He devoted his research to two main fields of
interest, strictly linked to each other: agrarian history and food
history, thought of as preferential ways of access for
reconstructing medieval society as a whole: economic and social
structures (work, power, property), concrete and material aspects
of daily life, cultural values, mentality. Inside this frame, a
special resonance has been obtained by his studies on food history,
seen as a total history, involving economy, politics and
culture.
He has furthermore studied significant aspects of the
history of Emilia-Romagna region, directing research projects and
publishing studies, particularly on the history of
Imola.
Montanari's researches on food history move, at first,
in the frame of agrarian history, with a particular regard to
peasant world and the early Middle Ages. His first book, L'alimentazione contadina
nell'alto Medioevo, published by Liguori (Napoli) in 1979,
traces a general picture of the topic, starting from the landscape
and economic patterns, as to arrive to the ways of consumption and
their social representation. The following Alimentazione e cultura nel
Medioevo (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1988) is particularly devoted to
the ideological and mental aspects of table behaviours. Convivio (Laterza, 1989) is on the social aspects of the
civilisation of the table, and the value of food as an instrument
of communication (on the same line, two modern and contemporary
extensions: Nuovo convivio, Laterza 1991; Convivio
oggi, Laterza 1992). A wide resonance, with many translations
in different languages, had the synthetic study La fame e
l'abbondanza. Storia dell'alimentazione in
Europa,
published by Laterza in 1993. In 1995 he published a book for children, Il
pentolino magico, dealing with the history of food culture
(Laterza). Together with Jean-Louis Flandrin he edited a Storia dell'alimentazione
to which dozens of european and american scholars partecipated
(1996). With
Alberto Capatti he wrote La cucina italiana. Storia di una
cultura (Laterza, 1999). He edited the volume Il mondo in cucina. Storia,
identità, scambi, published in 2002 by Laterza. With Françoise
Sabban he directed the Atlante dell'alimentazione e
della gastronomia, in two volumes, published in 2004 by Utet
(second edition, 2006, with a different title: Storia e geografia
dell'alimentazione). In 2004 he published Bologna grassa. La costruzione
di un mito (Bologna, Clueb) and a historical-anthropological
essay on food culture: Il
cibo come cultura (Laterza). In 2008 he published a research dealing with the
relationship between high and low cultures, centred on the analysis
of a famous Italian proverb (Il formaggio con le
pere. La storia in un
proverbio,
Laterza publishers). In 2009 he published Il riposo della polpetta e altre storie intorno al cibo (Laterza), a collection of short essays in a divulgative shape. In 2010, again by Laterza,is published L’identità italiana in cucina, a cultural-political reflection on the existence – historically deeply rooted – of an Italian identity founded on the sharing of tastes and food practices. In 2012 Gusti del Medioevo. I prodotti, la cucina, la tavola. In 2015, by Rizzoli, Mangiare da cristiani, a study of the relationship between food culture and religious tradition in European history. In 2016, by Laterza, Il sugo della storia.
In parallel with his studies on food culture,
Montanari has developed his researches in the field of agrarian
history. His main topics have been the manorial system and economy,
ways and production systems, peasant life and agrarian
contracts. After L'azienda curtense in Italia.
Proprietà della terra e lavoro contadino nei secoli VIII-XI
(written with B. Andreolli, Bologna, Clueb, 1983) he has collected
many papers in different volumes: Campagne medievali,
Einaudi, Torino 1984; Contadini e città tra
Langobardia e Romania, Salimbeni, Firenze, 1988; Uomini, terre, boschi
nell'Occidente medievale, Catania, Cooperativa universitaria
editrice, 1992; Contadini di
Romagna nel Medioevo, Bologna, Clueb, 1994. Other papers have been published in miscellaneous
volumes and historical reviews.
In 2002 he has published (Laterza) a reference book on
medieval history (Storia medievale) written in collaboration
with Giuseppe Albertoni, Tiziana Lazzari and Giuliano
Milani.
Among the studies centred on the regional territory of
Emilia-Romagna, one must quote the miscellaneous volume edited on
La storia di Imola. Dai primi insediamenti all'ancien
régime (La Mandragora, 2000) and the direction of a wide
interdisciplinary research on Imola, il comune, le piazze
(and the omonimous volume, edited with T. Lazzari,
2003).
