Eremiti di sant'Agostino nel Trecento veneto. Studia, vita religiosa e società nei conventi di Treviso e Padova

Augustinian Hermit friars in fourteenth century Veneto. Studia, religious life and society in the convents of Treviso and Padua. Using mostly unpublished archival documents, this work aims to trace the different phases of the development during the course of the fourteenth century of the Augustinian convents of Saint Margherita of Treviso and Saint Giacomo and Filippo of Padua, considered in their inner dynamics and in their relationship with the surrounding society. In particular, after presenting an overview, based on existing studies, of the period in which the two convents were founded, this research approaches the question of the numerical strength, the composition and organisation of the convent communities in the fourteenth century, considered in relation to the other communities of the province of Marca trevigiana (Verona, Vicenza, Trento, Venezia, Mantova, Ferrara) and observing the movement of the friars within the Veneto as a whole. A part of the Appendix is devoted to portraits of some of these friars. After affirming that the main impulse of this movement was the need for the friars to acquire training, the thesis describes the organization of their studies in the two convents of Treviso, emphasizing the role they played within the Augustinian system of instruction and reconstructing the attendance of students and teachers. The thesis goes on to construe the cultural contribution made by the Augustinian Hermit friars to the cities in which they settled, dwelling particularly on the establishment of the theological Studium of the Padua convent, which was incapsulated, during the second half of the century, in the new theological Faculty of the University of Padua. The research then deals with the sphere of the convents’ relationship with the rest of society, observing the convents of Treviso and Padua in relation to the city as an urban space and analysing, in particular, the relationship of the friars with the lay citizens, viewed through their legacies. This source enables us to observe the relations which the members of this order cultivated with the élite of the cities and the emerging social strata, as well as with the guild craftsmen and merchants. Once the thirteenth century phase of settlement, and that of the development and expansion of the convent, which continued into the fourteenth century, were over (in these phases certain families played a decisive role)- the relationship with some of the eminent families of the two cities became apparent , especially in the choice of particular churches for the family tombs. These churches, as beneficiaries of artistic commissions, became, in the fifteenth century, symbols of the importance assumed by the Augustinian Hermit order in urban contexts.