S. Quirico di Populonia nelle fonti scritte (secc. XI-XII)

The history of the San Quirico di Populonia monastery has already been reconstructed by historiography in its general terms. The publication of the excavations at the monastery is the right time to reconsider the brief period (mid-11th century to mid-12th century) that is best illuminated by the sources, and a number of points in the history of the institute which have remained obscure so far. The research focused on compiling documents relating to the monastery, which is the basis for reconstructing its history: an unusual cartulary in the form of a rotulus (roll). A new dating of this piece (mid-12th century) was a preliminary to its physical analysis, and an analysis of its contents, which highlighted its purpose, to praise relations between San Quirico and the Aldobrandeschi, and the connection with the work that was then under way to give the monastery a new, monumental grandeur. A study of the cartulary, and of the logic behind its internal organization, helped to get a better understanding of the wealth of San Quirico in the mid-12th century. The scale of this wealth was fair, but not too great, and was concentrated in the Val di Cornia and in the surrounding hills. A dominant role in this wealth was played by the property granted by the Aldobrandeschi. Another issue that has not been researched very much relates to the secular individuals with whom the monastery had dealings. This investigation makes it possible to understand better the history of the institute, setting out from the question of its foundation, which has so far been unresolved. In the cartulary and in the other sources there are no references to the monastery’s foundation. The most likely explanation is that it came into being gradually and spontaneously, without a real foundation as such, starting from a group of hermits that established itself at the San Quirico church, and which was still attested to in the first half of the 11th century. In the second half of the century, San Quirico received an initial “cycle of donations” from minor local aristocrats. The operation was led by the de Biserno family. This was an offshoot of the larger aristocratic house of the de Segalari, established in northern Maremma; both the da Segalari and the de Biserno families were connected to the Gherardeschi family (who did not endow the institution, however). The de Biserno family, who formed an autonomous branch and established themselves in Val di Cornia in this same period, contributed directly and indirectly to increasing the wealth of the institution, which thereby became institutionalized definitively. In so doing, the de Biserno’s gained the status of the most important family in the minor aristocracy in the area, and formed a lasting connection with the monastery. With the initial “cycle of donations”, San Quirico established itself as the spiritual patron of the lesser local aristocracy (when the bishop moved to Massa Marittima from the Cornia valley). In the last quarter of the 11th century, and in the first half of the 12th century, San Quirico sought new and more important interlocutors: It formed ties first with a side branch of the Aldobrandeschi family, and then with the main branch, the main house in southern Tuscany. San Quirico seems to have first received, probably on a precarious basis, and for short periods, part of the important curtis of Franciano in the lower Val di Cornia. Its possession of half of the curtis became definitive only in 1121/22, and lay at the origin of the drafting of the cartulary, which was designed to underline the harmonious relations with the Counts, and to ask for further protection and benefits from them, and to make the monastery more monumental, in order to present it to a larger and more demanding public than the lesser local aristocracy. The sponsorship of the Aldobrandeschi then extended also to the former interlocutors of San Quirico: indeed, a de Biserno became their Viscount in the Populonia area. The last deeds in the cartulary (the last item in which is from 1130) is a pontifical privilege dating to shortly after (1143), a “one-off” example in the history of the religious institution. They show that San Quirico was still expanding, and attest to its projection into the Tyrrhenian area, a new development. The 1143 request for papal protection, as well as legitimating rights of uncertain provenance (over the promontory, and over tithes), was designed to make further progress in the patrons, replacing the Aldobrandeschi with Pisa, and the Pontiff. At this point, there is an interruption in written sources, reducing what can be known about San Quirico to a few occasional pieces of information that are now few and far between. They show that its property base remained solid, its vocation as a hermit community re-emerged, and it undoubtedly became more inward-looking. Given that the silence of the sources has mainly internal causes, pertaining to the history of their conservation, it is not easy to ascribe one single meaning to it. In this connection, some help comes from archeological investigations, which show the failure of the architectural projects of the mid-12th century. Accordingly, in the second half of the century, the patronage of the Counts lapsed, and without this there was a shortage both of resources and of the very meaning of the plans to renovate the monastery. For that matter, the attempt to form ties with Pisa and, via its offices, with the Pontiff, attested to by the 1143 privilege, came to nothing: Indeed, the city focused its efforts on Piombino, and on the S. Giustiniano di Falesia monastery. San Quirico does not, thus, appear to have undergone a rapid and dramatic crisis, but a gradual narrowing of its horizons, which became local and modest, similar to its prospects prior to the boom either side of the year 1100 (the real anomaly in its history). Even up to the end of the 1200s, as shown by the Rationes Decimarum, the institution’s wealth was modest, but not insignificant, and in the middle years of the century the re-emergence of its vocation as a hermitage persuaded the Pope, and the Bishop of Massa, to aggregate San Quirico with new congregations of hermits, such as that of the St William hermits of Malavalle, which it was placed under in the 14th century, too.