Memoria e tradizione degli Ospedalieri nel Mezzogiorno d’Italia

The main objective is to identify the problems connected with the historical memory and, therefore, with the study of the Hospitallers in southern Italy between the Middle Ages and early Modern Age. The main points are: - Type and quantitative distribution of the sources and main keeping-places, according to the story of the Hospital, the functions performed (religious, military, economic, etc.) but also to the historical, social and institutional dynamics of the context; geographical distribution and territorial differences in the numbers of attestations: difficulties arising. - "Internal" Memory of the religious Order and "external" memory; direct and indirect sources: how Hospitallers considered themselves and how they were considered by the other. We have to consider that often the particular features assumed by an institution in a context depends on the context itself. -Memory" and "Memories": examples of controversial issues as to tradition, that led to confusion and misunderstanding among scholars. - The sources of the modern era and their use for tracing down the missing medieval archives.