International Research Center for Late Antiquity and Middle Ages
Abstract
From the tenth century the figure of Julia, the Carthaginian martyr venerated in San Salvatore of Brescia, becomes central in the self-consciousness of the monastery: this is the time when the first documentary sources of the dedication to the saint are found and when the big and refined workshops are called to decorate, through different ways, the most important spaces of the abbey, and this is the moment on which the memory of martyrdom, with the drafting of a new passio, is recovered. The story of the life of Julia, the wanderings of the holy body (between the ports of the Corsica and of the Tuscany, and than to Brescia) and the identification of her martyrdom with that of Christ, become a powerful tool of self-representation of the monastic community of Benedictine nuns; this allows the construction of an unprecedented hagiographic model that enables to the cloister to choose the use of lot of prestigious workshops that make the building yard of Brescia one of the most interesting for the rest of the Middle Ages
