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Over the thirteenth century, a prolonged struggle over buildings and land played out in the center of the small Umbrian town of Città di Castello.  This contention played out through several legal cases and through violence against both people and structures.  The sacred status of certain pieces of property, and even parts of buildings, figure prominently in the struggle, as did the desire to sanctify the exercise of power through proximity to sacred space.  An unpublished 1266 document sheds significant new light on this struggle. Although we know this attempt to resolve all outstanding issues between the bishop and see of Città di Castello, on one side, and the leaders of the city's communal government, on the other, was not successful, the document reveals how consecrated spaces, as well as emerging notions of public space, enduringly shaped the urban landscape.

Maureen C. Miller is the Jane K. Sather Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.  A Fellow (2015-) and former President (2022-2023) of the Medieval Academy of America, she has published three award-winning monographs—The Formation of a Medieval Church:  Ecclesiastical Change in Verona, 950-1150 (1993), The Bishop's Palace:  Architecture and Authority in Medieval Italy (2000), Clothing the Clergy: Virtue and Power in Medieval Europe, c. 800-1200 (2014)—in addition to other books and articles. 

The Global Approaches to Sacred Space lectures are generously funded by the SGS Global Research Workshop series with further support from the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, CESTA, CMEMS, CREEES, the Departments of Art & Art History, Classics, French & Italian, History, and Religious Studies.

Co-organized by Prof. Bissera V. Pentcheva and Andrei Dumitrescu.