Veneration of Saints and the Nature of Donorship in Naples. A Research into the Late Antique Church of St. Gennaro and its Catacombs, Considering its Development in the Early Middle Ages

在分析圣徒崇拜和晚期古城那不勒斯捐赠的历史背景的跨学科项目的实施过程中，我们对圣热纳罗宗教崇拜的传统和发展的研究将最后完成。在我们之前的研究结束时，到目前为止，这位圣人在5世纪和6世纪那不勒斯的宗教生活中占据主导地位的假设已经被毫无疑问地推翻了。因此，现在有必要重新确定他在当地圣徒等级制度中的地位。这是特别可取的，因为有几个迹象表明，当时对圣徒的崇拜远远不止于圣热纳罗。为了找出圣热纳罗的崇拜何时以及为什么成为一种大众现象，最终导致那不勒斯的赞助，必须仔细研究从7世纪开始的这种崇拜的发展。在这样做的时候，研究还必须关注这个问题，即邪教是否仍然与当地的主教联系在一起，关于主教捐赠的各个方面，以及这两个问题如何影响该镇的宗教地形。最后，必须对圣阿格里皮诺（可能是圣热纳罗的竞争对手）所代表的主教崇拜的作用进行调查，其痕迹已经可以在古代的地下墓穴中找到。参考大量的考古、铭文、钱币和文学资料，其中许多尚未发表，我们打算找到上述问题的答案，以便对5 -10世纪那不勒斯对圣徒的崇拜和捐赠性质有一个清晰而复杂的印象。因此，将有许多新的和富有成效的方面那不勒斯城市的艺术史在古代晚期和中世纪早期，以及这一时期的教会历史。然而，这些结果不仅具有地方/地区的重要性，同时它们也将成为有关时期艺术和宗教的一般历史的典范。因此，例如，发表得很差的中世纪早期那不勒斯的地下墓穴绘画对我们（由于缺乏如此确定年代的纪念碑）相当零碎的东方和西方世界绘画发展知识来说是一个巨大的丰富。

In the prosecution of the interdisciplinary project analysing the veneration of Saints and the historical background of donations in the late antique city of Naples, our studies on the tradition and development of the religious cult of St. Gennaro are to be finalized. At the end of our previous research the so far assumed dominance of this saint in the religious life in 5th and 6th-century Naples has been disproved beyond doubt. It is therefore now necessary to determine his position within the autochthonous hierarchy of the Saints anew. This is especially advisable regarding several indications pointing out that the veneration of Saints at that time was not limited to St. Gennaro by far. In order to find out when, and respectively why, the cult of St. Gennaro became a mass phenomenon finally resulting in the patronage of Naples, the development of this cult from the 7th century on has to be carefully studied. When doing so, studies also have to focus on the question if the cult was still linked to the local episcopacy, on the various facets of episcopal donorship, and how these two issues influenced the sacral topography of the town. Finally, investigations have to be made on the role of the episcopal cult personified by St. Agrippino (possibly a competing Saint to St. Gennaro), traces of which can already be found in the late antique catacomb. With reference to numerous sources of the archaeological, epigraphical, numismatical and literary kind many of which have not yet been published, we intend to find answers to the above-mentioned questions in order to get a clear and complex impression of the veneration of Saints and the nature of donorship in 5th-10th-century Naples.Thus, there will be numerous new and fruitful aspects for the history of arts of the city of Naples during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages as well as for the ecclesiastical history of this period. However, the results will not only be of local/regional importance, but at the same time they will be paradigmatic for the general history of arts and religion of the period concerned. Thus, for example, the poorly published early medieval catacomb paintings of Naples are an enormous enrichment to our (due to lack of monuments thusly dated) rather fragmentary knowledge of the development of painting in the Eastern and Western World.