Fonti inedite per la storia dell'abbazia di S. Sofia di Benevento e dei suoi abati commendatari

During the ongoing researches in several archives in Benevento, Rome, Frascati and Naples, there have been discovered new documents, charters and even simple details concerning the history of the abbey of St. Sofia in Benevento, one of the most important monastic foundations of Southern Italy, built in the late VIII century. According to these new important informations, it was now possible to integrate the existing generic references to the abbey commenda, believed to start in 1455 with the grant of the benefit to Rodrigo Borgia according to a centuries-old historical tradition, and to establish a temporal succession of the commendatory abbots based on dated documents. Other important evidence came to light in relation to the events that led the abbey to appear before the Major Chaplain of Naples as defendant in the trial for ‘regio patronato’ declaration, and also to the events that led to the exclusion of St. Sofia from the ‘restitution plan’ drawn up by the archbishop of the city and by Pope Pius VII, in the early decades of the Nineteenth century, at the time of the restoration of the papal government after the French occupation