L' élite ecclesiastica meridionale e la riscossione della decima apostolica tra Due e Trecento. Una proposta d’indagine

Abstract

The Apostolic tithe was an important historical phenomenon. For its collection, it required a branched bureaucratic and fiscal structure, in which were involved all the actors belonging to the institutional and informal networks of the Apostolic See. Then, its documents offer a useful starting point to deepen the composition of the local and trans-regional elite. For this reason, this essay will focus the attention on the chance to investigate on how and to what extent a precise sample, the ecclesiastical elite of the southern Italy, took part in its activities between the 13th and 14th centuries. The aim is to define a research path about the degree of participation of the local group to the recollecting process and the forms of ties they had with the Papacy through comparing the data of the collectors and sub-collectors with the Angevin bishops governing in the same period.