The monetary economy of Carolingian Italy, c. 750-850

我的博士研究将考虑754年法兰克人入侵意大利至855年路易二世加冕期间意大利北部加洛林王朝货币的历史意义。在此期间，随着伦巴第王国及其机构逐渐融入法兰克王国，阿尔卑斯山和罗马之间的地区受到加洛林王朝的统治。在这一时期的开始，伦巴第王国很强大，组织良好，有自己悠久的货币传统，正如克里斯·维克汉姆所展示的那样。从781年起，查理曼大帝的曼图亚首都推动了意大利货币的改革，使其与阿尔卑斯山以北的加洛林王朝的货币实践更加接近。本研究提供了一个独特的机会来研究加洛林王朝货币化和货币文化对意大利北部的影响，并有进一步的可能性来考虑这种做法在多大程度上融入意大利北部社会，从而导致社会和行政变革。我认为，在意大利，铸币扮演了不同的角色，更多的是文化和政治声明，而不是经济交易，这对我们理解八、九世纪的意大利社会与当代北欧社会相比有着广泛的影响。它提出了这样的问题：后者是更货币化还是更商业化，或者我们是否应该考虑不同的货币化模式或形式，这或许反映了精英权力和城乡关系的差异。八世纪和九世纪意大利的铸币史学，也许并不令人意外，被意大利学者主导，如阿莱西亚·罗维利、埃尔曼诺·阿尔斯兰、露西亚·特拉瓦尼和安德里亚·萨科利。这些研究倾向于孤立区域，并在微观尺度上进行研究。我建议采用一种比较的方法，从更广阔的角度来看待这一时期意大利的货币经济，即加洛林王朝的货币传统。更广泛的研究，如菲利普·格里尔森和马克·布莱克本的中世纪欧洲铸币卷1证明了这种方法的好处，将铸币置于更广泛的中世纪早期背景下。这项研究的核心是现存证据提出的一个悖论：尽管文献证据表明硬币的使用很普遍，但考古记录支持了一个完全不同的结论，即意大利北部的硬币使用方式与加洛林帝国的其他地区完全不同。编年史、圣徒的生活以及有关买卖、交换和租赁的官方记录都表明，硬币在意大利北部社会各个阶层的日常生活中都存在。文献资料明确指出了这些硬币的使用者和使用它们的交易，揭示了货币经济背后存在的人际关系。然而，在考古背景下，与北欧相比，加洛林王朝的denarii非常罕见。结合已发表的意大利地层发掘考古报告和由此产生的硬币目录，我预计这一来源基础将得出这样的结论，即硬币更多地用作文化和政治工具，而不是用作商业工具。因此，本文不仅为中世纪早期欧洲货币化程度的广泛讨论提供了一个有希望的案例研究，而且也有可能关注铸币作为政治和意识形态交流或投射的工具。特别是在公元800年查理曼加冕之后，罗马对加洛林王朝的权威和帝国自我代表概念的重要性是无可争议的，但需要仔细研究。

My intended doctoral research will consider the historical significance of Carolingian coinage in northern Italy between the Frankish invasion of Italy in 754 and the imperial coronation of Louis II in 855. During this period, the region between the Alps and Rome was subject to Carolingian rule as the Lombard kingdom and its institutions were gradually integrated into the Frankish realm. At the start of the period, the Lombard kingdom was strong and well organised with its own long-established numismatic traditions, as has been shown by Chris Wickham. From 781, Charlemagne's Capitulary of Mantua prompted a reform of Italian coinage, bringing it more closely in line with Carolingian monetary practices north of the Alps. This research presents a singular opportunity to study the impact of Carolingian monetisation and monetary culture on northern Italy, with the further possibility to consider the extent to which such practices were integrated into northern Italian society with resulting social and administrative changes. I suggest that in Italy coined money played a different role, being more about cultural and political statements than economic transactions, which has wide-reaching implications for our understanding of eighth- and ninth-century Italian society compared with contemporary northern Europe. It raises questions as to whether the latter was more monetised or commercialised, or whether we should be thinking of different models or forms of monetisation, perhaps reflecting differences in elite power and urban-rural relations.The historiography of coinage in eighth- and ninth-century Italy has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been dominated by Italian scholars, such as Alessia Rovelli, Ermanno Arslan, Lucia Travaini, and Andrea Saccoli. These studies have tended to isolate regions and studying them on a micro-scale. I suggest a more comparative approach, looking at the monetary economy of Italy during this period from the broader perspective of the Carolingian monetary tradition. Wider studies such as Philip Grierson and Mark Blackburns's Medieval European Coinage vol. 1 demonstrate the benefits of this approach by situating the coinage in a broader early medieval context.At the heart of the proposed study lies a paradox posed by the surviving body of evidence: although the documentary evidence would suggest that coin-use was prevalent, the archaeological record supports the altogether different conclusion that coin-use in Northern Italy operated in a fundamentally different way to the rest of the Carolingian empire. Chronicles, saints' lives, and bureaucratic records of sale, exchange and rent all point to the presence of coins in everyday life across various strata of northern Italian society. Documentary sources explicitly identify the users of these coins and the transactions in which they were used, shedding light on interpersonal connections that existed behind the monetary economy. However, Carolingian denarii are remarkably rare compared to northern Europe in archaeological contexts. Used in conjunction with published archaeological reports of stratigraphic excavations in Italy and the resulting coin catalogues, I anticipate that this source base will yield the conclusion that coins were used as cultural and political tools more often than they were used as instruments of commerce. Accordingly, the source base not only presents a promising case study in the wider debate on the degree to which early medieval Europe was monetized, but there is also the potential to focus on coinage as a vehicle for political and ideological communication or projection. Particularly after Charlemagne's imperial coronation in c. 800, the significance of Rome to Carolingian conceptions of authority and imperial self-representation is incontestable, but needs careful examination.