The Lands of Saint Ambrose

This is a microstudy with macroscopic implications. Ross Balzaretti’s focus is a corpus of several hundred eighth- to eleventh-century property deeds (‘charters’) that were preserved at the monastery of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan. Through fine-grained analysis of the content and form of these single-sheet parchments, read alongside other available evidence, Balzaretti’s masterpiece intervenes in a number of thorny debates about the transformation of the Roman world: in particular, how property was transferred from the laity to the Church; the changing relationship between the city and its hinterland; and how charters, their formal nature notwithstanding, can be read ‘against the grain’. Admittedly the book, although well-written and interspersed with eye-catching vignettes and turns of phrase, is not an easy read, for Balzaretti meticulously and thoroughly interrogates the evidence. Yet a careful reading well repays the effort. As Balzaretti emphasises, the very limited nature of the evidence inevitably means that only a partial

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Environmental ethics · SAINT · Classics · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Philosophy