Ambiguous Property: From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Outline

The novel questions that arise from the first funding phase address an increasing ambivalence among the new forms of ownership that emerged with legally secured private property concepts, as well as new agents that set and enforce new regulatory frameworks, such as the role of law, state, and church. The findings from the first phase lead to a key question for the second phase: How did forms of ambiguous divine ownership evolve through inherited and appropriated property, together with the countertendency of property and heritage renunciation?

In the first phase (in which our project had the title “Göttliches Eigentum”), when we looked at changes of property regimes, both the notion of changes and that of property were examined. Our analysis revealed that the emergence of (particularly private) property was heavily influenced by a religious-intellectual category that contrasted with the legal regulation of everyday practices. Heritage seemed to be one of the fundamental drivers for this reconceptualisation, along with the shift from divine agency and law (Codex Hammurabi; Torah) to human agency and the new legal frameworks of civil law (Codex Iustinianus). The novel questions that arise from the first funding phase address an increasing ambivalence among the new forms of ownership that emerged with legally secured private property concepts, as well as new agents that set and enforce new regulatory frameworks, such as the role of law, state, and church. The findings from the first phase lead to a key question for the second phase: How did forms of ambiguous divine ownership evolve through inherited and appropriated property, together with the countertendency of property and heritage renunciation? To address this, the project will specifically examine the personal, institutional, structural, and long-term consequences of the ambivalence between the appropriation and rejection of property by using the medium of writing (e.g., testaments, deeds or contracts, legal and ritual texts, and inscriptions) as a source base that can shed light on new multi-layered forms and inherent conflicts of property in pre-modern times. There are three complexes forcing us to rethink the idea of property from both the public and private perspectives. First, the constitution of subjectivity and social persona can be analysed on the basis of ambiguous and negative references to rights of disposal rather than exclusively a positive affirmation of such rights. Second, the renunciation of forms of disposition and the subsequent attribution of thing-domination to divine instances seem to lead to new temporal chains of long-term property, characterised by concealment, ambiguity, and the separation of short-term usufruct and long-lasting responsibility, adding tension to the traditional mechanisms of ownership in antiquity. Third, the emergence of new models of sharing economies, studied from a “degrowth” and gender perspective, helps in reconsidering the consequences of a successful religious asceticism and the modification of property acquisitions and renunciations or dispositions that accompany a new statehood within the changes from early imperial times to the late Roman Empire. These dynamics will be brought together in areas of investigation like the emergence of the Roman imperial cult with its new, pervasive dynamics of appropriation of public and religious spaces and the rejection of such cult forms by early Christians; the development of property chains through the donation of goods to Graeco-Roman temples and early Christian churches; the dispute about the commodification of nature, land, and goods; and the introduction of inheritance taxes to help the poor. By focusing on these research areas, the three complexes will be studied with the following aims: first, to understand ancient rights of acquisition and disposal as being formed by property chains and an evolving ownership system which cannot fully be mapped onto contemporary legal or sociological categories; second, to modify the traditional view of a strict dichotomy between radicalisation and crisis-related challenges by analysing the drastic structural changes regarding property in the Roman Empire. In fact, the historical contextualisation of divine property points to a paradox in which a discontinuous increase of private property owned by individuals, families, and institutions (churches, monasteries, states) was radicalised and legally strengthened through the development of negative processes such as rejection, renunciation, or even expropriation of the very same private property (partly via the same agents) during imperial times (1st century BCE - 3rd century CE) and even more in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

Project Activities

Publications (selection)

Scientific publications

Articles in journals and edited volumes:

Rüpke, Jörg (2026): “Religious Change and the Use of Religion in Greek and Roman Cities”, in: P. J. E. Davies, C. G. Williamson (eds.): The Cambridge Urban History of Europe 1: Ancient Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rüpke, Jörg (2026): “Property, reciprocity, and urban morale in the Sententiae of Publilius Syrus”, in: G. Gelardini, K. S. Fuglseth, P. J. Bekken (eds.): Bridging Educational Virtues and Values: Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Early Christian Paideia and its Relevance in Past and Present, Religious Diversity and Education in Europe, Münster: Waxmann.
Bianchi Mancini, Sofia (2026): “The Imperial Cult in Roman Attica: The Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnous”, in: S. Bianchi Mancini, L. Pérez Yarza, S. Fogliazza (eds.): The Roman Imperial Cult: Local Practices and the Reception of the Emperor, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bianchi Mancini, Sofia, contributor in Nickel, R. and Hogenmüller, B. (2025): Lexikon der antiken Literatur, 4th ed., fully revised, Baden-Baden: Tectum.
Bianchi Mancini, Sofia (2025): “Not just a virtue: the altar of clementia between resistance and freedom in Statius’ Thebaid”, in: Civiltà e Religioni 11, 15–35.
Bianchi Mancini, Sofia (2024): "Narrating Divine Property: The Case of Sacred Groves in Statian Poetry", in: Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 49, 53–78.
Bianchi Mancini, Sofia (2024): "Gods’ Landed Property: Sacred Groves in Republican and Imperial Literature“, in: S. Bianchi Mancini, H. Gibson, D. Schuck, M. Vinzent (eds.): Relating to Landed Property, Frankfurt: Campus.
Vinzent, Markus (2024): "Inheritance of land – the origin of property“, in: S. Bianchi Mancini, H. Gibson, D. Schuck, M. Vinzent (eds.): Relating to Landed Property, Frankfurt: Campus.
Vinzent, Markus (2024): "Nature – our common good? A Patristic challenge“, in: M. Szram, M. Wysocki (eds.): Christians of the Patristic Period in Relation to Nature, Studia Patristica, Leuven: Peeters Publishers.

Edited volumes:

Bianchi Mancini, S., Pérez Yarza, L., Fogliazza, S. (eds.) (2026): The Roman Imperial Cult: Local Practices and the Reception of the Emperor, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bianchi Mancini, S.; Dell'Isola, M. (eds.) (2025): "Boundary Violation between Property and Freedom: Case Studies from Antiquity to the Middle Ages", Civiltà e Religioni 11.
Pérez Yarza, L., Herrera Rando, J., Bianchi Mancini, S. (eds.) (2025): One Cult, Multiple Cultures: Multilingualism and Religion in Western Roman Inscriptions, Series Diglossi@, Bordeaux: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux.
Bianchi Mancini, S.; Gibson, H.; Schuck, D.; Vinzent, M. (eds.) (2024): Relating to Landed Property, Frankfurt: Campus.

Monographs:

Rüpke, Jörg (2025): Weihnachten in der Stadt/Christmas in town: 5 Essays, Hamburg: BoD.
Vinzent, Markus (2025): Die älteste Sammlung paulinischer Briefe und die Entstehung der kanonischen Paulusbriefsammlung. Teil I: Untersuchung. Teile II-III Rekonstruktion, TANZ 72, Tübingen: Narr Franck Attempto.
Vinzent, Markus (2025): Von Paulus zu Saulus. Zwei Paulusbriefsammlungen im 2. Jahrhundert, Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder.

Media and podcasts

Ilnicka, Jana (2025): "Anfänge der Bettelorden und Besitz”, In: Blog of the Collaborative Research Centre “Structural Change of Property”. (published 1.12.2025)
Rüpke, Jörg (2023): "Holidays as divine property: Moving symbols of ownership from the countryside into the city”, In: Blog of the Collaborative Research Centre “Structural Change of Property”. (published 27.11.2023)

Lectures (selection)

Ilnicka, J.; Vinzent, M. (2026): Meister-Eckhart-Gesellschaft: Paper Title: "‘Relative’ Armut in den Anfängen des Predigerordens", Würzburg.
Vinzent, Markus (2025): Jahrestagung der Meister-Eckhart Gesellschaft: Paper Title: "Loslassen und Armut in der Rezeption Meister Eckharts", Poznan.
Vinzent, Markus (2025): Opening Lecture at the annual conference of the New Testament Society of Southern Africa: Paper Title: "Paul, economics and the 10-Letter Collection", Pretoria.
Vinzent, Markus (2025): Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense: Paper Title: "Paul to Saul - the 10-Letter Collection", Leuven.
Vinzent, Markus (2025): Conference of the Eckhart Society: Paper Title: "Eckhart and Poverty", Leeds.
Vinzent, Markus (2025): Conference on the Reception of the Septuagint in Early Christianity: Paper Title: "Violence and Ownership", Catania.

Bianchi Mancini, S.; Ducasse, C. (2025): Workshop “Adventgespräche 2025: Heiligtümer auf privaten Grund im Römischen Reich”: Paper Title: “Who Owned the Sacred? Roman and Christian Sanctuaries on Private Estates”, University of Graz (invited).
Bianchi Mancini, Sofia (2025) Conference FIEC 2025: Paper Title: “To the Emperors and Empresses: Interlocal Networks and Religious Negotiation Strategies in the Aegean during the Early Roman Empire”, University of Wroclaw.
Bianchi Mancini, S.; Rüpke, J. (2025): German-Italian Bilateral Meeting “OROMA. Objekthaftigkeit der Religionen, Religiosität der Objekte im antiken Mittelmeerraum (II)”: Paper Title: “Das Geschenk, das bleibt: Inschriften als Produzenten ritueller Handlungslogiken”, Villa Vigoni (Menaggio, Como).
Bianchi Mancini, S.; Pérez Yarza, L. (2024): 2024 Conference of the European Association of Archaeologists”: Paper Title: “Ubi erat lucus: Resacralisation and Transformation on the Janiculum”, University “La Sapienza” Rome.
Bianchi Mancini, Sofia (2024): Internationale conference "Objects as a Lens on Group Formations in the Cities of the Roman Empire (1st-4th Centuries CE)“ – Geschlossene Podiumsdiskussion (mit Prof. Laura Carnevale): "Property of Ritual Space“, Universität Erfurt.
Bianchi Mancini, S.; Dell’Isola, M. (2022): EASR — Geschlossene Podiumsdiskussion: "Boundary Violation Between Property and Freedom: Case Studies from Antiquity to the Middle Ages“, University College Cork, Irland.