The Duchy of Gaeta was an early medieval state centered on the coastal South Italian city of Gaeta. It began in the early ninth century as the local community began to grow autonomous as Byzantine power lagged in the Mediterranean and the peninsula due to Lombard and Saracen incursions.
The Duchy of Amalfi or the Republic of Amalfi was a de facto independent state centered on the Southern Italian city of Amalfi during the 10th and 11th centuries. The city and its territory were originally part of the larger ducatus Neapolitanus, governed by a patrician, but it extracted itself from Byzantine vassalage and first elected a duke in 958.
The Duchy of Naples began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the reduced coastal lands that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in the sixth century. It was governed by a military commander (dux), and rapidly became a de facto independent state, lasting more than five centuries during the Early and High Middle Ages. Naples remains a significant metropolitan city in present-day Italy.
Richard III, also known as Richard of Caleno, was the Norman count of Carinola and last quasi-independent Duke of Gaeta, ruling from 1121 to his death. From 1113, he was regent of Gaeta for his cousin or nephew, Duke Jonathan; in 1121 he succeeded him. As duke he was a nominal vassal of the Princes of Capua, to whom he was related.
Leo II was the Duke of Gaeta briefly in early 1042. He was the last duke of the native Docibilan family. His father was the magnificus Docibilis, a grandson of Duke Gregory. His brother, Hugh, was the count of Suio.
The history of Islam in Sicily and Southern Italy began with the first Arab settlement in Sicily, at Mazara, which was captured in 827. The subsequent rule of Sicily and Malta started in the 10th century. The Emirate of Sicily lasted from 831 until 1061, and controlled the whole island by 902. Though Sicily was the primary Muslim stronghold in Italy, some temporary footholds, the most substantial of which was the port city of Bari, were established on the mainland peninsula, especially in mainland Southern Italy, though Muslim raids, mainly those of Muhammad I ibn al-Aghlab, reached as far north as Naples, Rome and the northern region of Piedmont. The Arab raids were part of a larger struggle for power in Italy and Europe, with Christian Byzantine, Frankish, Norman and local Italian forces also competing for control. Arabs were sometimes sought as allies by various Christian factions against other factions.
Dame Janet Laughland Nelson, also known as Jinty Nelson, is a British historian. She is Emerita Professor of Medieval History at King's College London.
Jonathan, a member of a cadet branch of the Drengot family, was the Duke of Gaeta from 1113 until his death. He is known from the Codex Caietanus to have been in the fourth year of his minority in 1116 and the seventh of his rule in 1119. There are three theories of his paternity. He may have been the son of Count Jonathan I of Carinola or his grandson by an unnamed son, or else the grandson of Count Bartholomew of Carinola. He was under the regency of his cousin or uncle, Count Richard of Carinola.
Gualganus, surnamed Ridel, was the third and last Count of Pontecorvo and Duke of Gaeta of the Norman Ridel family from about 1091 until about 1103. He was a son and successor of Duke Raynald Ridel, but his rule in Gaeta was not unopposed.
Hugh was the Count of Suio in the Duchy of Gaeta. He was probably a son of Docibilis magnificus, who in turn was probably a son of Landolf, son of Gregory, Duke of Gaeta, and Landolf's mistress Polyssena (Pulessene). He was a brother of Duke Leo II of Gaeta.
Bernard was the Bishop of Gaeta for fifty years from his appointment in 997 until his death. He was a member of the Docibilan dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Gaeta from 867 to 1032. During his long episcopate he achieved the economic security of his see in the face of labour difficulties, annexed the diocese of Traetto to his own in or soon after 999, and witnessed the decline and replacement of his family in Gaeta.
The Codex diplomaticus Caietanus (CDC) is an edited collection of documents (diplomas) pertaining to the south Italian city of Gaeta in the Middle Ages, from the eighth century to the fourteenth. The collection represents "for its geographically restricted range ... a relative abundance of sources". The Codex consists of documents kept in the archives of the Abbey of Montecassino, including the archives of the Gattola family, which were given to the abbey. The Codex was originally conceived in the late eighteenth century and finally published, as part of the Tabularium casinense series, by the monks of Montecassino in three volumes beginning with the first in 1887, the second volume in 1891 and the third volume in two installments in 1958 and 1960. Although the assembling of all the documents relating to medieval Gaeta was sometimes undertaken uncritically, the monks appended a comprehensive and trustworthy index.
Julia Steuart Barrow, is an English historian and academic, who specialises in medieval and ecclesiastical history. Since 2012, she has been Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds and previously served (2012–16) as the Director of the University's Institute for Medieval Studies.
Patricia M. Clavin, is a British historian and academic, who specialises in international relations, economic crises, and twentieth-century history. She is Professor of International History at the University of Oxford, and a fellow and tutor in history at Jesus College, Oxford.
Frances Elizabeth Andrews is a British historian who is professor of medieval history at the University of St Andrews. She is a specialist in the medieval church and its networks.
Margaret Ruth Dix was a British neuro-otologist. With Charles Skinner Hallpike, she published important research on vertigo and described the Dix–Hallpike test.
Anne Mary Hudson, was a British literary historian and academic. She was a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1963 to 2003, and Professor of Medieval English at the University of Oxford from 1989 to 2003.
Mary Teresa Josephine Webber, is a British palaeographer, medievalist, and academic. She has been a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge since 1997 and Professor of Palaeography at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge since 2018. Webber studied Modern History as an undergraduate at Somerville College, Oxford.
Susan Marian Oosthuizen is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. She specialises in examining the origins and development of early medieval and medieval landscapes, and in the evolution of systems of governance.
Pat Jalland is an Australian historian. She is emeritus professor of history in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University.
