At the Dawn of Modern Historiography: Cherubino Ghirardacci on the Middle Ages

Abstract

The relevance of Cherubino Ghirardacci's Historia di Bologna has been abundantly emphasized by Bolognese historiography. Nonetheless, its reception as a historiographical work has often been limited to consulting the large amount of documentation that the friar inserted to illustrate his narrative. With the aim of overcoming this limited perspective, the essay shows that the Historia has its own historiographical value, which is affected by the monastic formation of the author and the political and cultural context of its composition. It then focuses on the methods of work Ghirardacci adopted towards the Middle Ages of Bologna, through the examination of some focal points of the historical development of the early medieval city. What emerges is the profile of a historian who was much more than a simple compiler of documents. Ghirardacci wrote the Historia with the intention of magnifying the past of his city, opposing the freedom and autonomy of pre-communal times against the state of submission that Bologna suffered in his time by the papal dominion.