The famous dedication miniature of the Vita Mathildis by Donizo of Canossa and most of the programmatic paratexts of this historiographical work refer to a courtly space as communicative context: the entourage of the Marquise Matilda of Tuscany. However, the genesis of Donizo’s epic-historical poem is embedded in the socio-institutional context of the monastery of Sant’Apollonio of Canossa. The poem’s narrative structures and contents show the intersection of these social milieus. This intersection shapes the relationships of the poem to other text types, its pragmatic functions and also the particular representation of the dynasty of princes whose history the Vita Mathildis tells.