ABSTRACT
The first chapter presents an analysis of the furta sacra legends written on the Italian peninsula between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. A methodological introduction clarifies the approach taken, which combines contributions from different disciplines and places the legends somewhere between hagiographic tales and historical narratives. It then examines the history of studies on the subject, starting with the early modern period and a reflection on relics in the Protestant context. Finally, the corpus of sources is presented, with some observations on the authors (who are often anonymous) and on the main geographical areas that emerge.
