DONATION OF PEPIN
. An 8th-century document that transferred control of a strip of land in Italy to Pope
Sylvester II, effectively establishing the temporal authority of the papacy. In 751, Rome
and surrounding areas had been threatened by the Lombard king Aistulf. Since Sylvester
was a Byzantine subject, he appealed to Emperor Constantine V for assistance, but to no
avail. Seeking protection elsewhere, Sylvester traveled to Ponthion in 754, where he
obtained a sworn oath from Pepin III the Short (714–768) to defend the Roman church.
After Pepin had defeated Aistulf and the First Peace of Pavia had been concluded in 755,
Aistulf refused to abide by the agreement and attacked Rome again. Summoned by Pope
Stephen II, Pepin engaged Aistulf in battle once again and defeated him in 756. The
Second Peace of Pavia levied heavy penalties against Aistulf. This time, Fulrad, the abbot
of Saint-Denis, was charged with the duty of traveling to various cities in Italy to obtain
tokens of submission to the pope. Afterward, Fulrad documented the lands that were
given or restored to the pope. It is this document that is known as the Donation of Pepin.
The lands, however, had not belonged to Pepin or to the pope but had been the property
of the emperor, who had failed to defend them.
E.Kay Harris
[See also: DONATION OF CONSTANTINE; PEPIN]
Caspar, Erich. Pippin and die romische Kirche. Berlin: Springer, 1914.
Duchesne, Louis M.O. The Beginnings of Temporal Sovereignty of the Popes, A.D. 754–1073,
trans. Arnold H.Matthew. New York: Benzinger, 1908, pp. 21–48.
Ullmann, Walter. The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. London: Methuen,
1970, pp. 44–86.
DONNEI DES AMANZ
. Composed in the late 12th century, this incomplete and anonymous Anglo-Norman
didactic poem has 1,244 octosyllabic lines in the only manuscript in which it is preserved
(Cologny-Geneva, Bibliotheca Bodmeriana 82). The narrator overhears a conversation
between a young noble and the lady he loves. In his attempts to win his lady’s love, the
young man cites examples of famous lovers, especially from the Romances of Antiquity.
The episode from the Tristan legend cited in lines 919–1, 158 is commonly known as
Tristan rossignol.
Claude J.Fouillade
[See also: ANTIQUITY, ROMANCES OF; TRISTAN ROMANCES]
Paris, Gaston, ed. Le donnei des amants. Romania 25 (1896): 497–541.
Busby, Keith. “The Donnei des amants and Courtly Tradition.” Medioevo romanzo 14(1989):181–
95.
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