La Sede Apostolica e l'Europa centrale e sud orientale nel IX e nel X secolo: impegno missionario e rapporti diplomatici

MADDALENA BETTI

On Friday 22 November, in room F007, at 5 p.m., the second session of the annual seminar cycle in the History of the Papacy will be held. On this occasion Maddalena Betti, from the Società internazionale per lo studio del Medioevo Latino in Florence, will give a lecture entitled ‘The Apostolic See and Central and South Eastern Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries: missionary effort and diplomatic relations’. The scholar will focus on the so-called papal ‘missionary awakening’ that began in the second half of the ninth century and continued into the 10th. In this phase the popes invested resources and energy to operate in the ongoing processes of Christianisation in central and south-eastern Europe. In spite of the supposed contraction of papal diplomatic efforts in the tenth century, the lecture will consider some well-known and controversial papal documents that instead intermittently attest to the Apostolic See's willingness and ability to entertain privileged relations with the political leaders and bishops of the new political formations that dominated the region.