The Cult of Saint Petronius of Bologna in the Later Middle Ages

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the creation and development of the cult of St Petronius of Bologna in the late medieval period. It uses a saint’s cult as a focal point through which to write a political and cultural history of medieval Bologna. It starts in Late Antiquity, examining the evidence that survives on the ‘historical Petronius’. It shows that very little can be known about Petronius the man, and establishes that there existed no Petronian cult at Bologna until the discovery of his relics in 1141. Petronius only became a saint in the twelfth century and his first hagiography, the Latin Vita Sancti Petronii, was shaped by the issues confronting the Bolognesi in the c.1170s, chief among which was the wars of the Lombard League against Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The study then assesses the relationship six of Bologna’s most prominent social, political and religious institutions had with the Petronian cult from the late twelfth century through to the middle of the sixteenth century. These are the various iterations of the Bolognese Commune, the abbots and monks of the Santo Stefano monastic complex, the bishops of Bologna, the signori who ruled the city at various junctures, the scholars and students of the Studium, and the Bolognese guilds. It demonstrates that the figure of Petronius and the study of his cult provides a prism to study pre-modern Bologna in a way that cannot be achieved by reference to any other body or social formation in the city. At the study’s centre is the recognition of the diverse complexity of an urban community, and the multiple and varied influences behind the formation and evolution of a saint’s cult. It explores the nuances of an urban cult in real depth, examining its contested and uneven development across a set of communities within one urban space in fine detail, and having recourse to a wide and diverse body of sources. It shows the multivalent significance of urban cults in medieval urban life to a degree not yet achieved, and in doing so establishes a new method or way of studying cities in the Middle Ages by positioning sanctity at the centre of medieval urban life and showing its interdependence to multifarious social, political, economic, religious and cultural factors.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Paul Oldfield (Supervisor) & Stephen Mossman (Supervisor)