Tratti della mascolinità negli Annali genovesi (secc.XII-XIII)

The aim of this article is to make a first survey on a topic which is still unexplored in Italian medieval studies, namely the characterization of masculinity in written sources. The survey is carried out on the Genoese annals, a text covering the 12th and 13th centuries which was compiled in succession by several authors and intended for an exclusively male audience. As customary at the time, the annalists resorted to certain conventions when reporting events and describing the main actors. In doing so, the compilers presented public figures that were characterized only in a male sense, usually in a collective dimension, while almost always keeping silent about women. The text of the annals is analyzed through the use of the adverb viriliter (which expresses above all measure and reasonableness), which is repeated with great frequency, and by observing both to whom and why honour is acknowledged, and, at least for what concerns the city’s aristocracy, how the kinship that supports the individuals is described.