Maya Maskarinec | University of Southern California (original) (raw)

Book by Maya Maskarinec

Papers by Maya Maskarinec

Importreliquien in Rom von Damasus I. bis Paschalis I. Akten der Internationalen Konferenz Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom, Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, 12.-14. Oktober 2020, ed. Adrian Bremenkamp, Tanja Michalsky, and Norbert Zimmermann, Palilia 36 (Wie..., 2023

Journal of Medieval History, 2024

Violence in Early Capetian v. Early Valois France: Same Behaviour, Different Ideas of Order? Warr... more Violence in Early Capetian v. Early Valois France: Same Behaviour, Different Ideas of Order? Warren Brown Anti-Corruption Measures in the Legislation of Thirteenth-Century Hungary Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu Memories, Texts, and Identities Invoking Gregory on the Caelian in Medieval Rome: A Study of an Inscription at SS.

In 1008 the notary Guido redacted a breve recording the renunciation of property by a certain Rai... more In 1008 the notary Guido redacted a breve recording the renunciation of property by a certain Raino in favor of the monastery of Farfa (RF no. 476). Cited in this breve is a Lombard law (Liutprand 6), which allowed for deathbed donations. This article argues that this citation entailed an implicit legal argument, by the notary Guido and the Farfa monks who benefitted from the transaction, for the validity of Raino's renunciation. When this is set in the context of the larger corpus of late tenth-to early-eleventh-century brevia preserved in Farfa's register, what emerges is an ongoing attempt by notaries in the Sabina to find legal solutions that would facilitate transactions to the benefit of the Farfa monastery. Middle Ages; 10 th-11 th centuries; Farfa; Lombard law; notarial culture; breve.

This article investigates two controversies that reveal the deeply intertwined nature of legal st... more This article investigates two controversies that reveal the deeply intertwined nature of legal strategies and archival practices at the monasteries of Farfa and Monte Amiata around the turn of the millennium. It argues that the protagonists of these cases, abbots knowledgeable in law and the history of their monasteries, pursued markedly historical legal strategies: legal strategies that looked to, manipulated, and, above all, contextualized, archival documents in order to make legal arguments. This sheds light on early medieval monastic legal culture in north-central Italy and provides insights into the rationale for monastic forgeries of documentary materials at Monte Amiata. Recent decades have done much to destabilize traditional assumptions about early medieval law by examining the Roman roots and lasting impact of the legal pluralism that characterized the Latin west in the period after Rome and before the university. 1 Throughout Europe, the * Earlier versions of parts of this article were presented at 95th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America and a workshop, Law and Communal Identity in the Early Medieval World, at UCLA. I would like to thank the participants for their helpful feedback and the anonymous reviewers of this article for their suggestions and perceptive advice. The research was supported by an Alexander von Humboldt-Forschungsstipendium. 1 A good starting point, with further bibliography, is the recent special issue 'The Transformation of Law in the Late and Post-Roman World', EME 21.1 (2019), especially the introduction by Conrad Leyser, pp. 5-11; see also S. Esders, 'Roman Law as an Identity Marker in Post-Roman Gaul (5th-9th Centuries)', in W.

This article investigates the ideological implications of Pope Gregory the Great's beard for Cath... more This article investigates the ideological implications of Pope Gregory the Great's beard for Catholic reformers of the sixteenth century. It argues that the portrayal of Gregory as clean-shaven, with a "moderate" beard, or with a long bushy beard (all representations that are to be found in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Roman art and scholarship) take us to the heart of interlocking Catholic Reform debates on the "Romanness" of the Roman church and the vexed question of how to evaluate late antique and medieval Christian tradition for the Christian present .

This article examines the unusual history and legal status of the Tor de' Specchi community, foun... more This article examines the unusual history and legal status of the Tor de' Specchi community, founded by Francesca Romana (d. ) in Rome, in the face of shifting expectations for religious women in Counter-Reformation Catholicism. It is argued that Francesca Romana had sought to carve out a religious path for women distinct from that of nuns as brides of Christ ('sponsae Christi'). The article demonstrates the community's difficulties in maintaining this way of life in the face of Pope Pius V's  bull Circa Pastoralis, which extended the Council of Trent's  decrees on enclosure (clausura) to all nuns of every order. I n  Pope Pius V issued a bull, Circa Pastoralis, that extended the Council of Trent's  decrees on enclosure (clausura) to all nuns (moniales) of every order, whether they lived in monasteries or private houses, whether they had made their professions openly or silently, even if they belonged to a foundation where the rules of enclosure had never before been instituted.  In response, the un-cloistered oblates of Tor de' Specchi in Rome, founded by the Roman noblewoman Francesca Romana in the early s, commissioned the Spanish canon lawyer, Martín de Azpilcueta (d. ), Il Navarro, to defend them. His defence, a consilium (a formal legal opinion), argued that the oblates of Tor de' Specchi were not 'true nuns' ('vere monache') and thus were not bound by the regulations of Circa Pastoralis on clausura.  This article  Pius V, Circa Pastoralis (), in Codicis iuris canonici fontes, ed. P. Gasparri, i, Rome , -, no. .  Martín de Azpilcueta, Consiliorum sive responsorum libri quinque iuxta ordinem decretalium dispositi, Rome , -, consilium . The most detailed discussion of the text, to my knowledge, is M. Sensi's 'Tor de' Specchi e il movimento religioso femminile nel Quattrocento', in A. Bartolomei Romagnoli (ed.), La canonizzazione di Santa Francesca Jnl of Ecclesiastical History, .

Speculum

The chronicle written by Benedict of Sant'Andrea at Monte Soratte is one of the few narrative his... more The chronicle written by Benedict of Sant'Andrea at Monte Soratte is one of the few narrative histories to survive from tenth-century Italy and has often been mined as a source for reconstructing the ecclesiastical and political history of early medieval Italy. This article argues that the chronicle also offers something more: a largely overlooked source for the legal history of tenth-to eleventh-century central Italy. 1 This discovery sheds light on the purpose and agenda of Benedict's chronicle, the regional competition between monasteries in tenth-and eleventh-century Italy, and the development of legal science before the foundation of the university. After introducing Benedict's chronicle, in Part 1 of this article I demonstrate that the chronicle's author, the monk Benedict, has embedded in his text the groundwork for an ambitious property claim, which he defends both by legal arguments and by crafting a complex historical narrative. In Part 2 I show how a robust historicizing vision of law, as outlined in his chronicle, underpins Benedict's legal reasoning. Benedict's conception of this law, as a corpus of Lombard, Carolingian, and Ottonian legislation, parallels ongoing efforts, in ninth-to eleventh-century Italy, to organize and systematize law chronologically, as attested (Part 3) by surviving ninth-to eleventh-century manuscripts, not least the collection of law that is bound together with the sole surviving copy of Benedict's Chronicle (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chigi F.IV.75, fols. 1r-58v), as well as eleventhcentury manuscripts of the so-called Liber legis Langobardorum (Liber papiensis).

This article traces the reception history of the hagiographical text commonly referred to as the ... more This article traces the reception history of the hagiographical text commonly referred to as the passio sanctorum quat(t)uor coronatorum. 1 Although by no means consigned to oblivion, this has not, for most of its existence, been a well-known text. Throughout the medieval and early modern period, the passio circulated in various versions and was discussed by scholars interested in the Christian persecutions. Starting in the mid 19 th century, however, and continuing through the 1930s, the passio sanctorum quatuor coronatorum became the subject of passionate scholarly analysis and debate by western European medievalists. Their fascination with the text illustrates the allure -and tensions -involved in reading medieval hagiography for the modern enterprise of writing history.

view, a regime that cannot achieve allegiance even by coercion or persuasion cannot be said to ru... more view, a regime that cannot achieve allegiance even by coercion or persuasion cannot be said to rule." 4 His argument is twofold. He first demonstrates that the number of incidents on record in which "Byzantines" may be said to have exercised "effective power or authority in Italy" is minimal. 5 He then convincingly shows that the Greek popes were neither "sympathetic to Byzantium," nor regarded by contemporaries as so ethnically (or culturally) "Greek" as to fail to be Roman. 6 These findings dovetail with recent work by Clemens Gantner, who has shown that in Roman papal sources the term "Greek" emerged as a pejorative label distinct from "Roman" only in the mid-to late eighth century. 7 Prior to then, being a "Roman Greek" posed no contradiction (although it was also possible to be a non-Roman "Greek"). Meanwhile, archeologists, especially Robert Coates-Stephens, have demonstrated that in this "dark age" there was on the ground significant building activity, including much that may be attributed to the "Byzantine" presence-much more than Richard Krautheimer's authoritative assessment of the period had previously concluded. 8 Given the paucity of

This article argues that Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821-91) in his popular but much critiqued Geschi... more This article argues that Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821-91) in his popular but much critiqued Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter challenged the ideals of an objective, dispassionate historiography advocated by the leading German historians of his generation. To do so it focuses on Gregorovius's treatment of the city of Rome and its urban legends, comparing Gregorovius's approach with that taken by his famous contemporary Theodor Mommsen in his unfinished Römische Geschichte.

Importreliquien in Rom von Damasus I. bis Paschalis I. Akten der Internationalen Konferenz Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom, Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, 12.-14. Oktober 2020, ed. Adrian Bremenkamp, Tanja Michalsky, and Norbert Zimmermann, Palilia 36 (Wie..., 2023

Journal of Medieval History, 2024

Violence in Early Capetian v. Early Valois France: Same Behaviour, Different Ideas of Order? Warr... more Violence in Early Capetian v. Early Valois France: Same Behaviour, Different Ideas of Order? Warren Brown Anti-Corruption Measures in the Legislation of Thirteenth-Century Hungary Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu Memories, Texts, and Identities Invoking Gregory on the Caelian in Medieval Rome: A Study of an Inscription at SS.

In 1008 the notary Guido redacted a breve recording the renunciation of property by a certain Rai... more In 1008 the notary Guido redacted a breve recording the renunciation of property by a certain Raino in favor of the monastery of Farfa (RF no. 476). Cited in this breve is a Lombard law (Liutprand 6), which allowed for deathbed donations. This article argues that this citation entailed an implicit legal argument, by the notary Guido and the Farfa monks who benefitted from the transaction, for the validity of Raino's renunciation. When this is set in the context of the larger corpus of late tenth-to early-eleventh-century brevia preserved in Farfa's register, what emerges is an ongoing attempt by notaries in the Sabina to find legal solutions that would facilitate transactions to the benefit of the Farfa monastery. Middle Ages; 10 th-11 th centuries; Farfa; Lombard law; notarial culture; breve.

This article investigates two controversies that reveal the deeply intertwined nature of legal st... more This article investigates two controversies that reveal the deeply intertwined nature of legal strategies and archival practices at the monasteries of Farfa and Monte Amiata around the turn of the millennium. It argues that the protagonists of these cases, abbots knowledgeable in law and the history of their monasteries, pursued markedly historical legal strategies: legal strategies that looked to, manipulated, and, above all, contextualized, archival documents in order to make legal arguments. This sheds light on early medieval monastic legal culture in north-central Italy and provides insights into the rationale for monastic forgeries of documentary materials at Monte Amiata. Recent decades have done much to destabilize traditional assumptions about early medieval law by examining the Roman roots and lasting impact of the legal pluralism that characterized the Latin west in the period after Rome and before the university. 1 Throughout Europe, the * Earlier versions of parts of this article were presented at 95th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America and a workshop, Law and Communal Identity in the Early Medieval World, at UCLA. I would like to thank the participants for their helpful feedback and the anonymous reviewers of this article for their suggestions and perceptive advice. The research was supported by an Alexander von Humboldt-Forschungsstipendium. 1 A good starting point, with further bibliography, is the recent special issue 'The Transformation of Law in the Late and Post-Roman World', EME 21.1 (2019), especially the introduction by Conrad Leyser, pp. 5-11; see also S. Esders, 'Roman Law as an Identity Marker in Post-Roman Gaul (5th-9th Centuries)', in W.

This article investigates the ideological implications of Pope Gregory the Great's beard for Cath... more This article investigates the ideological implications of Pope Gregory the Great's beard for Catholic reformers of the sixteenth century. It argues that the portrayal of Gregory as clean-shaven, with a "moderate" beard, or with a long bushy beard (all representations that are to be found in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Roman art and scholarship) take us to the heart of interlocking Catholic Reform debates on the "Romanness" of the Roman church and the vexed question of how to evaluate late antique and medieval Christian tradition for the Christian present .

This article examines the unusual history and legal status of the Tor de' Specchi community, foun... more This article examines the unusual history and legal status of the Tor de' Specchi community, founded by Francesca Romana (d. ) in Rome, in the face of shifting expectations for religious women in Counter-Reformation Catholicism. It is argued that Francesca Romana had sought to carve out a religious path for women distinct from that of nuns as brides of Christ ('sponsae Christi'). The article demonstrates the community's difficulties in maintaining this way of life in the face of Pope Pius V's  bull Circa Pastoralis, which extended the Council of Trent's  decrees on enclosure (clausura) to all nuns of every order. I n  Pope Pius V issued a bull, Circa Pastoralis, that extended the Council of Trent's  decrees on enclosure (clausura) to all nuns (moniales) of every order, whether they lived in monasteries or private houses, whether they had made their professions openly or silently, even if they belonged to a foundation where the rules of enclosure had never before been instituted.  In response, the un-cloistered oblates of Tor de' Specchi in Rome, founded by the Roman noblewoman Francesca Romana in the early s, commissioned the Spanish canon lawyer, Martín de Azpilcueta (d. ), Il Navarro, to defend them. His defence, a consilium (a formal legal opinion), argued that the oblates of Tor de' Specchi were not 'true nuns' ('vere monache') and thus were not bound by the regulations of Circa Pastoralis on clausura.  This article  Pius V, Circa Pastoralis (), in Codicis iuris canonici fontes, ed. P. Gasparri, i, Rome , -, no. .  Martín de Azpilcueta, Consiliorum sive responsorum libri quinque iuxta ordinem decretalium dispositi, Rome , -, consilium . The most detailed discussion of the text, to my knowledge, is M. Sensi's 'Tor de' Specchi e il movimento religioso femminile nel Quattrocento', in A. Bartolomei Romagnoli (ed.), La canonizzazione di Santa Francesca Jnl of Ecclesiastical History, .

Speculum

The chronicle written by Benedict of Sant'Andrea at Monte Soratte is one of the few narrative his... more The chronicle written by Benedict of Sant'Andrea at Monte Soratte is one of the few narrative histories to survive from tenth-century Italy and has often been mined as a source for reconstructing the ecclesiastical and political history of early medieval Italy. This article argues that the chronicle also offers something more: a largely overlooked source for the legal history of tenth-to eleventh-century central Italy. 1 This discovery sheds light on the purpose and agenda of Benedict's chronicle, the regional competition between monasteries in tenth-and eleventh-century Italy, and the development of legal science before the foundation of the university. After introducing Benedict's chronicle, in Part 1 of this article I demonstrate that the chronicle's author, the monk Benedict, has embedded in his text the groundwork for an ambitious property claim, which he defends both by legal arguments and by crafting a complex historical narrative. In Part 2 I show how a robust historicizing vision of law, as outlined in his chronicle, underpins Benedict's legal reasoning. Benedict's conception of this law, as a corpus of Lombard, Carolingian, and Ottonian legislation, parallels ongoing efforts, in ninth-to eleventh-century Italy, to organize and systematize law chronologically, as attested (Part 3) by surviving ninth-to eleventh-century manuscripts, not least the collection of law that is bound together with the sole surviving copy of Benedict's Chronicle (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chigi F.IV.75, fols. 1r-58v), as well as eleventhcentury manuscripts of the so-called Liber legis Langobardorum (Liber papiensis).

This article traces the reception history of the hagiographical text commonly referred to as the ... more This article traces the reception history of the hagiographical text commonly referred to as the passio sanctorum quat(t)uor coronatorum. 1 Although by no means consigned to oblivion, this has not, for most of its existence, been a well-known text. Throughout the medieval and early modern period, the passio circulated in various versions and was discussed by scholars interested in the Christian persecutions. Starting in the mid 19 th century, however, and continuing through the 1930s, the passio sanctorum quatuor coronatorum became the subject of passionate scholarly analysis and debate by western European medievalists. Their fascination with the text illustrates the allure -and tensions -involved in reading medieval hagiography for the modern enterprise of writing history.

view, a regime that cannot achieve allegiance even by coercion or persuasion cannot be said to ru... more view, a regime that cannot achieve allegiance even by coercion or persuasion cannot be said to rule." 4 His argument is twofold. He first demonstrates that the number of incidents on record in which "Byzantines" may be said to have exercised "effective power or authority in Italy" is minimal. 5 He then convincingly shows that the Greek popes were neither "sympathetic to Byzantium," nor regarded by contemporaries as so ethnically (or culturally) "Greek" as to fail to be Roman. 6 These findings dovetail with recent work by Clemens Gantner, who has shown that in Roman papal sources the term "Greek" emerged as a pejorative label distinct from "Roman" only in the mid-to late eighth century. 7 Prior to then, being a "Roman Greek" posed no contradiction (although it was also possible to be a non-Roman "Greek"). Meanwhile, archeologists, especially Robert Coates-Stephens, have demonstrated that in this "dark age" there was on the ground significant building activity, including much that may be attributed to the "Byzantine" presence-much more than Richard Krautheimer's authoritative assessment of the period had previously concluded. 8 Given the paucity of

This article argues that Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821-91) in his popular but much critiqued Geschi... more This article argues that Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821-91) in his popular but much critiqued Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter challenged the ideals of an objective, dispassionate historiography advocated by the leading German historians of his generation. To do so it focuses on Gregorovius's treatment of the city of Rome and its urban legends, comparing Gregorovius's approach with that taken by his famous contemporary Theodor Mommsen in his unfinished Römische Geschichte.

Early Medieval Europe, 2022

The English Historical Review 136.583, 2021

Journal of Late Antiquity 14.1, 2021

Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2019

The Medieval Review (TMR 18.11.01), 2018

Journal of Roman Archaeology 27, 2014

Few cities remember so many layers of their own history as does Rome, and this makes it ideal for... more Few cities remember so many layers of their own history as does Rome, and this makes it ideal for exploring the interaction between topography and historical memory. 1 The 14 essays collected in om in er Sp tanti e which derive from a colloquium held in Heidelberg in 2006, ambitiously tackle the question of what was remembered and how it was remembered in lateantique Rome. Its contributors include some of the foremost international scholars in the field. Many of the varied themes addressed by the different essays are brought together in an introduction by R. Behrwald and Chr. Witschel (both of whom have previously tackled similar questions 2 ) and, in particular, by Witschel's concluding essay, a general survey of late antique inscriptions ("Alte und neue Erinnerungsmodi in spätantiken Inscriften Roms").