Resumen de Edizione dell'epistolario di bonafacio viii relativo alla sardegna
The research that resulted in this doctoral thesis was aimed to make a critical edition, preceded by a thorough historical commentary, of the documentation of Boniface VIII on Sardinia, kept in two archives: the Vatican Secret and that of the Crown'Aragona. The project is part of a course of study and publications, that the writer has already started some years ago, and that includes the edition and commentary of the historical documentation of all the popes of the thirteenth century on the island. A commitment that has already resulted in the issue in 2003 of a book entitled Innocenzo IIIe la Sardegna and that during these years of work for this doctorate, has allowed the release of a second title: Onorio III e la Sardegna.
Within the extensive project mentioned, Pope Boniface VIII (1294- 1303) is particularly important, both for the amount of available documentation; and because also for Sardinia, the action of this Pope is configured simultaneously as the culmination of a policy pursued with consistency of purpose on the part of the Apostolic see over a century and a half at least and as the starting point of a new historical phase.
This finding has meant that, in the economy of the introductory text to the documentary edition, I decided to fulfill a broad overview on the history of relations between the Papacy and Sardinia, beginning since Pope Gregory VII , going mainly for the pontificates of Innocent III, Honorius III and their successors , all aimed at affirming the feudal ownership of the island. They were opposed to the two Mediterranean powers of Genoa and Pisa especially.
In this path , Boniface VIII fits without hesitation and can ensure that the claims of the Apostolic finally become reality , thanks to the " arm " of James II of Aragon.
Introduction 3 In fact, with the well-known bull «super reges et regna»1 of April 4 1297, Boniface VIII enfeoffed the regnum Sardinie et Corsice to James II of Aragon. But, this was not only a "simple " concession made by a feudal lord in its own vassal, but it was a fundamental inlay of a larger project, planned with fatigue for fifteen years, in the attempt to settle the war of the Vespers2.
Through this act, the pope closed from a formal point of view a process that had begun two years earlier, with the Treaties of Anagni in June 1295, by which - set ahead of what Pietro Corrao called the «Mediterranean knot»3 - I 1 SALAVERT Y ROCA, Cerdeña y la expansión mediterránea, II, doc. 21, Rome (S.
Peter), april 4, 1297, p. 22; the concept of the absolute superiority of the papal office than any secular authority is very important for Bonifacius and return, with the same words, even in the final fester of its dispute with Philip IV, king of France, when nella ausculta fili of December 5, 1301, recalling the French king to his duties as Christian prince reminds him that God «constituit nos [...] super reges et regna»: cfr.: DUPRÉ THESEIDER, Bonifacio VIII, pp.
146-170. A new and accurate biography of Boniface VIII was made by PARAVICINI BAGLIANI, Bonifacio VIII, with a full bibliography. On Boniface VIII must take into account the recent contributions made as part of the celebrations for the seventh centenary of his death: Bonifacio VIII. Ideologia e azione politica. Atti del Convegno organizzato nel'ambito delle celebrazioni per il VII centenario della morte. Città del Vaticano-Roma, 26-28 aprile 2004, Roma, 2006 (Bonifaciana, 2) and the monographic number of Bullettino dell'Istituto storico italiano per il Medioevo, 112 (2012).
2 About the Vespers bibliography is boundless; in addition to the increasingly important AMARI, La guerra del Vespro siciliano; see RUNCIMAN, The Sicilian Vespers; and GIUNTA, Aragonesi e catalani nel Mediterraneo; La società mediterranea all’epoca del Vespro; TRAMONTANA, Gli anni del Vespro. About the treat of Anagni: SALAVERT Y ROCA, El tratado de Anagni y la expansión mediterranea de la Corona de Aragon, pp. 260-360.
3 CORRAO, Il nodo mediterraneo, pp. 145-170. The centrality of the issue of Sicily in the pontificate of Boniface was already highlighted by DUPRÉ THESEIDER, Bonifacio VIII; Pietro Corrao shows that Giovanni Villani already established a direct link between the events in Sicily and the election of Bonifacio, presented as if it depended on the support of Charles of Anjou, offered in exchange for the return of Sicily from Benedetto Caetani: Giovanni VILLANI, Nuova Cronica, IX, VI, cfr. CORRAO, Il nodo mediterraneo cit., p. 145 nota 2, at the same point shows that this centrality of the Sicilian question is also demonstrated by the structure of the documentation of the pope, «a very rough estimate shows that, on approximately 6,000 letters Registry Bonifacio, [...] more than 700 are expressly dedicated to the Sicilian question, and addressed to the protagonists of the story: Charles of Anjou, James of Aragon and Frederick of Sicily»; documentation of the papal registers of the bonifacian period is published in Les Registres de Boniface VIII (1294-1303).
Introduction 4 think the pope thought he had done better than Alexander the Great before the Gordian: instead of cutting it, he had managed to untie it4.
The grant of that enfeoffment bull would show insufficient to put an end to the long-standing question of the Vespers, (a subject that will be omitted as not related to this introduction) and would have no consequences for the subsequent fate of Corsica; it would instead mark the destiny of the island for the next four centuries5.
It should be stressed that the «super reges et regna» was not just a dramatically important piece of a large puzzle, but also the lucky and maybe artificial point of arrival and restart of a history, the one about relationships between the Apostolic See and Sardinia throughout at least a century and a half, that sees the pontiffs committed to reaffirm its sovereignty over the island since 1159, probably in response to the moves of Frederick Redbeard6.
4 See: SANNA, Il regnum Sardinie et Corsice nella visione politica di Bonifacio VIII, pp. 503-529.
5 Ibidem.
6 During the siege of Milan, Adrian IV sent an embassy to Frederick I with which asked for the recognition of the rights of the Apostolic See on so-called restitutiones including even Sardinia: Ottonis et Rahewini gesta Friderici I imperatoris, lib. IV, pp. 276-278, 1159 luglio?. Through its two legates the pope demanded assurances «de possessionibus ecclesiae Romanae restituendis, Tiburti, Ferrariae [...] insularum Sardiniae et Corsicae». The answer of the emperor was pretty tough («qui si gratanter audierint a Romano presule: "Quid tibi et regi?", consequenter quoque eos ab imperatore non pigeat audire: "Quid tibi et po
