Two templar-hospitaller preceptories north of Tuscania

Abstract

Very little work has so far been published on the Templars and Hospitallers in the area north of Rome, so that this study of the two preceptories of San Savino and Castell' Araldo makes a contribution to the history of both Orders. Archaeological investigations of Hospitaller and Templar preceptories or commanderies have been made in a number of countries. In this present case there was no excavation, but the combination of a careful survey on the ground with a detailed though far from exhaustive study of the written sources has made it possible to evaluate the significance of these preceptories as economic and social units, while the identification and investigation of two previously unnoticed and markedly dissimilar abandoned communities is of some value for the general history of the region.