THE CAPITULAR ARCHIVES OF THE CATHEDRAL OF CONVERSANO

The origin of the documents of the Capitular Archives of the Cathedral of Conversano, as well as that of the Bishop’s See (the first registered signing was by Bishop Leone in 1081), remains hidden in the obscurity of the early Middle Ages. To bring them to light it was thus necessary to obtain indirect evidence by searching the parchments of the Chartularium Cupersanense (cf. Bibliography).

In the first collection of documents, dating back to April 915, is found the name of one of the most renowned signatories of the cartula offertjonis, Armiperto gratia Dei archipresbiter, signing on behalf of Grimoaldo, the imperial “spatario candidate”. Other firmly established capitular dignitaries recognized during the period of the Norman earldom in the town of Conversano are, for example, Archdeacon Maione (July 1089); Giovanni, son of Archdeacon Pietro; and Giovanni, son of Archdeacon Iocaro, (January 1094). In September 1188, almost a century later, appear the names of canon Roberto, and in February 1221, in hierarchical order, the capitular dignitaries Archdeacon Salomone, Archpriest Nicola, Primicerius Roberto and Leone, with signatures of the first three.

The ACC underwent two devastating attacks which considerably impoverished its patrimony: the first occurred in 1503 and completely destroyed the oldest library of the University of Conversano. The Spaniards had ransacked the town, under the command of Consalvo of Cordova (Gonzalo Fernandez of Cordova, known as the Gran Capitano), and according to historians burnt the parchments and documents when lighting their cannon fuses. The second disaster which fell upon the ACC, re-established after 1503, was caused by a fire in July of 1911. It destroyed the entire Baroque interior of the Romanic-style cathedral (late XIth c. to early XIIth c.) and part of the capitular collection of documents.

The two most valuable collections of the ACC are its manuscripts and library.

 . . .access the catalogue of printed documents of the 1500’s online. . .

The library collection

The library consists of over 1500 volumes, uninventoried and catalogued, and includes the Patrologia Latina collection by Migne in 221 (+14) volumes (Parisiis 1844-64), important series of volumes concerning civic and church history (Cantù, Rohrbacher, Bullarium of Benedict XIV), Italian literature (among which are two volumes of Boccaccio printed in the 1500’s), law, theology and dictionaries (including Moroni’s in 96 volumes, Venice 1840-69).

Embossing stamp centered in a single-hue, hand-designed sketch (1725)