The Bishop’s Archive of the diocese of Caiazzo

Overview

Project duration: 2021 - 2023 Date coverage: 500 - 1700 Contact

Archive Ancient Books Historical Documents (e.g. Notarial sources; Census records; Ecclesiastical documents; Correspondence) Digitization of collections Digital Prosopography OCR / HTR Digital Cultural Heritage

The bishop’s archive of Caiazzo boasts very ancient origins dating back to the beginning of the sixth century. The archive has been preserved for many years in the State Archives of Naples and has only recently been brought back to its place of origin, in the diocese of Caiazzo.
Since the second half of the 80s of the nineteenth century, the parchment fund has been the subject of study by many scholars.
The result was the publication of 7 volumes, which contain documents dating from the end of the sixth to the first half of the fourteenth century. Furthermore, the ancient obituary of the cathedral of Caiazzo has recently been published, which spans the 10th-18th centuries, in which all the most important characters, historical and otherwise, who lived in the town are listed, with the reconstruction of entire families.
The project has a dual purpose.
The first is to create a virtual archive with the insertion of the entire corpus of parchments, accompanied by high-resolution images, with the possibility of being able to interact directly with and on the membrane itself by entering it and looking for the lemma and/or the word of name or toponymy. Each membrane will have its description, its transcription, and all the necessary information on it and on the places and characters mentioned: bishops, provost, abbots, judges, notaries and many others.
The second is of a historical-content type: it involves drawing up prosoprographies of all the categories present and active in the territory of Caiazzo and Terra di Lavoro; prosoprographies of all the members of the ecclesiastical body, starting from the bishops to the lowest categories; the same thing for the juridical and notary category, such as that of the artisans and the very active markets present in the Caiatino countryside.

Project partners

Other partners

  • Diocesi di Alife-Caiazzo
  • L'Orientale. Università degli Studi di Napoli
  • Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"