Patrimoni e attività economica nei monasteri femminili dell’altomedioevo italiano (VII-X secolo): spunti di riflessione

[Machine translation] The contribution examines the theme of the patrimony of early medieval women's monasteries and the economic activities related to them, investigating the trajectories of the formation of the nuclei of assets in the hands of the communities of nuns, the methods of exploiting resources and the actors that intervene in these mechanisms. From a careful examination of Italian and international literature on the cenobi of women in the early Middle Ages, multiple approaches emerge, particularly linked, in recent decades, to 'gender history'. They, however, have left a bit in the shade, at least in the Italian context, aspects related to concrete life in these entities, starting precisely from the economic dimension, for example with regard to the management of assets in territories that are also very diversified from each other. The contribution, through some significant cases, takes into consideration the entire panorama of women's monasteries in the Peninsula (with the exception of the world of Greek culture), overcoming historiographical gaps linked also to the lack of a summary study on the subject. It also aims to propose new food for thought, going beyond purely institutional aspects. On a methodological level, an interdisciplinary dimension has been adopted, which accompanies a reading of written sources attentive to the material implications and the examination of the information provided by the archaeological record. In particular, as a working hypothesis, we can identify in texture a characteristic aspect in the economy of these cenobes, with all the implications that this activity entails, even in the dynamics of the supply of raw materials. Other equally important data for women's monasteries are also represented by the strong ties with the urban world on the one hand and, on the other, by the complexity in the management forms implemented, no less evident than that observable at male cenobes, even if the female ones appear to be more linked to the interventions of external subjects (lay founders, rulers, bishops...) who always maintain close relationships with these foundations., The contribution therefore aims to provide a contribution and a new look at the topic, which in turn can generate new questions within the scientific community and articulate the perspective even in the same 'gender story', highlighting new aspects of female action in the medieval universe.