Kingdom of the Lombards
Kingdom of the Lombards Regnum Langobardorum ( | |||||||||||||||||||
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568–774 | |||||||||||||||||||
Capital | Pavia | ||||||||||||||||||
Common languages | Vulgar Latin Lombardic | ||||||||||||||||||
Religion | Christianity
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Government | Feudal elective monarchy | ||||||||||||||||||
King | |||||||||||||||||||
• 565–572 | Alboin (first) | ||||||||||||||||||
• 756–774 | Desiderius (last) | ||||||||||||||||||
Historical era | Frankish invasion | 774 | |||||||||||||||||
Currency | Tremissis | ||||||||||||||||||
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History of Italy |
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Italy portal |
The Kingdom of the Lombards (
The Lombard invasion of Italy was opposed by the
Over time, the Lombards gradually adopted Roman titles, names, and traditions. By the time
Some regions were never under Lombard domination, including Latium, Sardinia, Sicily, Calabria, Naples, Venice and southern Apulia.
A reduced
Administration
The earliest Lombard law code, the
History
6th century
Founding of the kingdom
In the 6th century
Although an invasion attempt by the Franks, then allies of the Ostrogoths, late in the war was successfully repelled, a large migration by the Lombards, a Germanic people that had been previously allied with the Byzantine Empire, ensued. In the spring of 568 the Lombards, led by King Alboin, moved from Pannonia and quickly overwhelmed the small Byzantine army left by Narses to guard Italy.
The Lombard arrival broke the political unity of the Italian Peninsula for the first time since the Roman conquest (between the 3rd and 2nd century BC). The peninsula was now torn between territories ruled by the Lombards and the Byzantines, with boundaries that changed over time.
The newly arrived Lombards were divided into two main areas in Italy: the
Arriving in Italy, King Alboin gave control of the
Over time, other Lombard duchies were created in major cities of the kingdom. This was dictated primarily by immediate military needs as dukes were primarily military commanders, tasked to secure control of territory and guard it against possible counter-attacks. However, the resulting collection of duchies also contributed to political fragmentation and sowed the seeds of the structural weakness of the Lombard royal power.[4]
In 572, after the capitulation of Pavia and its elevation to the royal capital, King Alboin was assassinated in a conspiracy in
Cleph and the Rule of the Dukes
Later in 572, the thirty-five dukes assembled in Pavia to hail king Cleph. The new monarch extended the boundaries of the kingdom, completing the conquest of Tuscia and laying siege to Ravenna. Cleph tried to pursue the policy of Alboin consistently, which aimed to break the legal-administrative institutions firmly established during Ostrogoth and Byzantine rule. He achieved this by eliminating much of the Latin aristocracy, through occupying their lands and acquiring their assets. However, he too, fell victim to regicide in 574, slain by a man in his entourage who perhaps colluded with the Byzantines.
Following Cleph's assassination another king was not appointed, and for a decade
In Italy, the Lombards then imposed themselves at first as the dominant caste in place of the former lineages, who were subsequently extinguished or exiled. The products of the land were allocated to his
Final settlement: Autari, Agilulf and Theudelinda
After ten years of interregnum, the need for a strong centralised monarchy was clear even to the most independent of the dukes; Franks and Byzantines pressed and the Lombards could no longer afford so fluid a power structure, useful only to make forays in search of plunder. In 584 the dukes agreed to crown King Cleph's son,
Autari was then able to reorganise the Lombards and stabilise their settlement in Italy. He assumed, like the
From the military point of view, Autari defeated both the Byzantines and Franks and broke the coalition, thereby fulfilling the mandate with which the dukes had entrusted him at the time of his election. In 585 he drove the Franks into modern Piedmont and led the Byzantines to ask, for the first time since the Lombards had entered Italy, for a truce. At the end, he occupied the last Byzantine stronghold in northern Italy: Isola Comacina in Lake Como.
To ensure a stable peace with the Franks, Autari attempted to marry a Frankish princess, but the project failed. Then the king, in a move that would influence the fate of the kingdom for more than a century, turned to the traditional enemies of the Franks, the
The alliance with the Bavarii led to a rapprochement between Franks and Byzantines, but Autari managed (in 588 and again, despite some severe early setbacks, in the 590s) to repel the resulting Frankish attacks. The period of Autari marked, according to Paul the Deacon, the attainment of the first internal stability in the Lombard kingdom:
Erat hoc mirabile in regno Langobardorum: nulla erat violentia, nullae struebantur insidiae; nemo aliquem iniuste angariabat, nemo spoliabat; non erant furta, non latrocinia; unusquisque quo libebat securus sine timore
There was a miracle in the kingdom of the Lombards: there was no violence, no insidious plot; no others unjustly oppressed, no depredations; there were no thefts, there were no robberies, where everyone went where they wanted, safely and without fear
— Paolo Diacono,Historia Langobardorum, III, 16
Autari died in 590, probably due to poisoning in a palace
After a rebellion among some dukes in 594 was preempted, Agilulf and Theodelinda developed a policy of strengthening their hold on Italian territory, while securing their borders through peace treaties with France and the
, but also to the south the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, extending the Lombards' domains.Istria was attacked and invaded by the Lombards on several occasions, although the degree of their occupation of the peninsula and its subordination to the Lombard kings is unclear. Even when Istria was part of the Exarchate of Ravenna, a Lombard, Gulfaris, rose to power in the region, styling himself as dux Istriae.[11]
The strengthening of royal powers, started by Autari and continued by Agilulf, also marked the transition to a new concept based on stable territorial division of the kingdom into
The new organisation of power, less linked to race and clan relations and more to land management, marked a milestone in the consolidation of the Lombard kingdom in Italy, which gradually lost the character of a pure military occupation and approached a more proper state model.[10] The inclusion of the losers (the Romans) was an inevitable step, and Agilulf made some symbolic choices aimed at the same time at strengthening its power and gaining credit with people of Latin descent. The ceremony of ascension to the throne of his son Adaloald in 604, followed a Byzantine rite. He chose not to continue to use Pavia as the capital, but the ancient Roman city of Milan with Monza as a summer residence. He identified himself, in a votive crown, Gratia Dei rex totius Italiae, "By the grace of God king of all Italy", and not just Langobardorum rex, "King of the Lombards".[12]
Moves in this direction also included strong pressure, particularly from Theodelinda, to convert the Lombards, who until then were still largely pagan or Arians, to Catholicism. The rulers also endeavored to heal the
Even art enjoyed, under Agilulf and Theodelinda, a flourishing season. In architecture Theodelinda founded the
7th century
Revival of the Arians: Arioald, Rothari
After the death of Agilulf in 616, the throne passed to his son Adaloald, a minor. The regency (which continued even after the king passed into majority)
This coup d'état against the
Arioald (r. 626–636), who brought the capital back to Pavia, was troubled by these conflicts, as well as external threats; the King was able to withstand an attack of the Avars in Friuli, but could not limit the growing influence of the Franks in the kingdom. At his death, the legend says that, using the same procedure as that followed by his mother Theodelinda, Queen Gundeperga had the privilege to choose her new husband and king.[15] The choice fell on Rothari, the duke of Brescia and an Arian.
Rothari reigned from 636 to 652 and led numerous military campaigns, which brought almost all of northern Italy under the rule of the Lombard kingdom. He conquered Liguria (643), including the capital
The memory of Rothari is linked to his famous edict, promulgated in 643 in
Bavarian dynasty
After the short reign of the son of Rothari and his son
Grimoald was invested by the Lombard nobles, but still had to deal with the legitimate faction, which tried international alliances to return the throne to Perctarit. Grimoald, however, persuaded the Avars to return the deposed ruler. Perctarit, as soon as he returned to Italy, had to make an act of submission to the usurper before he could escape to the Franks of Neustria, who attacked Grimoald in 663. The new king, hated by Neustria because he was allied with the Franks of Austrasia, repulsed them at Refrancore, near Asti.
Grimoald, who in 663 had also defeated an attempt to reconquer Italy by the
With Grimoald's death in 671, his minor son
Alahis rebelled again later, joining with the political opponents of the pro-Catholic Bavarian policy at Perctarit's death in 688. His son and successor Cunipert was initially defeated and forced to take refuge on the Isola Comacina - only in 689 did he manage to quash the rebellion, defeating and killing Alahis in the Battle of Coronate at the Adda.[21]
The crisis resulted from the divergence between the two regions of Langobardia Maior:
The dukes of Austria challenged the increasing "latinization" of customs, court practices, law and religion, which they believed accelerated the disintegration and loss of the Germanic identity of the Lombard people.[21] The victory allowed Cuniperto, already long associated with the throne by his father, to continue the work of pacifying the kingdom, always with a pro-Catholic accent. A synod convened in Pavia in 698 sanctioned the reintegration of the three anathematized chapters into Catholicism.
8th century
Dynastic crisis
Cunipert's death in 700 marked the opening of a dynastic crisis. The succession of Cunipert's minor son, Liutpert, was immediately challenged by the Duke of Turin, Raginpert, the most prominent of the Bavarian dynasty. Raginpert defeated the supporters of Liutpert (viz., his tutor Ansprand, Duke of Asti, and the Duke of Bergamo, Rotarit) in Novara, and, at the beginning of 701, took the throne. However, he died after just eight months, leaving the throne to his son Aripert II.
Ansprand and Rotarit reacted immediately and imprisoned Aripert, returning the throne to Liutpert. Aripert, in turn, managed to escape and confront his rival's supporters. In 702, he defeated them in Pavia, imprisoned Liutpert and occupied the throne. Shortly after, he finally defeated the opposition: he killed Rotarit, suppressed his duchy, and drowned Liutpert. Only Ansprand managed to escape, taking refuge in Bavaria. Subsequently, Aripert crushed a new rebellion, that of the Duke of Friuli, Corvulus, and adopted a strongly pro-Catholic policy.
In 712, Ansprand returned to Italy with an army raised in Bavaria, and clashed with Aripert; the battle was uncertain, but the king behaved cowardly and was abandoned by his supporters.[22] He died while trying to escape to the realm of the Franks, and drowned in the Ticino, dragged to the bottom by the weight of the gold that he brought with him.[22] With him ended the Bavarian dynasty's role in the Lombard kingdom.
Liutprand: the apogee of the reign
Ansprand died after only three months of his reign, leaving the throne to his son Liutprand. His reign, the longest of all Lombard monarchs, was characterized by the almost religious admiration that was accorded to the king by his people, who recognized in him boldness, courage and political vision.[23] Thanks to these qualities Liutprand survived two attempts on his life (one organized by one of his relatives, Rotari), and he displayed no inferior qualities in the conduct of the many wars of his long reign.
These values are typical of Liutprand: Germanic descent, king of a nation now overwhelmingly Catholic, joined by those of a piissimus rex ("loving king") (despite having tried several times to take control of Rome). On two occasions, in
His alliance with the Franks, crowned by a symbolic
Later on he exploited the disputes between the pope and Constantinople over
In the following years, Liutprand entered into an alliance with the Exarch against the pope, without giving up the old one with the Pope against the Exarch; he crowned this classic double play with an offensive that led to placing the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento under his authority, eventually arriving to negotiate a peace between the pope and Exarch beneficial to the Lombards. No Lombard king had ever obtained similar results in wars with other powers in Italy. In 732 his nephew Hildeprand, who succeeded him on the throne, briefly took possession of Ravenna, but he was driven away by the Venetians, who had allied with the new pope, Gregory III.
Liutprand was the last of the Lombard kings to rule over a unified kingdom; later kings would face substantial internal opposition, which eventually contributed to the kingdom's downfall. The strength of his power was based not only on personal charisma, but also on the reorganization of the kingdom which he had undertaken since the beginning of his reign. He strengthened the
The socio-economic structure of the kingdom had been progressively changing since the 7th century. Population growth led to fragmentation of funds, which increased the number of Lombards who fell below the poverty line, as evidenced by the laws aimed at alleviating their difficulties. By contrast, some Romans began to ascend the social ladder, becoming rich through commerce, crafts, the professions or the acquisition of lands that the Lombards had not been able to manage profitably. Liutprand also intervened in this process by reforming the administrative structure of the kingdom and freeing the poorest Lombards from military obligations.[27]
Last kings
Hildeprand's reign lasted only a few months, before he was overthrown by Duke Ratchis. The details of the episode are not clear, since the crucial testimony of Paul the Deacon ended with a eulogy on the death of Liutprand. Hildeprand had been anointed king in 737, during a serious illness suffered by Liutprand (who did not like the choice of king at all: "Non aequo animo accepit" wrote Paul the Deacon,[28] although, once recovered, he accepted the choice). The new king, then, at least initially enjoyed the support of most of the aristocracy, if not that of the great monarch. Ratchis, the Duke of Friuli, came from a family with a long tradition of rebellion against the monarchy and rivalry with the royal family, but on the other hand, he owed his life and the ducal title to Liutprand, who had forgiven him after discovering a conspiracy headed by his father, Pemmo of Friuli.
Ratchis was a weak ruler: on one side he had to concede greater freedom of action to the other dukes, on the other extreme he had to take care not to exacerbate the Franks and, above all, the mayor of the palace and de facto king Pepin the Short, the adopted son of the king whose nephew he had dethroned. Not being able to trust the traditional structures of support for the Lombard monarchy, he sought support among the gasindii, the gentry bound to the king by treaties of protection,[29] and especially among the Romans, the non-Lombard subjects.
The adoption of ancient customs, along with public pro-Latin attitudes—he married a Roman woman, Tassia, and with Roman rite, and adopted the title of
Aistulf
Aistulf expressed the more aggressive stance of the dukes, who refused an active role for the Roman population. For his expansionist policy, however, he had to reorganize the army to include, albeit in the subordinate position of light infantry, all ethnic groups in the kingdom. All free men of the kingdom, both those of Roman and Lombard origin, were obliged to serve in the military. The military standards promulgated by Aistulf mention the merchants several times, a sign of how that class had now become relevant.[30]
Initially, Aistulf achieved some notable successes, culminating in the conquest of Ravenna (751). Here the king, residing in the Palace of the
His campaigns led the Lombards to a near-complete domination of Italy, with the occupation also of Istria, Ferrara, Comacchio, and all territories south of Ravenna up to Perugia, from 750 to 751. With the occupation of the stronghold of Ceccano, he was putting further pressure on the territories controlled by Pope Stephen II, while in Langobardia Minor he was able to impose his power on Spoleto and, indirectly, on Benevento.
Just when it seemed Aistulf was able to defeat all opposition on Italian soil, Pepin the Short, the old enemy of the usurpers of Liutprand's family, finally managed to overthrow the
Because of the threat this move represented for the new king of the Franks, an agreement between Pepin and Stephen II settled, in exchange for the formal royal anointing, the descent of the Franks in Italy. In 754, the Lombard army, deployed in defence of the Locks in
Defeated again, Aistulf had to accept much harsher conditions: Ravenna was returned not to the Byzantines, but to the pope, increasing the core area of the Patrimony of St. Peter; Aistulf had to accept a sort of Frankish protectorate, the loss of territorial continuity of his domains, and payment of substantial compensation. The duchies of Spoleto and Benevento were quick to ally themselves with the victors. Aistulf died in 756, shortly after this severe humiliation.
Aistulf's brother Ratchis left the monastery and attempted, initially with some success, to return to the throne. He opposed Desiderius, who was put in charge of the Duchy of Tuscia by Aistulf and based in Lucca; he did not belong to the dynasty of Friuli, frowned upon by the pope and the Franks, and managed to get their support. The Lombards surrendered to him to avoid another Frankish invasion, and Rachis was persuaded by the Pope to return to Monte Cassino.
Desiderius, with a clever and discreet policy, gradually reasserted Lombard control over the territory by gaining favor with the Romans again, creating a network of monasteries ruled by Lombard aristocrats (his daughter Anselperga was named abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia), dealing with Pope Stephen II's successor,
Despite the changing fortunes of central political power, the 8th century represented the apogee of the reign, also a period of economic prosperity. The ancient society of warriors and subjects had been transformed into a vivid articulation of classes with landowners, artisans, farmers, merchants, lawyers; the era saw great development, including
Fall of the kingdom
In 771, Desiderius managed to convince the new pope, Stephen III, to accept his protection. The death of Carloman left Charlemagne, now firmly on the throne after repudiating the daughter of Desiderius, freehanded. The following year a new pope, Adrian I, of the opposite party of Desiderius, reversed the delicate game of alliances, demanding the surrender of the area never ceded by Desiderius and thus causing him to resume the war against the cities of Romagna.[33]
Charlemagne, though he had just begun his campaign against the Saxons, came to the aid of the pope. He feared the capture of Rome by the Lombards and the consequent loss of prestige that would follow. Between 773 and 774 he invaded Italy. Once again the defence of the Locks was ineffective, the fault of the divisions among the Lombards.[33] Charlemagne, having prevailed against a tough resistance, captured the capital of the kingdom, Pavia.
Thus ended Lombard Italy, and nobody can say whether this was, for our country, a fortune or a misfortune. Alboin and his successors were awkward masters, more awkward than Theodoric, so long as they had been barbarians camped on a conquered territory. But now they were assimilating with Italy and could turn it into a Nation, as the Franks were doing in France. But in France there wasn't the Pope. In Italy, there was.
— Indro Montanelli - Roberto Gervaso, L'Italia dei secoli bui
After the Frankish conquest of Langobardia Maior, only the Southern Lombard Kingdom was called Langbarðaland (Land of the Lombards), as attested in the Norse Runestones.[34]
List of monarchs
Historiographical views
The age of the Lombard kingdom was, especially in Italy, devalued as a long reign of barbarism[35] in the midst of the "Dark Ages". A period of confusion and dispersion, marked by the abandoned ruins of a glorious past and still in search of new identity; see, for example, the verses of Manzoni's Adelchi:
From the mossy atria, from the crumbling Fora,
from the woods, from the flaming strident forges,
from the furrows wet with slave sweat,
a dispersed mob suddenly awoke.
Dagli atri muscosi, dai Fori cadenti,
dai boschi, dall'arse fucine stridenti,
dai solchi bagnati di servo sudor,
un volgo disperso repente si desta.—Adelchi, Choir Third Act.
Sergio Rovagnati defines the continuing negative prejudice against the Lombards as "a sort of
The historical bipartition of Italy that has, for centuries, directed the North towards Central-Western Europe and the South, instead, to the Mediterranean area dates back to the separation between Langobardia Major and Langobardia Minor, while
Regarding the role played by the Lombards within the emerging Europe, Jarnut[38] shows that, after the decline of the kingdom of the Visigoths and during the period of weakness of the kingdom of the Franks in the Merovingian era, Pavia was about to take a guiding role for the West after determining, by tearing a large part of Italy from the dominance of the Basileus, the final boundary line between the Latin-Germanic West and the Greek-Byzantine East.
The rise of the Lombards in Europe was halted, however, by the growing power of the Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne, who inflicted decisive defeats on the last kings of the Lombards. The military defeat, however, did not correspond to a disappearance of the Lombard culture: Claudio Azzara states that "the same Carolingian Italy is configured, in fact, as a Lombard Italy, in the constituent elements of society and culture".[39]
In the arts
Literature
The persistent injury historiography on the "Dark Ages" has long cast shadows on the Lombard kingdom, averting the interest of writers from that period. Few literary works have been set in Italy between the 6th and 8th centuries; between them, relevant exceptions are those of Giulio Cesare Croce and Alessandro Manzoni. More recently the Friulian writer Marco Salvador has devoted a fiction trilogy to the Lombard kingdom.
Berthold
The figure of Bertoldo/Berthold, a humble and clever farmer from
In 1620, the abbot Adriano Banchieri, poet and composer, produced a further follow-up: Novella di Cacasenno, figliuolo del semplice Bertoldino ("News of Cacasenno, son of simple Little Berthold"). Since then, the three works are usually published in one volume under the title of Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno.
Adelchi
Set during the extreme end of the Lombard kingdom, the Manzonian tragedy
Cinema
Three films were inspired by stories of Croce and Banchieri and set in the initial period of the Lombard kingdom (very freely played):
- Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno (1936), directed by Giorgio Simonelli;
- Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno (1954), directed by Mario Amendola and Ruggero Maccari;
- Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno (1984), directed by Mario Monicelli.
By far the most famous is the last of the three films, which boasted a cast composed of, among others, Ugo Tognazzi (Berthold), Maurizio Nichetti (Little Berthold), Alberto Sordi (fra Cipolla) and Lello Arena (king Alboin).
See also
- Lombard syllogae
- Longobards in Italy: Places of Power (568-774 A.D.)
References
- ^ "The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 500-c. 700" by Paul Fouracre and Rosamond McKitterick (page 8)
- ^ N. Everett (2003), Literacy in Lombard Italy, c. 568–744 (Cambridge), 170.
- ^ cf. Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, IV, 37; VI, 24-26 e 52.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), pp. 48–50.
- Origo gentis Langobardorum and Chronicle of Fredegar.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), pp. 46–48.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 37.
- ^ Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, III, 16.
- ^ Paolo Diacono, III, 35.
- ^ a b Jarnut (1995), p. 44.
- ISBN 978-1-443-83918-1.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 43.
- ^ Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, IV, 41.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 61.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 56.
- ^ Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, IV, 45.
- ^ "Lombard terms and Latin glosses from the Codex Eporedianus of the Edictum Rothari". Arca. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- Pepin the Younger divided his kingdom between his two sons Carloman and Charlemagne.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 59.
- ^ Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, IV, 46.
- ^ a b Franco Cardini e Marina Montesano, Storia medievale, pag. 86.
- ^ a b Paolo Diacono, VI, 35.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 97.
- ^ Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, VI, 49.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 82.
- ^ Sergio Rovagnati, I Longobardi, pp. 75-76.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), pp. 98–101.
- ^ Paul Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, VI, 55.
- Leges Langobardorum, Ratchis Leges, 14, 1-3.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 101.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 112.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), p. 102.
- ^ a b Jarnut (1995), p. 125.
- ^ 2. Runriket - Täby Kyrka Archived 2008-06-04 at the Wayback Machine, an online article at Stockholm County Museum, retrieved July 1, 2007.
- ^ cf. Azzara (2002), p. 135
- ^ Rovagnati (2003), p. 1
- ^ Jarnut (1995), pp. 135–136.
- ^ Jarnut (1995), pp. 136–137.
- ^ Azzara (2002), p. 138
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Chronicle of Fredegar, Pseudo-Fredegarii scholastici Chronicarum libri IV cum continuationibus in Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS rer. Mer. II, Hanover 1888
- Gregory of Tours, Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Libri historiarum X (Historia Francorum) in Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS rer. Mer. I 1, Hanover 1951
- Leges Langobardorum(643-866), ed. F. Beyerle, Witzenhausen 1962
- Marius Aventicensis, Chronica a. CCCCLV-DLXXXI. edited Theodor Mommsen in Monumenta Germaniae Historica AA, XI, Berlin 1894
- Origo gentis Langobardorum, ed. G. Waitz in Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS rer. Lang.
- Historia Langobardorum(Storia dei Longobardi, Lorenzo Valla/Mondadori, Milan 1992)
Historiographical literature
- Chris Wickham (1981). Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000. MacMillan Press.
- Azzara, Claudio; Gasparri, Stefano, eds. (2005). Le leggi dei Longobardi: storia, memoria e diritto di un popolo germanico (in Italian) (2 ed.). Roma: Viella. ISBN 88-8334-099-X.
- Azzara, Claudio (2002). L'Italia dei barbari (in Italian). Bologna: Il Mulino. ISBN 88-15-08812-1.
- Paolo Delogu. Longobardi e Bizantini in Storia d'Italia, Torino, UTET, 1980. ISBN 88-02-03510-5.
- Bandera, Sandrina (2004). Declino ed eredità dai Longobardi ai Carolingi. Lettura e interpretazione dell'altare di S. Ambrogio (in Italian). Morimondo: Fondazione Abbatia Sancte Marie de Morimundo.
- Bertelli, Carlo; Gian Pietro Broglio (2000). Il futuro dei Longobardi. L'Italia e la costruzione dell'Europa di Carlo Magno (in Italian) (Skira ed.). Milano. ISBN 88-8118-798-1.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Bertolini, Ottorino (1972). Roma e i Longobardi (in Italian). Roma: Istituto di studi romani. BNI 7214344.
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- Montanelli, Indro; Roberto Gervaso (1965). L'Italia dei secoli bui (in Italian). Milano: Rizzoli.
- Mor, Carlo Guido (1930). "Contributi alla storia dei rapporti fra Stato e Chiesa al tempo dei Longobardi. La politica ecclesiastica di Autari e di Agigulfo". Rivista di storia del diritto italiano (Estratto).
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- Tagliaferri, Amelio (1965). I Longobardi nella civiltà e nell'economia italiana del primo Medioevo (in Italian). Milano: Giuffrè. BNI 6513907.
- Tabacco, Giovanni (1974). Storia d'Italia. Vol. I: Dal tramonto dell'Impero fino alle prime formazioni di Stati regionali (in Italian). Torino: Einaudi.
- Tabacco, Giovanni (1999). Egemonie sociali e strutture del potere nel medioevo italiano (in Italian). Torino: Einaudi. ISBN 88-06-49460-0.