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Book Chapter

The Imperial Image of Theoderic: the Case of the Regisole of Pavia

  • Carlo Ferrari

The contribution intends to retrace the history of Pavia’s famous equestrian statue, known as the “Regisole”, destroyed in 1796. The statue, in gilded bronze, represented a Roman emperor and was transferred from Rome to Ravenna, most likely by Theoderic. At a certain point, probably between the eighth and tenth centuries, the Regisole arrived in Pavia, even if it is difficult to establish who was responsible for that. The most logical solution is to attribute the transfer of the monument to a Lombard king, specifically to Aistulf, who conquered Ravenna in 751. It is possible to argue that by transferring the Regisole – which was believed to represent Theoderic – to the capital of the Lombard kingdom, Aistulf intended to promote an imperial image of himself, at a time when the conquest of the Exarchate raised him to the rank of “new Theoderic”.

  • Keywords:
  • Early Middle Ages,
  • Ravenna,
  • Pavia,
  • Theoderic,
  • Aistulf,
  • Regisole,
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Carlo Ferrari

University of Pisa, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-3968-4687

PDF
  • Publication Year: 2022
  • Pages: 59-80
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2022 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2022
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2022 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

The Imperial Image of Theoderic: the Case of the Regisole of Pavia

Authors

Carlo Ferrari

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/978-88-5518-664-3.07

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2022

Copyright Information

© 2022 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Table of Contents

Book Title

Between Ostrogothic and Carolingian Italy

Book Subtitle

Survivals, revivals, ruptures

Editors

Fabrizio Oppedisano

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

262

Publication Year

2022

Copyright Information

© 2022 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-5518-664-3

ISBN Print

978-88-5518-663-6

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-5518-664-3

eISBN (xml)

978-88-5518-666-7

Series Title

Reti Medievali E-Book

Series ISSN

2704-6362

Series E-ISSN

2704-6079

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