INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - SALERNO, MARCH 21 AND 22, 2025

“Women in the society and culture of the Longobards”

“Women in the society and culture of the Longobards”
news posted on: 18 March 2025

To follow live streaming: see Program

The splendid Salerno, ennobled and enriched by the duke, and then prince, Arechi II, is preparing to experience two special days, destined to start an unprecedented season of research, studies and reflections on the evolution of the role of Longobard women during the first thousand years after Christ. To be precise, a millennium plus another 100 years, or from the 1st century BC to 1076 AD, the year of the Norman conquest of the principality of Salerno - the last surviving nucleus of Longobard power in Italy.

 In such a vast period of time, the very long evolutionary season of Longobard culture has developed – naturally also thanks to the contribution of women – which in 2011 was recognized by UNESCO as the “primary root of European culture, later developed by the Carolingians”.

 Initial focus, therefore, on the role of women in relation to the development of an early medieval cultural source that today represents a significant piece in the mosaic of elements that contribute to making today's European citizens, especially young people, aware of the Values ​​of an extraordinary and shared cultural heritage.

 Written by male hands and mainly focused on wars and conquests, the ancient chronicles do not offer many insights into the female condition, on which we are however enlightened, at least in part, by the codified Longobard laws and by the archive documents relating to transactions, trials and other events.

 Instead, the Longobard mulieres – whose status is highlighted by the elements of clothing and ornamentation exhibited in the museum – played important roles: in the management, even direct, of power; in the diplomatic arts; in the diffusion and affirmation of Catholicism; in the management of female monasteries, which were also educational hubs as well as the social and economic development of vast territories; in the diffusion of the medical art; in the no less demanding management of their own family units.

 The Conference is jointly organized by the historic National Association for the Interests of Southern Italy (ANIMI) - always keen to promote the high and extraordinary cultural values ​​that enrich our southern regions - and by the Longobardia Association which conceived, organized and manages the cultural route "Longobard Ways across Europe" developed on the basis of the criteria desired by the Council of Europe for its own European Cultural Routes.

Direct partners of the initiative are the Archdiocese of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno and the University of Salerno with its various branches.

Substantial contributions to the initiative have come from the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Fondazione della Comunità Salernitana ETS, while the patronage of the Municipality of Salerno is supported by those of important cultural entities, first and foremost the Associazione Italia Langobardorum (which manages the Longobard serial site, a UNESCO heritage site) and ILIESI-CNR, as well as religious entities (Office of Culture and Art of the Archdiocese of Salerno) and research entities (CNR-DSU).

Program

March 21, 3:00 PM

UNIVERSITY OF SALERNO

Fisciano Campus - DISPAC Conference Room - Building B, First Floor

Live streaming: https://youtube.com/live/8tIzQcHPNyM?feature=share

 Introduction

  • Giampaolo D'ANDREA (President of the ANIMI Association)
  • Gian Battista MUZZI (President of the Longobardia Association)

Institutional greetings

  • Prof. Vincenzo LOIA (Rector, University of Salerno)
  • Prof. Paola AIELLO (University of Salerno, Director of DISUFF)
  • Prof. Armando BISOGNO (University of Salerno, Director of DISPAC)
  • Prof. Salvatore CAPASSO (Director of DSU-CNR)

Chair

  • Amalia GALDI (University of Salerno)

Reports

  • Claudio AZZARA (University of Salerno) - The Longobard woman and power
  • Chiara LAMBERT (University of Salerno) - “Nobilis a veteri proavorum feminates stirpe..”: the Longobard woman in epigraphy
  • Caterina GIOSTRA (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan) - The Longobard woman in archaeological sources
  • Karina GRÖMER (Director of the Prehistory Department of the Natural History Museum in Vienna and University of Vienna) - The clothing of the Longobard woman
  • Luigi Andrea BERTO (Western Michigan University) - Women in the "myth" of the origins of the Longobards

 

March 22, 9:00 AM

ARCHBISHOP’S CURIA OF SALERNO

Hall of Coats of Arms

Live streaming: https://youtube.com/live/8tIzQcHPNyM?feature=share

Institutional greetings

  • H.E. Mons. Andrea BELLANDI (Archbishop of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno)
  • Dr. Vincenzo NAPOLI (Mayor of Salerno)
  • Dr. Carlo ABBA' (Assistant for Productive Activities - Municipality of Monza)
  • Dr. Raffaella BONAUDO (Superintendent ABAP Salerno-Avellino)
  • Dr. Antonia AUTUORI (President of the Foundation of the Salerno Community ETS)

Chair

  • Lorella PARENTE (ISSR "San Matteo" Salerno; "Culture and Art" Office - Archdiocese of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno)

Reports

  • Cristiana DOBNER OCD (Monastery of Santa Maria del Monte Carmelo, Barzio) - Longobard women and religious life
  • Francesca STROPPA (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan) - Female images in artistic sources of the Longobard era
  • Lucia DI CINTIO (University of Salerno) - Women in Longobard law. Some aspects of the mundio
  • Elda MORLICCHIO (University of Naples 'L'Orientale') - Longobard female onomastics
  • Frank ANDRASCHKO (Hamburg University) - Cemetery for men and cemetery for women: a cultural phenomenon in the Longobard context of Northern Germany

 Conclusions

  • Francesco PANARELLI (University of Basilicata, Director of DIUSS)

Closing greetings

• Andrea SANTOLINI (Associazione Longobardia, Vice President)