The volume collects the proceedings of the conference Domenico e Bologna. Genesi e sviluppo dell'Ordine, held in Bologna in 2021 to mark the eight-hundredth anniversary of the death of Dominic of Caleruega (Bologna, 6 August 1221).

Scholarly interest in the Dominican Order and in saint Dominic intensified in the early 2000s, most notably with Luigi Canetti's seminal study of the saint's hagiographical tradition.[1] In subsequent decades, research largely focused on the origins of the Order and on Dominic himself, as Maria Teresa Dolso's more recent book well demonstrates.[2] Limited attention was devoted to the Bolognese context, as shown by comparison with the volume edited by Gianni Festa and Marco Rainini.[3] The essays gathered in the present volume address this lacuna by examining the relationship between Dominic, Bologna, and the genesis of the Order. Without ever lapsing into celebratory rhetoric, in the book Bologna emerges as a pivotal city for the early development of the Order, and the first friars appear as a network of elite men attentive to the needs of their time and capable of shaping them.

The volume is structured into five parts. The first focuses on the relationship between Saint Dominic, the pontiffs, and the curia. Marco Rainini's contribution convincingly illustrates how the Dominican Order took shape around Dominic, portrayed as a friar with exceptional relational and organisational abilities, capable of providing a stable institutional framework for preaching. This aptitude emerges clearly from the Toulouse experience, according to Werner Maleczek. Christian Grasso argues that the curia's need to identify figures suitable for the task of preaching prompted the papacy to promote a complex series of initiatives aimed at revitalising it. From a similar perspective, Maria Pia Alberzoni highlights how Dominic's proposed form of life responded to central concerns of his time, interpreting the Dominican project as an adaptation to the needs of the Church while underscoring the curia's interest in charismatic figures such as Dominic.

The second part explores the relationship between the Order and Bologna, offering an innovative focus on Reginald of Orléans. His arrival in the city marked a decisive turning point for the Dominicans: drawing on his experience, he integrated easily into the university milieu and attracted prominent figures to the Order. In fact, as Berardo Pio notes, Bologna was especially appealing as an international crossroads for masters and students. Jacques Dalarun, in turn, emphasises Reginald's role in consolidating the Bolognese convent, focusing on the first general chapter (1220) and on the autonomy granted to the community by Dominic. Reginald, considered almost a cofounder until Dominic's canonization, was later remembered as such only in the mid-13th century, when the Order sought new exemplary models; earlier, his role had been effaced, according to Nicole Bériou.

The third part opens with Paul-Bernard Hodel's contribution, which presents Jordan of Saxony as a model preacher for future generations. Hodel identifies four elements of Jordan's success: the persuasive force of preaching, its capacity to provoke hostile reactions, the struggle against the devil, and an intense Marian devotion. Alessandra Bartolomei Romagnoli's careful analysis of a portion of the correspondence between Jordan and Diana d'Andalò reveals a rare model of spiritual friendship and a female Dominican identity grounded in stability and prayer, distinct from male itinerancy and preaching. At the time, preaching held a higher status than contemplation, as illustrated by the Postilla attributed to Hugh of Saint-Cher (c. 1230), studied by Pietro Delcorno, and as clarified by the writings of Rolando da Cremona, examined by Riccardo Saccenti. Rolando conceived preaching as a vehicle for disseminating theological knowledge and as a new potestas.

The fourth part includes Tommaso Duranti's essay on Rolando as a physician, examining medical practice within the Order alongside Teodorico Borgognoni. Medicine played a significant role in Dominican communities. This section then turns primarily to questions of study and teaching within the Order: Gabriel Peter Hunčaga investigates the studia of Paris, Cologne, Bologna, Montpellier, and Oxford, founded following the resolutions of the chapters of 1246-1248, and clearly shows how these institutions aimed to raise the intellectual level of the friars. Paolo Rosso provides a focused study on the school of Saint Dominic's convent in Bologna, demonstrating how it developed rapidly thanks to the local friars' expertise in the artes and canon law.

The fifth part is devoted to the memory of Saint Dominic. Viliam Štefan Dóci examines rigorously the saint's poverty, clarifying how it became central beginning with Pietro Ferrandi's hagiography, echoed in numerous 13th -century texts, and later downplayed during the controversy over poverty. The essays by Massimo Giansante and Francesca Roversi Monaco focus on the memory and cult of Dominic in Bologna: Giansante demonstrates how the 1335 Statuto reflects a period of fervent civic devotion to the saint, which declined in favour of that of Petronius in 1378 for political reasons; Roversi Monaco concentrates on the Corpus chronicorum bononiense where Dominicans appear frequently as his embodiment and as a community deeply rooted in the city, mirroring Bologna's role in early hagiography. Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, after analysing the cultural climate surrounding the celebrations of the seventh centenary of Dominic's death, proposes a comparison with those of 2021, highlighting the differences. Two contributions in art history complete the section: Eleonora Tioli studies Bolognese depictions of the miracle of the loaves in relation to hagiographical sources, while Massimo Medica analyses Bolognese Dominican liturgical series.

While several essays advance genuinely new findings on the genesis of the Order and, above all, on the profiles of individual friars, thus fulfilling the editors' stated aims, others consolidate established interpretations, offering updated syntheses rather than fundamentally new readings of well-known themes.

Greater attention might have been devoted to the first Bolognese female Dominican communities, the essays nonetheless offer a solid account of the institution's beginnings and its transformations, without smoothing over their complexities. One might envisage a sixth section devoted to the relationships between the mendicant orders and the secular clergy in the city in response to the establishment of the Dominicans, a topic that would have provided a fitting complement to the volume.

In conclusion, the strength of the volume lies in the plurality of sources considered and in the rigor of the analyses, rather than in the adoption of new perspectives or the deployment of new research methodologies. The inclusion of editions of selected sources alongside several essays significantly enhances the book's value as a research tool, especially for specialists working on the early history of the Order and on mendicant culture in thirteenth-century Italy.

Notes:

[1] Luigi Canetti: L'invenzione della memoria. Il culto e l'immagine di Domenico nella storia dei primi frati Predicatori, Spoleto 1996.

[2] Maria Teresa Dolso: Gli ordini mendicanti. Il secolo delle origini, Roma 2021.

[3] Gianni Festa / Marco Rainini: L'Ordine dei Predicatori. I Domenicani: storia, figure e istituzioni (1216-2016), Bari / Roma 2016.

Vittoria Magnoler