Architecture, sculpture, painting

Longobard architecture at its finest—identified in the monuments of the serial site "The Longobards in Italy. Centers of Power (568-774)," which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011—embody and exalt the innovative characteristics of Longobard culture, which, through the reuse of architectural elements, created new forms of expression: evidence of an original and extraordinary fusion of Germanic, classical Greco-Latin, and Byzantine-Oriental cultures and traditions. The uniqueness, exceptionality, and originality of the UNESCO-protected sites represent the highest expression of a new culture, which, moreover, is expressed, with varying intensity, along the entire "European geocultural corridor," which, over the course of the first millennium AD, witnessed the epochal "journey" of the Longobard peoples and which preserves evidence of their presence at the various stages of their historical sojourn. In Northern and Central-Eastern Europe, the primary resource available for building settlements was wood, which was perishable; conversely, in the Italian peninsula, stone construction materials afforded the durability that allows us today to admire the results of Longobard settlements, even if partially intact, in subsequent modifications, or in their ruins. The panorama thus extends to castles, fortified sites, monasteries, churches, and various places of worship in which prestigious sculptures and important pictorial cycles are still visible today—in whole or in part. These clearly reveal the beneficial influence of Christian principles and ideals, which constituted the catalyst for the evolution of Longobard culture through the fusion of previous traditions and cultures, ultimately developing a new culture that is today recognized as the "primary root of European culture, later developed by the Carolingians."

Goldsmith and Metalwork

During the Germanic period (1st century BC – 4th century AD), the decorative elements of the material culture attributed to the Longobards correspond to those characteristic of the northwestern Germanic peoples, connected as they were to norse mythology, the cult of Odin, and initiatory rituals. The ornamental references recall the stylized animalistic style typical of the art and culture of the nomadic peoples of the great eurasian expanses, which developed and spread from the 1st millennium BC to the first centuries AD. In the most advanced phase—after the first armed contacts with the Romans—motifs inspired by late-antique Roman military craftsmanship appear (buckles adorned with animals and plant decorations). The evolution of goldsmith art then took place in the Pannonian area, where Germanic traditions began to merge with late-Roman ones. Embossed gold-leaf crosses date back to this period, a typology also influenced by byzantine art. The earliest examples of crosses feature recognizable stylized animal figures. Later productions adopted intricate plant elements as decoration, sometimes including zoomorphic figurines. Other goldsmith's art objects, still of germanic origin, also appeared, such as amulet coins (bracteate coins). With the approach to arianism, large fibulae and a type of cross with small stylized heads of Christ at the center of the crosses appeared in the 6th century. During the 7th century, in step with the conversion to catholicism, the crosses took on a propitiatory role, with ornamental reworkings of elements from pagan mythology: a sign of the transition from paganism to christianity. The production of embossed gold-leaf crosses continued into the 7th century. and to this are added the first examples of coinage and signet rings with human heads and latin letters. Other types of products: earrings, gold-leaf scabbard ornaments for scramasax, saddle ornaments, and reliquaries. From the 8th century onwards, Longobard art experienced its period of maximum artistic flowering, highlighted by the revival of Roman-era models and by refined productions of Byzantine influence.

Songs and Music

The folk songs of the early Middle Ages combined pagan oral traditions with work songs. Rare written traces of this period remain in monasteries, which were primarily responsible for transcribing the chants of the Church. Folk music involved common people, peasants, and men at arms. The themes were the simplest: stories of work, celebrations, love affairs, fear of the elements, and the songs changed from time to time based on the interpretation of the performer. These musical tales accompanied work in the fields, marking its rhythms, or were performed during seasonal festivals, rites of passage, or to recall the deeds of ancient Germanic heroes or ancient pagan cults, sometimes adapted for christianity.

Liturgical chants - To discuss liturgical music, the most important aspect of reconstructing the political-religious system of the Early Middle Ages, it's necessary to take a step back in history because the main sacred chants—which the Longobards knew well—were the result of developments originating in the Late Antiquity period.

• Aquileian chant (or Patriarchian chant) and Ambrosian chant are two ancient traditions of sacred music that originated in Northern Italy in the Late Antiquity period. The former belonged to the bishopric (later Patriachate) of Aquileia, while the latter is linked to the bishopric (later Patriachate) of Milan. Both chants are almost contemporary, but both were in use well beyond the Longobard era.
• Ambrosian chant - Certain dates and events allow us to perceive the development of this phase. The first element comes from a letter by the Church Father St. Jerome, who lived in Aquileia between 370 and 373 alongside St. Chromatius, the future bishop of the Adriatic metropolis. In one of his letters, Jerome thus defined the group of clerics of Aquileia as a "chorus beatorum," that is, a group of liturgical singers with a strong christian inspiration. St. Ambrose was proclaimed bishop of Milan in 374, and the birth of ambrosian chant can be traced to him, which would therefore have occurred after his ecclesiastical appointment. These elements could certify the aquileian primogeniture between the two vocal expressions of the Christian liturgy, both monodic but with certain distinctions. Aquileian chant was influenced by its ties to Alexandria in Egypt—the source of the first spread of Christianity in the upper Adriatic—and to the Near East; Ambrosian chant was divided into a simpler section, performed by the faithful, and a more vocally elaborate section reserved for the clergy.
• Beneventan Chant - Ambrosian chant was the basis for the development—during the Longobard period—of the variant represented by the later Beneventan chant (6th-8th centuries). Meanwhile, in Rome, between the 6th and 7th centuries, the vocal and liturgical repertoire of the Church adopted the so-called Old Roman Chant (cantus vetus).
• Gregorian Chant - Traditionally, this chant is attributed to Pope Saint Gregory I the Great (late 6th-early 7th century). In reality, this chant arose between the 8th and 9th centuries from the union of Old Roman chant with Gallican chant (developed in the Frankish territories starting in the 5th century). The synthesis of Roman and Gallican chant was desired by the Franks to standardize the overall liturgy throughout the empire. The primacy of antiquity in liturgical chant remains with Milan, as Ambrosian chant is still used today. Aquileia, however, today preserves only the memory of his song (later called “patriarchino”).

Longobard Pavia in the History of Music

In the 8th century, King Liutprand ordered the construction of the original basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, intended to be his own mausoleum. It is said that the remains of his father, King Ansprand, were also laid to rest there. It is remarkable that, according to tradition, the site of the basilica corresponded to the site where the remains attributed to the philosopher St. Severinus Boethius, magister officiorum of the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great, who had him (unjustly) executed, were discovered. In the current basilica, Boethius's remains rest in the crypt dedicated to him. Equally remarkable (and prestigious) was the transfer of the remains of St. Augustine, now enshrined in a monument, to San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, under the direction and presided over by Liutprand. The two personalities can both be remembered for their contribution to the history of music, thus providing an additional element to the conservative merits of Longobard culture.

• Saint Augustine wrote the treatise "De Musica," written during his stay in Milan from 384 to 387, in which he analyzes the rhythm and mathematical measurement of sounds, connecting artistic beauty to inner truth: if music serves to elevate the mind to God and move the heart toward good, then it is a precious and holy gift ().
• Saint Boethius wrote the treatise "De Institutione Musica," with which he transmitted (and thus safeguarded) Greek musical theory. In its first books, the work explains the nature and value of numerical proportions, intervals, and the mathematical relationships of sounds. In his later books, Boethius discusses the philosophy of music and the ethical value of melodies, recalling—and thus preserving—the conceptual frameworks of Aristotle, Plato, and the Neoplatonists regarding music, which he divided into three categories: "Musica mundana" (cosmic harmony of the heavens, motion of the stars, and order of the seasons: sounds inaudible to humans); "Musica humana" (balance and union between body and soul); "Musica instrumentalis" (produced by vocal or physical instruments). This too is a work that has influenced the history of music.

Writing

Social and cultural evolution is based on the ability to transmit knowledge in a permanent and accessible form—that is, on writing. And every phase of history has been characterized by the refinement of the ability to produce written documents. This was also the case during the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. In the third century AD, "Roman minuscule" (or new cursive) appeared in Rome: an evolution of the previous "capital" script, a capital letter created in the sixth century BC and adopted for inscriptions on stone or papyrus. "Roman minuscule" quickly established itself as a flexible and practical script useful in everyday life, but soon afterward its use was extended to all possible fields of application. The fall of the Western Empire led to a marked decline in secular written production. Ecclesiastical and monastic institutions became the new repositories of written knowledge. And during that period, a technological innovation emerged that replaced the reed pen: the quill pen, which allowed for a smoother writing experience on parchment. The fragmentation of the empire's essential unity into the Roman-Barbarian kingdoms gave rise to local scripts such as the Visigothic in Spain and the Merovingian in France.

• Beneventan Minuscule - The substantial independence gained by the Longobard Principalities of the South after the fall of the kingdom favored the development of a local written character, the "Benevento Minuscule," which also spread to the Dalmatian area. This character was adopted from the mid-8th century until the 13th century, although examples exist of its use up to the late 16th century. The most important centers of production were the monastery of Montecassino and Benevento. The Bari type, where a variant of the Beneventan was created, developed in the 10th century. During the 13th century, the script was replaced—driven by the Norman and Swabian dominations and the arrival of the Cistercian Order—by Gothic script.
• Carolingian Minuscule - In the Frankish Empire, as a result of the “Carolingian Renaissance,” a character soon appeared that was intended, in theory and later in reality, to standardize the written production of all the imperial areas: the “Carolingian Minuscule,” which simplified the shape of the characters, making the texts legible across the continent.