The aim of this project is to focus on the various practices of bordering of the Carolingians, from Charlemagne to Louis the Pious (from 768 to 843), to compare spatial and political differences. This project is the continuation of my doctoral thesis, where I analysed in a comparative way the management of the border zones of the Carolingian Empire. As we will see from the different sources, the Franks were able to define, when it was believed to be necessary, a specific border between their empire and dangerous neighbours; while, at the same time, they avoided to define other borders in order to keep the advantage of a more ‘open’ and indefinite frontier, as Louis the Pious did with the Bulgars in the years 824-827. During the Middle Ages, imperial frontiers were spaces of relationships, networks of political, economic and diplomatic relations, instead of mere geographical spaces or lines on a map. Defeated or co-opted neighbours usually became part of the Carolingian networks of power and relations. 
My project, therefore, instead of focusing on finding where the outer limits of the Carolingian Empire laid, focus on the diplomatic, social and military relations that the Franks formed with the neighbours in the process to define the border itself. My idea is to compare the various practices of bordering that we are aware of from the sources, from the peace treaty on the River Eider between Franks and Danes, to the missing agreement with the Bulgars about the franco-bulgar borders in the southern Balkans; from the treaty of Aachen (812), were, as Einhard wrote, Franks and Byzantine divided the respective spheres of influences in the Adriatic region, to the Pactum Lotharii of 840 between Franks and Venetians in the Veneto region. Comparing the different practices of bordering of the Carolingian will be useful to shed a light on the nature and the reality of the border zones in the Early Middle Ages. Another objective of this project is to highlight the various restrictions on the movement of people and the trade of goods, established by the Carolingians during the 8th century, and what kind of impact these limitations of power and movements had on the ideological aspiration of a universal imperium christianum. These restrictions, usually ratified in the capitularies, were an important tool of the central power to control the border zones and impose its authority.

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