Toponomastica di origine longobarda nella provincia di Cosenza

Until now, little research has been carried out on the Lombard period and Germanic place-names in Calabria, because of the lack of historical evidence. There are many problems associated with establishing the chronology and the features of the Lombard settlement in this region, but it is nevertheless possible to draw some tentative conclusions by using place-names. The Lombards who settled in Calabria (7th-9th centuries) certainly brought an appropriate place-name vocabulary with them, by which we can find out important elements about their culture and language. The first part of the article reconstructs the essential moments of the Lombard occupation of Calabria by means of the little Latin historical evidence (Registrum Epistolarum). The second part is based on the linguistic analysis of Germanic place-names in the province of Cosenza. Those which have Lombard linguistic origin have been selected and then located in order to determine the areas which were involved in the Lombard occupation. In certain cases, to determine the dating of some place-names has been difficult, but archaeology and linguistic features made it possible to assign them to the Lombard people. This is the first systematic attempt at working on Germanic place-names in the Cosenza area and the kind of domination the Lombards had established in this region. It is also n interesting example of how the study of place-names can offer important historical elements about a period for which there are no other relevant sources.