Abstract
The project aims to investigate the phenomenon of Medievalism in Italy from 1980, the watershed year of the publication of “The Name of the Rose,” to the present day. The aim is to identify in a systematic and multidisciplinary way the contribution of Italian research and culture to the construction of contemporary Medievalism in the West and the uses and ideologies hidden in the late twentieth-century process of global acculturation centered on the meta-historical and atemporal Middle Ages. While Medievalism is a growing and evolving cultural phenomenon, there is a lack of analytical and comprehensive studies acknowledging its different contributions (academic, cultural, social, multimedia) and evolutionary phases. The research aims to fill this gap to increase knowledge and awareness of the phenomenon in the Italian academy and society. The analysis will explore five fundamental themes, namely: • Global Medievalism (Italian Medievalism in relation to international Medievalism); • Academic Medievalism (Medievalism in academic historiography through the investigation of the archives of historical institutes and the academic and popular bibliography); • Media Medievalism (Medievalism through the media, publishing, audiovisual, digital); • Public Medievalism (the interpretation of Medievalism in the territory by local realities in festivals, and reenactments); • Literary Medievalism (Medievalism in the work of authors such as Fabrizio De André, Umberto Eco, Dario Fo, Mario Luzi...). The different Units, thanks also to their specific competencies and ongoing collaborations, contribute to the various themes in a complementary way: the Rome La Sapienza Unit will work on Global and Academic Medievalisms, the Urbino Unit on Public and Literary Medievalisms and the Bologna Unit on Media Medievalism. The project foresees the creation of a FRAME platform for sharing research, to be put in open access in order to make the contents of the database available for the public. An experimental WebApp will also be designed to disseminate research results on a significant case study. Traditional research outputs such as conferences, publications, podcasts and social content and other public engagement products are also planned. Results and achievements: The Bologna Research Unit was specifically responsible for "Media Medievalism", an area that accounted for 80% of its total research activity. The team analysed how the Middle Ages were represented and disseminated through mass distribution channels, such as traditional and digital publishing, cinema, television, and popular magazines. The unit investigated these narratives to understand their socio-cultural impact, their reliability, and their role in creating cultural stereotypes. The research activities implemented a threefold research line during the project period, structured as follows: 1) Research on publishing for children and young adults, mapping historical novels, Disney comics and edutainment cultural products to analyse how these have shaped the medieval imagination of young readers between 1980 and 2022. 2) Cataloguing Italian films and television series set in the Middle Ages between 1980 and 2022. 3) Production of a podcast on multimedia medievalism These activities were carried out with the contribution of the research fellow, Fabiana Fraulini, of the external support of Olga Kalashnikova, who participated in the collection and analysis of relevant materials and contributed to the organisation of scientific initiatives connected with this line of research. A major outcome of the activities carried out by the Bologna unit was the organization of the project’s mid-term international conference in Bologna, a key event dedicated to check the project’s progress concerning to data mapping, identification of scientific standards for dissemination, attractiveness, communication, with a focus on multimedia Middle Ages. The conference explored the construction of medieval narratives and multimedia languages during the 20th and 21st centuries. The conference's interdisciplinary reflection was organized around three main thematic axes: Political-Cultural Use: Investigating how the Middle Ages was used as an analogical key to interpret and orient contemporary events. Didactics and Historical Dissemination: Examining the role of the Middle Ages in education and popular outreach, including textbooks, children's literature, and edutainment. Artistic Imagination and Cultural Heritage: Focusing on the period's representation in art and its status as cultural heritage. o Activities: During her one-year grant, Fraulini established the methodologicalstandards for the unit by developing metadata sheets and a preliminary Excel model for data collection. She focused her research on children's and youth publishing, mapping historical novels, Disney comics, and edutainment to analyze how they shape the medieval "imaginary" for young readers. She conducted his research at: Specialist libraries; Public libraries (children's sections); Specialist bookshops; MEMO Modena, Erickson Study Centre (Trento). Italian Publishers Association (AIE). She also conducted a systematic survey of popular magazines such as Medioevo and Focus Storia. o Timeframe: These activities were performed during a one-year research fellowship. o Outputs: Her findings contributed to a new taxonomy of medievalisms and were presented at major conferences in Urbino (Medioevo partecipato, July 2024) and Bologna (Multimedioevo, January 2025). • Olga Kalashnikova (External Support) o Activities: Kalashnikova was responsible for the cataloging of Italian films and television series set in the Middle Ages. She migrated and integrated data from the "cinemedioevo.net" website with other databases like IMDb and MyMovies. Her work also involved technical testing and collaboration with the DigiLab team to ensure the data was compatible with the central FRAME platform. o Timeframe: Her activities were carried out between June and October 2025. o Outputs: She produced a comprehensive dataset consisting of 269 catalog entries covering the period from 2005 to 2022, ready for manual entry into the online FRAME database. • Alessio Innocenti (Occasional Autonomous Work) o Activities: Innocenti was engaged to handle specific technical and dissemination tasks. His primary contribution was the production of the forthcoming podcast Multimedioevo, a digital output designed to communicate the project's research results to a broader audience. o Timeframe: These activities were carried out between December 2025 and January 2026. The Bologna Unit delivered several high-impact results: • Scientific Taxonomy: Development of a classification system for media narratives to distinguish between historical simplification and instrumentalization. • Massive Data Mapping and Database Contributions: Hundreds of entries regarding audiovisual products, children's literature, and popular periodicals integrated into the FRAME digital ecosystem • Methodological Standards: Creation of metadata models and file templates adopted for the mapping of medievalist sources. • Scientific Dissemination: The organization of the project's mid-term international scientific meeting (Multimedioevo, January 2025) in Bologna. • The Multimedioevo Podcast: A key dissemination tool created by Alessio Innocenti to engage the public with the project's themes. The unit's activities included also the participation in numerous conferences and dissemination events to promote the project's findings. Through these activities the Bologna research unit contributed significantly to the interdisciplinary dimension of the project, expanding the investigation of medievalism to include the analysis of contemporary media and the cultural processes through which the medieval past continues to be reinterpreted in modern society.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Francesca Roversi Monaco
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà
Coordinatore:
"Sapienza" Universita' Di Roma(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 63.307,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
28/09/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
