Il vescovo, l’imperatore, il comune

Abstract

The Bishop, the Emperor, the Commune. Frederick Barbarossa and Gubbio between Charters and Hagiographies. The hagiographies of saint Ubald, bishop of Gubbio between 1129 and 1160, are familiar to scholars but have never been analysed with a view to reconstructing the relationships between communal institutions and Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Highlighting the differences between the more religious version of Jordan of Città di Castello and the more political one of Theobald, Ubald’s successor, this article aims to contextualize the charter that Frederick granted to the city of Gubbio in 1163. Essentially, the institutional situation described in the charter was not a simple reflection of the status quo, but the outcome of a specific episcopal policy aimed at gaining control of the city’s political leadership. The resulting picture is that of an imperial city, but one whose evolution led to an inevitable break with the Empire after Barbarossa’s death.