Una provincia del Reino de Nápoles con fuerte concentración regalista: Tierra de Otranto y el entramado de la geografía de "regio patronato" entre los siglos XVI y XVII

Abstract

The main objective of this contribution is to reconstruct the diocesan geographic network of royal patronage in Tierra d’Otranto (Italy) in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Since 1529 the Spanish crown concentrated the greatest number of royal ecclesiastical appointments in this southeastern territory of the Kingdom of Naples: dioceses were located in territories strategically important from a political and military point of view, territories which were nevertheless very different in demographic and geographical extension, as well as patrimonial power and prestige. In this characteristic borderland area, the mechanisms for selecting bishops were flexible and the ecclesiastic framework of regio patronato crossed with the pontifical dioceses and with other competing and antagonistic powers. Therefore, our aim is to redefine the organization of the seats in which the bishops, mostly from the Spanish-Neapolitan elite and of proven loyalty to the Spanish Monarchy, were placed.