Felipe Augusto RIBEIRO

Original title: Gentes mediterrânicas: encontros étnicos entre lombardos, francos, bizantinos e muçulmanos a partir da Ystoriola de Erchemperto de Montecassino (c. 887)

Published in Intercultural Mediterranean

Keywords: Chronicle, Ethnography, Mediterranean, Montecassino.

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This work deals with interethnic encounters in the south of the Italian Peninsula in the 9th century, based on the chronicle entitled Ystoriola (or Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum), written around 887 by the monk Erchemperto of Montecassino. The investigation is driven by a problematization of this text: how did the chronicler portray the people – Lombards, Franks, Byzantines and Muslims – who travelled through the region? The objective is to highlight an example of the ethnography practiced by these monks, that is, the way in which such ethnic groups were portrayed. The article uses an analytical-descriptive and comparative methodology and, from a theoretical point of view, employs the categories of alterity/otherness and ethnicity. The result of the analysis is the proposition of Montecassino as a “pan-Mediterranean” monastery, an important axis – and, therefore, a privileged place for historical observation – of the polycentric circuit that crossed the Mediterranean and allowed the transit of all the people who inhabited its shores.