14 Hobart
of the royal Aragonese historians by King Philip IV.24 Vico relied primarily on
two documents: the Anales de la Corona de Aragón by Jerónimo Zurita, the first
“academic” historian of Spain, and the De rebus Sardois by the Jesuit Giovanni
Francesco Fara (1589).25 There was clearly a political motive behind the cre-
ation of Historias, as they allowed the Spanish royals to control local leaders
who were either part of the royal administration, or tied to the papacy.
As these early chronicles were being written, frenzied research into the
whereabouts of the relics of Sardinia’s martyrs—the cuerpos santos—pro-
duced tension between the two cities of Torres and Cagliari for about ten years
(1614–1624). The conflict was centered around which churches had the earliest
saints on the island, and where they were buried, and led each city to flaunt the
bones of “their” martyrs. This bizarre spectacle was an effect of the Counter-
Reformation, which promoted a return to origins that focused on martyrs and
relics, so as to physically and metaphorically “bring back” the early founders of
the church. Other material found during these early investigations cast suspi-
cion on some of Sardinia’s records,26 fueling debate over when and how early
Christianity arrived in Sardinia (Fig. 0.5).
At the end of the eighteenth and into the nineteenth centuries, Sardinian
history was touched by the Enlightenment ideals of the French Revolution.
In the Napoleonic era, a new generation of enlightened humanists started
24 Manconi’s fascinating introduction to the period also discusses other historias, including
lists of sites, descriptions of the region, and historical annotations in the same edition of
Francisco De Vico, Historia de la isla y Reyhno de Sardenia, eds Francesco Manconi and
Marta Galinanes Gallèn (Sassari, 2004).
25 Giovanni Francesco Fara, De Rubus Sardois (Cagliari, 1589); republished in Giovanni
Francesco Fara, Opera, vol. 3 (Sassari, 1992); also republished as Giovanni Francesco Fara,
De chorographia Sardiniae libri dvo. De rebvs sardois libri qvatvor (Augustae Taurinorum,
1835). For a contextual outlook on the social construct of “Histories of Foundations,” see
Raimondo Turtas, “I giudici sardi del secolo XI da Giovanni Francesco Fara a Dionigi
Scano e alle Genealogie medioevali di Sardegna,” Studi Sardi 33 (2000), pp. 212–236.
26 Manca de Cedrelles Gavino, Relación de la invención de los cuerpos de los santos Mártires S.
Gavino, san Proto, y san Ianuario, Patrones del Yglesia Metropolitana Turritana de Sàcer en
Serdenam y de otros mucho sue se hallaron el ano de 1614. La qual embia a su Magestad don
Gavino Manca Arcibispo Turritano de Sacer, dando cuento de lo que se ha hallado en aquella
Yglesia, y los Milagros que Dios neustri Señor obro por ellos (Madrid, 1615). On Counter-
Reformation initiatives to celebrate the “invention” (rediscovery) of the Cuerpos sanc-
tos in Cagliari, see the detailed reconstruction and maps by Raimondo Pinna, “Percorsi
Processionali e occupazione fisica dello spazio pubblico,” in Archivio Giuridico (Cagliari,
2015). See also manuscript and ink sketches of the churches and map of the island (Fig. 5)
with the disputed saints in Juan Francisco Carmona, Alabanças de los Santos de Sardeña
(Cagliari, 1631). Francesco Cesare Casula, La storiografia sarda ieri e oggi (Sassari, 2009).