1 Slavs but Not Slaves: Slavic Migrations to South Italy in the Early and High Middle Ages South Italy in the Early and High Middle Ages has been rightfully described as “a region open to a wide range of external, foreign influences“. 1 Beside the Langobards, Greeks and Normans, sources show the presence of Jews, Arabs, Armenians, Bulgarians, and others. 2 Therefore it is hardly surprising to find among them also the inhabitants of the opposite, eastern Adriatic coast. However, in many cases the presence of these people from across the Adriatic was not voluntary. In fact, it has been generally established by the historians who deal with South Italy that most of the slaves mentioned in the documents from the mid- eleventh until the late twelfth century were Slavs by origin. The court of Bari even proclaimed in 1127 that no Christian men and women were to be held as slaves except those of Slavic origin. 3 The argument that they were not (true) Christians, which was used from the thirteenth century onwards on both sides of the Adriatic coast as an excuse for enslavement of the (alleged) members of the Bosnian heretic Church, does not apply to this earlier period. It seems that the slaves of Slavic origin were too important for their owners to be discarded because of their religion. Most of these slaves were girls and women who were held as household servants in richer households in the coastal cities, in the same manner as it was the case in Dalmatia on the eastern Adriatic. The first slave-woman of Slavic origin has been attested as a part of a dower in Bari around 1057. 4 A Dalmatian slave-girl owned by a nobleman from Siponto (in the southern part of the Gargano peninsula, nowadays a suburb of Manfredonia) was cured from leprosy at the shrine of St. Nicholas in Bari around 1100. 5 And yet, these were not the only Slavs present in this period in South Italy, and their presence as plunderers and attackers, as well as settlers, has beeen noticed in historiography, most notably by André Guillou, Michele Fuiano, and Jean-Marie Martin. 6 The earliest known 1 Paul Oldfield, “The Iberian Imprint on Medieval Southern Italy,“ History, 93/311 (July 2008), 312. 2 André Guillou and Katia Tchérémissinoff, “Note sur la culture arabe et la culture Slave dans le katépanat d’Italie,“ Mélanges de l’École française de Rome: Moyen Áge – Temps Modernes 68 (1968): 677-692; André Guillou, “Italie méridionale byzantine ou Byzantins en Italie méridionale?“ Byzantion – Revue internationale des Études Byzantines 44, fasc. 1 (1974): 153-158; Martin, La Pouille du VI e au XII e siècle (Rome: École Française de Rome, Palais Farnese 1993), 489-526. 3 Codice diplomatico barese (hereafter cited as CDB), vol. 5, Le pergamene di S. Nicola di Bari, periodo normanno (1075-1194), ), ed. Francesco Nitti di Vito (Bari, 1902), doc. 74. 4 CDB, vol. 4, Le pergamene di S. Nicola di Bari, periodo greco (939-1071), ed. Francesco Nitti di Vito (Bari, 1900), doc. 36, p. 76. More examples of slaves of Slavic origin are cited in: Paul Oldfield, City and Community in Norman Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 206, n. 152. 5 Pompeo Sarnelli quotes Vincent de Beauvais' Speculum historiale (XXV, cap. 38) in his Cronologia de' vescovi et arcivescovi sipontini (Manfredonia, 1680), 147-148; Martin, La Pouille, 509. 6 André Guillou, “Migration et présence Slaves en Italie du VI e au XI e siècle,“ Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta 14-15 (1973): 11-16; Michele Fuiano, “La colonia slava di Devia nel corso del secolo XI,“ Congressi sulle relazioni tra le due sponde adriatiche, Rivista storica del Mezzogiorno 14 (1979): 39-52, also in Atti dell'