In the early Middle Ages the West experienced a crisis of its monetary economy. The magnitude and the chronology of this phenomenon raise numerous problems, since we are unable to establish reliable statistics for coin production. In Italy, the problem assumes a peculiar aspect. The peninsula was divided into three distinct zones. The Byzantine dominions, which shared with the rest of the Empire a strong monetary economy. The regions recently emancipated from Byzantium, like Rome, heirs to this monetary tradition, but unable to uphold it. The Lombard territories, where the strength of the monetary economy is the most difficult to assess. The overall situation was the sum of interactions between these zones. Measuring the exact degree of homogeneity of their respective economies might allow us to better understand the intensity of daily contacts between regions of Roman and Germanic traditions, a key to assessing the process of reciprocal acculturation. This would be a first step towards a wider set of generalisations about the changing role of monetisation in the early medieval economy; Italy is, as a boundary area, perhaps the most important vantage-point for this .

Dr Vivien Prigent is undertaking this project funded by a Newton International Fellowship.