Atto by Vercelli

Atto of Vercelli , or rare Atto II. (* About 885 ; † 960 / 961 ), is for its various letters, sermons known and papers, which he called Bishop of northern Italy bishopric Vercelli (until death 960/961 924) authored. Sometimes he is also referred to as Atto II to distinguish him from a bishop of Vercelli of the same name from the middle of the 8th century.

As the son of Viskont Aldegarius, Atto comes from the Lombard nobility and, according to his will in 948, owned extensive manors in the Alpine valleys north of Milan. Before he was appointed bishop of the small diocese of Vercelli, he worked as a monk and learned theologian and canonist . After he was ordained bishop in 924, his loyalty belonged to the Burgundian Carolingian descendant Hugo von Vienne , who since 926 enforced his royal rule in northern Italy by force , but in vain after the imperial crownaspired. In 945 Atto joined the party of Margrave Berengar II of Ivrea, who initially did not aspire to the throne . In 948 Atto went to the court of the late Hugo von Vienne, probably in agreement with Berengar, and served his son Lothar as a member of the royal council. After Lothar's unexpected death, Atto withdraws from political life.

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His learned letters, sermons and writings are still preserved today from two contemporary codices of the Episcopal Scriptorium of Vercelli. Several of his writings were first published by the Benedictine monk Luc d'Achery (1609–1685) in his Spicilegium . 1832 another 18 sermons and his Polypticum , a treatise on moral philosophy , are published.

His diverse works also include two "political" works. In De pressuris ecclesiastics (The Oppression of the Church ) he clearly and consistently rejects the contemporary form of lay aristocratic rule over the church and church property . In his work Polipticum quod appellatur perpendiculum (multi- leaf book , called Senkblei), which is difficult to understand due to the strongly mannered writing style and therefore has remained without consequences, Atto clearly illustrates the techniques of gaining power and maintaining power under tyrannical rule. The Attos model fits well with the conditions in northern Italy the first half of the 10th century .

Works and editions

• De pressuris ecclesiastics
• Attonis qui fertur polipticum quod appellatur perpendiculum . Einel., Ed. and over. by Georg Goetz . Leipzig: Teubner 1922 ( Treatises of the philological-historical class of the Saxon Academy of Sciences 37.2)

literature

• Jürgen Miethke : Political Theories in the Middle Ages . In: Hans-Joachim Lieber (ed.): Political theories from antiquity to the present . Bonn 1993.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Atto II. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 265.
• Julius August Heinrich Schultz : Atto von Vercelli 1885, 1st, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen), dissertation

Web links

• Atto episcopus Vercellensis in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Digitized : Canons and letter from Gunzo von Novara to Atto von Vercelli from the manuscript collection of the Bamberg State Library (Fragment IX A 13)