LUCANIA

### LUCANIA

Lucania essentially corresponds to the south-eastern slope of the Apennines of the same name, which sends its waters to the Gulf of Taranto, but it does not constitute a natural region; and to the west it faces the Tyrrhenian Sea for a short stretch. The name Lucania, dating back to classical antiquity, was replaced in the 12th century by that of Basilicata, which recalls Byzantine domination and was recently revived in place of the ancient Lucania, which had been reinstated in 1932.

I. GEOGRAPHY

Covering just under 10,000 sq. km., it is one of the most mountainous regions of Italy (70% mountains and 22% hills); the short coastal plains along the Ionian Sea are unhealthy and almost deserted. In terms of absolute population, Lucania ranks last among the Italian regions; only after 1931 did the trend towards decline, which had been evident since the late 19th century and was due to intense emigration caused in turn by difficult economic conditions, come to a halt. Agriculture (of an extensive nature: wheat, vines, olives) and animal husbandry (sheep being by far the most prevalent) are the dominant occupations: the percentage of the population engaged in them (75.4%) is the highest among the Italian regions. The population lives mostly in concentrated settlements, yet only one municipality, that of the regional capital, exceeds 30,000 inhabitants.

| Provinces and Capitals | Number of Municipalities | Area in sq. km. | Population |
| Matera (28) | 29 | 3,442 | 149,312 |
| Potenza (31) | 97 | 6,545 | 393,950 |
| Basilicata or Lucania | 126 | 1,286 | 1,286 |

II. HISTORY

Ancient Lucania, the third region under Augustus and the ninth under Diocletian, extended from the Tyrrhenian to the Ionian Sea, but in the Middle Ages it lost its unity. During the period of barbarian invasions, it suffered the fate assigned to it by its very position as a thoroughfare: it became a battleground, prey, and settlement for new peoples; yet little is known of its events during this period. Instead, the harsh Byzantine domination left an indelible mark: it imparted to Lucania, as indeed to almost all of southern Italy, a stronger Greek character in language, worship, and generally in institutions and customs. Nor did Lombard penetration succeed in erasing these traces; indeed, they were intensified during the struggle over iconoclasm, when groups of Basilian monks transplanted their seats there, first in *laure* (cells dug into the rock) and later in churches and monasteries; and with them the Greek rite took root.

The martyrs attributed by the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* to Lucania on 29 Oct. and 18 Dec. probably come from other regions; Gelasius I on 11 March 494 addressed a letter to the bishops "per Lucaniam, Bruttos et Siciliam"; already the letter of the priest Uranius on the death of Paulinus of Nola (431) speaks of an "Exuperantius episcopus de Lucaniae partibus." Likewise, a rescript of Constantine the Great (21 Oct. 319) refers to Christianity in Lucania, so much so as to allow the conclusion that by the first decades of the 4th century there were organized Christian Churches there.

In the 9th century, following the split of the Duchy of Benevento, most of the region was included in the Principality of Salerno and subdivided into gastaldates. It was then absorbed into the state structure created by the Normans in southern Italy, and at that time the name Basilicata appeared, which, however, being undoubtedly derived from the title of Greek officials, must certainly have existed earlier; the name Lucania nevertheless remained in scholarly use.

Under the Normans, Melfi acquired great importance due to its geographical position at the crossroads of roads and its security from attack: there in 1059 the new state (Duchy of Apulia) was recognized by Pope Nicholas II. To the pre-existing institutions, the new rulers added the feudal institution, which for centuries characterized the socio-economic structure of all of southern Italy. As a result, almost all of Lucania was feudalized; and, with the kingdom founded on the coexistence of monarchy and baronage, it is natural that in the subsequent Angevin and Aragonese periods the region witnessed the continuous clash between kings and barons in its lands, which, making life in the Kingdom precarious, prepared its regression into a viceroyalty under Spanish rule. The struggle reached its most critical phase under the Aragonese, when a single family, that of the Sanseveros, held almost the entire province in fief. There the famous barons' conspiracy against Ferrante I (1485–87) was prepared and concluded; there the last stronghold of the Sanseveros, the castle of Diano, fell in 1497, besieged by Frederick of Aragon.

The region’s administrative system was handed down almost unchanged to the new Spanish rule, though not without obstacles. Signs of unrest among the subjects repeatedly manifested themselves: famous is the revolt of Matera (which at the time actually belonged to the Terra di Bari) against its feudal lord Gian Carlo Tramontano (1514–15); also notable is the province’s participation in Masaniello’s revolution (1647) under the leadership of Matteo Cristiano, who stirred up several cities. However, apart from the damage suffered during the wars between France and Spain at the beginning of the 16th century and apart from the disturbances against local lords, which were common episodes throughout the Kingdom and all of Spain’s Italian domains, the country found in peace a long-desired good during this period. Thus the population grew considerably in number, and from its midst a bourgeoisie began to emerge whose modest prosperity enabled it to provide a new generation with the means to study in the capital and in diocesan seminaries. In the 18th century, as a culmination of long efforts to obtain concessions from feudal services, the conditions of the peasants also improved. Moreover, the commune, which had made a timid appearance in the Middle Ages, increased its prerogatives by daily struggles against baronial arrogance and often by means of substantial monetary payments wrested part of the feudal lords’ vast jurisdiction. An expression of this evolution, the new class formed in the Enlightenment of the 18th century, proved itself during the revolution of 1799. Figures such as Pagano and Bishop Serrao represent it in the sacrifice that southern Italy offered to the anti-absolutist cause. Notable in this regard are also the defenses of Picerno and Avigliano against the reaction. The abolition of the feudal regime, desired and implemented by the French government in 1806, facilitated the rise of the bourgeoisie, which enriched itself with landed property at the expense of the nobility; but the classes left in their poverty did not benefit from the measure. Meanwhile, brigandage and banditry gravely disturbed the country. The constitution of 1820 was celebrated in Potenza; but this enthusiasm was harshly repaid. Class conflicts flared up more fiercely in 1848, because the peasants then did not hesitate to interpret the revolution as a means to achieve land ownership or at least a revision of contracts that kept them in a state of barbarism and misery. In turn, the bourgeoisie, though not without internal divisions, united in the Constitutional Circle of Potenza,

It was not possible to carry out the plan of sending forces to the Neapolitan Parliament after the events of 15 May, nor much less to support the Calabrian revolt. However, the political unpreparedness was paid for with numerous convictions. Since there had been no widespread diffusion of republican ideas in L., in 1860 the bourgeoisie was united in advocating union with the Kingdom of Sardinia. But soon symptoms of discontent appeared among those who had hoped for social reforms; and the reactionary faction exploited this discontent, beginning the second period of political brigandage. In fact, annexation was at first very disadvantageous to the meagre Lucanian economy, which was subjected to a fiscalism never before experienced. The sudden change of government provoked a strong migratory current towards the Americas. Certainly the national government did not do, or could not do, everything that the backward region needed: the roads built in the first twenty years after unification, the schools established, the law of 1904 and the others that followed proved quite insufficient to bring the L. up to a level of civilized life. Today, the voices raised by scholars of the so-called “Southern Question” give hope for a prompt solution to the major problems of Lucania.

III. CONCILIAR REGION

L. forms, together with the Sarnese area, a conciliar ecclesiastical region comprising the three ecclesiastical provinces of Salerno, Acerenza and Matera, Conza, plus the archbishop of Amalfi and the immediately subject sees of Campagna, Cava and Sarno, Melfi and Rapolla, and finally the *abbazia nullius* of the Holy Trinity of Cava.

The episcopal conferences are held every year under the presidency of the archbishop of Salerno or, in his absence, of the archbishop of Acerenza or Conza (S. Congr. of Bishops and Regulars, 24 Aug. 1889; S. Congr. Consistorial, 15 Feb. 1919, 22 Mar. 1919; S. Congr. of the Council, 21 Jun. 1932); the resolutions are sent to the S. Congr. of the Council for approval and any observations. The work of coordination is carried out by the secretary of the conferences. The regional plenary council must be held every twenty years with the participation of all the dioceses of the region under the presidency of a pontifical legate (can. 281). The regional tribunal for matrimonial causes in the first instance has its seat in Salerno; the court of appeal is the Regional Tribunal of Naples (motu proprio: *Qua Cura*, 8 Dec. 1938; *Normae* of the S. Congr. of the Sacraments, 10 Jul. 1940).

In Salerno is also seated the Pontifical Regional Seminary of Salerno-Lucania Pius XI, while the Pontifical Minor Regional Seminary of Lucania has its seat in Potenza.

Agostino Pugliese

IV. ART

I. Architecture

The Byzantine dominion, lasting from the 6th to the 11th century, and the influence of the Basilian monasticism, brought about in L. a profound artistic renewal and gave impetus to buildings of considerable worth, but today very few traces remain of that period. Besides the small rock-hewn churches, scattered between the Vulture, the Matera area and the Agri Valley, mostly decorated by the monks themselves and modelled on Eastern church types, and some Byzantine elements preserved in the 13th-century construction of the church of Anglona, the only surviving Basilian monument in L. is the abbey of S. Angelo al Monte Raparo of the 10th century. It has a single nave, with a square drum supporting another cylindrical one which ends in a truncated-conical dome decorated externally by blind arcading. Of the mid-11th century is the first of the two churches of the abbey of the Trinity at Venosa, rebuilt over another of the 5th century, of which some remains have recently been identified in the apse. In the following century the Benedictines began the construction of the second church, which remained unfinished. The mutilated complex of the two buildings is among the most evocative in southern Italy. The Romanesque forms of the second Venosan church are repeated in the cathedral of Acerenza, in the bell-tower of Melfi, decorated with animal figures of Arab-Sicilian derivation, in S. Lucia of Rapolla and in S. Maria of Pierno, built between 1189 and 1197 by a Sarlo of Muro Lucano, to whom is also attributed the bell-tower of the cathedral of Rapolla. Influences of the Romanesque architecture of the neighbouring regions are recognisable in many 13th-century buildings: for example, the portal of S. Francesco at Tricarico and the abbey of Banzi, remodelled in Aragonese times, reflect Puglian architecture, of which L. was repeatedly tributary. On the other hand, the church of S. Giovanni Battista at Matera, rigorously Burgundian in style, together with a few other constructions such as the cathedral of Rapolla of Cistercian type but much altered, and the bell-tower of the cathedral of Irsina, with its harmonious decoration of blind arcading and fine biforas, documents the slight vitality of Gothic in L. In the Renaissance period the architecture of L. drew especially on the Catalan-Aragonese forms introduced from Naples. Other influences are to be seen in delayed adaptations of older buildings. See the castle of Venosa and the portals and other architectural decorations of S. Francesco at Potenza and of S. Antonio at Tricarico.

Baroque architecture is not of great importance and is mostly derived from that of Naples: religious and civil buildings of some interest are at Lagonegro, Maratea and Melfi.

2. Sculpture

The most important example of medieval sculpture in L. is constituted by the sumptuous decorations of the abbey of Venosa, partly still in situ, partly dispersed among various buildings in the city. To Apulian decorative sculpture are related portals such as that of the cathedral of Matera and reliefs on the bell-towers of Rapolla and Tricarico. Tombs, sarcophagi and marble altars, besides some sculptural groups, recall the modest participation of L. in the Renaissance revival. Thus the tomb of the Balzo in S. Biagio at Venosa and that of Ferrillo in the cathedral of Acerenza, of Neapolitan derivation.

3. Painting

The first testimony, though not fully explored, of medieval painting in L. from at least the 11th century are the remains of frescoes in the hermit caves; these are followed by other Byzantine works in S. Ambrogio al Monte Raparo, in the cathedral of Melfi, and in the church of Banzi. In the crypt of the church of S. Francesco at Isrina there is an interesting 14th-century cycle of modest quality, which nonetheless reveals the infiltration into the region of styles from contemporary Neapolitan and central Italian painting.

With the Renaissance, an influx of external influences begins in L., and it is notable that patrons preferred 15th-century Venetian art. Paintings by the Vivarini are in Matera and Tricarico, and a large altarpiece by Cima da Conegliano is in Miglionico. There is also a lively southern current centered on Neapolitan Mannerism and headed by Andrea da Salerno, of whom a triptych is in Banzi, with clear influences evident in other provincial works scattered throughout the region. The Ridola Museum in Matera and the d'Errico collection in Lagonegro, the only collections in L., preserve examples of this. A local Mannerist of the late 16th century, Pietro Antonio Ferri, and his contemporary Giovanni di Gregorio, known as il Pietra-fesa, were active in churches and convents, especially in the Matera area. In the 17th and 18th centuries, painters such as Giordano, Lanfranco, and Solimena sent works from Naples, the Monrealese from Sicily, while Maratta introduced knowledge of Roman painting. After this period, there are no particularly noteworthy artistic documents in L. — See pl. CXII.