Vol. 85 (2018): Vorträge und Forschungen: Die römische Kurie und das Geld. Von der Mitte des 12. Jahrhunderts bis zum frühen 14. Jahrhundert

The »greed for money« of the Roman Curia has been a widespread cliché and topic of satire since the late 11th century. This is an indicator for the various efforts of the papacy to finance the continuously growing apparatus of the Curia due to the fact that the usual income arising from the Lands of St Peter was no longer enough to cope with externally imposed tasks. Via articles in German, French, and English (and a translation from Italian), the 14 proven experts in this anthology deal with the income and expenditures of the headquarters of the Latin Christianitas and their wide claim to power. The range of subjects is quite broad: numismatic topics, the heterogeneous sources of financing of the papacy, the role of merchants-bankers from Rome, Siena, Florence and other municipalities of central and northern Italy, the finances of the cardinals, the high costs of the legations, the financing of the policy in the debate concerning the kingdom of Sicily, the canonical prohibition on receiving interest, and much more. The result of the research findings is that the early capitalistic monetary economy of the Middle Ages registered a considerable development boost caused by the papacy and the Roman Curia.