Venantius Fortunatus and his relations with the bishops of Gaul in the context of the sixth century

Abstract

Venantius Fortunatus was a vir italus, born near in Treviso (ca. 530-540 AD), who became a model of behavior for the elites of the sixth century. In his journey as an “itinerant” poet through the Merovingian territories, he counted on his rhetorical-literary training to relate with sovereigns, aristocrats, men and women of the Church. About the Carmina dedicated to numerous clerics, we will analyze some compounds to Leontius of Bordeaux, Felix of Nantes and Gregorius of Tours, they which demonstrate the ability of Fortunatus to forge amicitia’ relations at various political levels, while being exhibited as an “observatory” privileged of the transition between the Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.