Performing Papal Supremacy: Niccolò Cieco's Capitoli for Martin V and Eugenius IV

ABSTRACT

This article analyses two poems performed by the blind oral poet (or c anterino ) Niccolò Cieco of Arezzo for the first two popes elected after the Great Schism, Martin V and Eugenius IV . It argues that Niccolò's characterisation of the papal office must be understood in relation to both medieval canon law and contemporary ecclesiological concerns. Although the language of papal supremacy deployed in the two performances was originally developed to vindicate the pope's superiority to temporal rulers, it acquired new significance in the aftermath of the Great Western Schism, with the threat of conciliarism still present. The blind poet's performances offer a new perspective on anti‐conciliarism in the early fifteenth century, highlighting the role of vernacular orality in ecclesiological disputes. At the same time, their conceptual richness suggests the importance of c anterino poetry as a vehicle of political discourse, in a manner that cuts across simplistic divisions between learned and popular cultures.