The Historia Turpini Project is an interdisciplinary research project developed by an international team of researchers who are experts in the Middle Ages and specialists in the philological, historical and artistic fields.

The project, coordinated by Laura Ramello of the Department of Humanities of the University of Turin, was launched in 2017-18 thanks to the University fund for the financing of local research- Line B.

The legendary exploits carried out by Charlemagne and his paladins in Spain, narrated by the mythical bishop-warrior Turpino, an eyewitness to the facts, were the subject of a Chronicle - the Historia Turpini precisely - that, copied, vulgarized, interpolated, became one of the most widely spread texts at European level in the Middle Ages; the story fascinated the entire continent, from Spain to England, from Germany to Italy even to the cold lands of the North. Incorporated into the Liber Sancti Jacobi, the Historia Turpini inextricably linked its fortune to the tradion of St. James.

The complexity of the irradiation of Historia Turpini in the Western Middle Ages, the richness and fluidity of its textual tradition, the integration into historiographical and literary compilations, with reinterpretations that depended on the historical, ideological and cultural contexts that fed them, his background made up of environments, clients, recipients, the iconographic motifs inspired by it, the relationship with the Compostellan pilgrimage, with the dense historical-cultural, artistic, social dynamics that it nourished and still feeds, constitute the focus of the team's research activity.

The project, open to collaboration with Universities, Research Centers and Institutions, aims to place itself in the context of initiatives to rediscover the historical-cultural roots of Europe, combining basic research and a third mission in the enhancement of heritage through the creation of a network of academic, cultural and economic stakeholders.

The links with the Camino de Santiago, recognized since 1987 by the Council of Europe as a European cultural itinerary, make the Historia Turpini a clear example of intangible heritage that, through the combination of travel and literature, has extraordinary potential for development in the context of Literary Tourism .