Costantino il Grande tra medioevo ed età moderna (review)

This is the written record of a conference on the Emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306–37). It is concerned more with the Constantine of legend than the historical emperor, best known for extending toleration to Christianity and calling the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD). In most of these studies the supposed baptism of the emperor by Pope Sylvester I (314–35 AD) and the spurious Donation of Constantine loom large, especially in political discourse.

The first section covers the use of Constantine’s image by the papacy in its relations with the Carolingian emperors (Matthias Becher), the place of the Donation in fourteenth-century polemics about papal and imperial power (Jürgen Miethke), Cola di Rienzo’s use of the emperor’s image (Vincenzo Aiello), and his place in the writings of Marsilius of Padua as fidelis princeps (Gregorio Piaia). One of the most interesting articles, Miethke’s, examines Pope Innocent IV (r. 1243–54), who treated the Donation not as an imperial gift but as the restoration of power to Christ and his vicar.

The second section treats the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The place of the Donation in political discussions of the time is outlined by Riccardo Fubini. Barbara Baldi treats the place of the Donation in the Dialogus of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II, r. 1458–64). Many of these are well-known polemics, including the classic refutation of the Donation by Lorenzo Valla. Much more intriguing is the place of Constantine in the debates on political power during the great days of the Spanish Hapsburgs in the sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. Guido Cappelli charts the ways in which some apologists for the Spanish monarchy argued for limits on papal temporal power by limiting the scope of Constantine’s benefactions to Rome and its environs. Least familiar to most readers will be the place of Constantine in Russian thought of the same period. The first Christian emperor was presented as a prop of Russian claims to empire, including the contention that Moscow was the Third Rome.

The third part of the collection is more diverse. Mario Turchetti examines the Constantinus Magnus by François Bauduin, an associate of John Calvin who differed from him in assessing the role of the emperor. Baudin focused on the imperial legislator, seen as “moderate” in his actions, a promoter of concord. Paolo Cozzo traces the role of Constantine in the self-presentation of the rulers of Savoy in the early-modern period. François Paschold examines Edward Gibbon’s portrayal of the emperor in the light of his views on the role of Christianity in the decline of the Roman Empire.

The final section is concerned with the image of Constantine in art and architecture. Arnaldo Marcone shows how the legendary Constantine was depicted in the Chapel of St. Sylvester at the church of Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome. Created during the confrontations of the thirteenth-century papacy with the Hohenstauffen emperors, the legends of Constantine painted on the walls buttressed papal claims to power over lay rulers. Rolf Quednau contributes a survey of Constantine’s appearance in papal commissions of the thirteenth through eighteenth centuries, with a glance at the use of the Arch of Constantine in the propaganda of Benito Mussolini. These commissions show the legendary Constantine alive long after Valla refuted the Donation. Lukas Clemens gives us a different view of Constantine’s heritage by looking at the city of Trier. The city claimed Constantine, Constantius (his father), and Helena (his mother) as their own, including as patrons of their own institutions.