Sicily (History)

The present work aims at offering an overview of the main educational and didactic institutions where most part of the Sicilian élite was educated in the time frame ranging from the second half of the XVIIIth century, immediately after the expulsion of the Company of Jesus from the island in November 1767, to the Italian Unification in 1861. In greater detail, the institutions here examined had been founded in Sicily either by the Bourbonic government, by religious congregations, by public corporations or by private citizens thanks to donations or charitable bequests. The research was carried out through the analysis of miscellaneous documents, both published and unpublished, kept in various Sicilian district archives as well as in the State Archive of Naples, such as: the instructions forwarded by “major” and “minor” royal institutes, by colleges or by private boarding Schools; the pertaining school curricula; the textbooks adopted throughout the years; the public end of the school’s pamphlets; a rich correspondence mainly including the applications sent by the aspiring students' fathers to school committees in the hope of having their heirs admitted. By means of examining the above-mentioned sources, this study intends to evaluate the didactic and educational pathways available in Sicily and to paint a picture of the different educational institutions operating on the Sicilian island, thus producing an “identikit” of the Sicilian ruling class between the XVIIIth and the XIXth century. A special focus has been put on the analysis of the schools specifically “designed” for the education of the élite in the three main Sicilian cities, namely Palermo, Catania and Messina, all hosting royal institutes, renowned academies and universities.

Although scholars tend to draw a line of confrontation between the conquerors Normans and the conquered Muslims and Greeks in the kingdom of Sicily, the actual relationship among these people was not so simple. In the kingdom there was a relatively developed bureaucracy staffed by officials with varied cultural backgrounds.  The kings and these bureaucrats took a stand against the aristocrats, who had solely Latin Christian backgrounds.  In fact, the keynote of the political history of the kingdom was a process in which the kings together with bureaucrats held down the aristocrats and cities of the peninsula.  The kings and bureaucrats, who had different cultural backgrounds but were highly educated and cultured, took a stand against aristocrats who were not well cultured but trained as warriors.  However, this line of confrontation was visible only during the peacetime.  During the wartime, a line of confrontation was drawn within aristocrats and cities that had military power.  Aristocrats and cities were divided into a pro-king group and an anti-king one, and fought amongst each other, while bureaucrats were usually on the side of the kings.  This suggests that even the mighty Norman kings supported by the bureaucrats were by no means absolute.  The strong Norman kingship of Sicily was in fact only made possible by a delicate balance of power among aristocrats, cities, and bureaucrats.

Il contributo affronta, tramite l'utilizzo di fonti archivistiche, il ruolo svolto dagli ebrei di Messina nel commercio degli schiavi in Sicilia tra tardomedioevo e prima età moderna. L'obiettivo è una prima ricostruzione dell'inserimento di alcuni componenti della comunità giudaica peloritana nel lucroso traffico di questa preziosa "merce umana" e dell'atteggiamento dell'aljama nei confronti di importanti problematiche come la redenzione degli ebrei ridotti in schiavitù.

This article examines the impact of the Continental Blockade upon a local fishing and agricultural economy in the Mediterranean by focusing on the illicit trades that flourished on Stromboli. The island became a strategic location for smuggling between the warring kingdoms of British allied Naples and French ruled Sicily. This paper argues that the Blockade allowed Stromboli to join the network of maritime traffic that had been dominated by the two biggest islands in the archipelago. Although equally integrated into agriculture and fishing, women participated in the fraudulent sale of prize goods but were excluded from large-scale smuggling operations.

Sessione pomeridiana, ore 15:00 Vittorio Rizzone L' iscrizione di Iulia Florentina: peculiarità linguistiche ed epigrafiche Martino Ruggieri La morte di Iulia Florentina: ipotesi diagnostiche Elena Commodari Iulia Florentina e la mors acerba: tra rappresentazioni e vissuti. Il punto di vista psicologico

Anthropophagy in Medieval Sicily: a cultural theme between chronicle and representation. Anthropophagy is the consumption of human flesh and the most extreme form of destruction of the human body, a physical violence which is the quintessential taboo of the self-described “civilized” societies. It provokes disgust, surprise and sometimes fascination, creating a deep connection between the text and the reader, and between the message and the audience. With regard to Sicily, anthropophagy is a cultural theme useful to discern between the account of real events and their representation. The construction of the image of Sicily, and even more of its inhabitants, the Sicilians, is based on an accumulation of clichés, often of ancient origins, transmitted and interpreted over the ages. One of them is surely the “bestiality” of its first inhabitants, intended as the ancient Cyclops or the Giants sons of Saturn, both of them “tyrants” described as man-eaters. During the Early Middle Ages the idea that the Sicilians eat human flesh was transferred to the new conquerors of the island: the Muslims, an infidel enemy to be fighted and considered beyond the boundaries of humanity and nature, meant as a divine law and therefore “civilization”. In both cases the accusations came from the outside, i.e. from groups as the ancient Greeks or the Christians (both Byzantine and Latin-Norman) who had an interest in representing the old and modern inhabitants of the island as anthropophagists to be feared, conquered, subjugated and converted to religion and/or civilization.

Le ricerche condotte sul Colle Madore, nel cuore della Sicilia centro-occidentale, hanno
messo in luce resti archeologici che documentano uno dei periodi della storia antica dell’isola più interessanti per le grandi trasformazioni culturali conseguenti la colonizzazione greca. La fondazione delle nuove città e il loro rapido sviluppo innestarono in tutta l’isola, dalle coste alle vallate più interne, un irripetibile processo di cambiamenti del tradizionale tessuto indigeno contribuendo a disegnare un rinnovato assetto culturale politico ed economico che inciderà profondamente nella storia siciliana.

This research provides a good overview of the importance of arsenals in the Early Modern naval, military, economic, and social history of the Mediterranean, focusing on four case studies in a comparative framework. Thanks to the research on the arsenals of Constantinople/Istanbul (Ottoman Empire / Turkey), Birgu (Malta), Messina, (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain) now we gain a much better knowledge on a wider overview.

Il saggio di Raffaella Perna documenta la ricerca fotografica del barone tedesco Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856-1931) attraverso una rilettura delle fonti d'epoca, documenti inediti e scritti autografi, per mettere in luce gli aspetti innovativi di una delle personalità più interessanti e originali tra la fine del XIX e l'inizio del XX secolo.

L’autore affronta il tema della diffusione del culto di Santa Rosalia in Liguria durante il XVII secolo attraverso alcuni manufatti di argenteria palermitana ed inedite fonti d’archivio. Nello specifico sono presi in esame il busto reliquiario custodito nella chiesa di Santa Caterina di Bonassola e l’inedita urna-reliquiario della Basilica dei Santi Gervasio e Protasio di Rapallo.

The author deals with the theme of the spread of the cult of Saint Rosalia in Liguria during the seventeenth century through some examples of Palermo silverware and unpublished archival documents. Specifically, he examines the reliquary bust kept in the church of Santa Caterina di Bonassola and the unknown reliquary urn of the Basilica of Santi Gervasio and Protasio in Rapallo.


Nota: impaginazione dell'autore (03.2020).
L'articolo è leggibile online sul sito della rivista dell’Osservatorio per le Arti Decorative in Italia “Maria Accascina” (n. 19/Giugno 2019).
ISSN 2038-4394

A methodical search for the likely prototype of an extremely barbarous ancient coin is described. The coin's obverse shows parallel line segments projecting from an approximately rectangular solid shape. Several different obverse orientations are considered. The reverse appears to show a stick figure facing frontally, standing on a ground line or low platform, and holding a staff upright at the left side. Likely prototypes are sought by considering coins of relevant metal, fabric, diameter, shape, weight, and thickness, and with an emphasis on their designs. These factors combined with overall frequencies of occurrence seem to point primarily to Eastern coins as likely prototypes. However, indirect consideration of provenance based on source and context information alters the result. A Western prototype of the area from Sicily to North Africa, more specifically a so-called Lopadusan coin type, is deemed more likely though still uncertain.

SI CONSIGLIA DI LEGGERE LA VERSIONE CORRETTA. Uno studio storico e filologico su un errore di trascrizione, in un episodio del libro quinto delle “Storie”, nel quale Erodoto parla di Dorieo, che ha trasformato per secoli un fiume della Magna Grecia in una città Sicana.
Lo studio vuole inoltre rendere omaggio (in parte anche critico) a Luigi Tirrito e agli studiosi dei tempi nei quali rimanere documentati era una operazione estremamente difficoltosa. Comprare libri era molto costoso (oggi i libri si comprano o si scaricano con poca o nessuna spesa), consultarli richiedeva molto tempo perché ci si doveva spostare tra le poche biblioteche esistenti o rivolgersi a studiosi amici (oggi i libri si leggono online), così come molto tempo richiedeva la ricerca all’interno del testo (oggi questa operazione richiede pochi secondi). Nel caso specifico forse qualche leggerezza è stata commessa ma, considerato il contesto, si può anche comprendere e, in qualche modo, giustificare.

Marzamemi, piccola frazione del comune di Pachino sulla costa sud-orientale della Sicilia, rappresenta una realtà storica strettamente connessa all’attività della tonnara, che ha rivestito - per parecchi secoli - un ruolo importante nell’economia locale. Il nucleo più antico, strutturato nella seconda metà del Settecento, è un singolare borgo feudale a stretto contatto con il mare che ha mantenuto nel complesso la sua fisionomia originaria.

Nei quasi due secoli del Regnum degli Altavilla in Sicilia, la cultura costruttiva normanna ha prodotto un vasto patrimonio storico artistico. Il Romanico siciliano, che ha nelle sue ben note architetture religiose la sua espressione più ricca, consta di un'altra categoria di manufatti fondamentali per la comprensione di quel periodo storico: le architetture militari.
I castelli normanni rappresentarono il segno forte del potere militare dei conquistatori sulla Sicilia musulmana, così come chiese e monasteri ne rappresentarono quello religioso.
I successivi incastellamenti di epoca sveva, angioina ed aragonese hanno poi modificato il patrimonio castrale siciliano, in molti casi sovrapponendosi alle vecchie fortezze o ricostruendole dalle fondamenta al fine di aggiornarle alle nuove necessità militari, in continua evoluzione.
Per questa ed altre ragioni non sono numerosi i castelli normanni che ci sono pervenuti con caratteristiche poco alterate rispetto alla loro configurazione originale. Alcuni di essi, noti e studiati da tempo, hanno fornito basi di confronto per altri manufatti la cui datazione è incerta, ma il cui valore documentale è enorme.
Il castello di Burgio rientra tra questi manufatti di eccezionale interesse storico ed archeologico, ma decisamente poco conosciuti.
In questo lavoro si è voluto analizzare il monumento nella sua materia fisica e nella sua importanza storica, rilevandone le urgenze di conservazione ed esplorando un’ipotesi di integrazione delle parti mancanti.

A typical uprooting - of a mass, sometimes simultaneously, more often by dripping - on the Sicilian and Southern Italian coasts is represented by the capture of inhabitants by Turkish or Barbaresque corsairs. The phenomenon is present during the long period, till the beginning the XIXth century, and it fits in the great movement of the "forced" exchanges in the Mediterranean between Christians and Barbaresques.

I Monti Sicani, situati tra Agrigento e Palermo, erano in gran parte sconosciuti dal punto di vista archeologico. Il survey, effettuato su 274 km², ha fornito un nuovo e ricco quadro delle strutture insediative, presenti nell’area tra l'età del rame e il medioevo. I siti preistorici ci forniscono un’immagine chiara della sequenzialità dei primi insediamenti e della sorprendente penetrazione delle influenze greche in queste remote aree montuose, in cui, oltre ai santuari di confine, sta emergendo anche un piccolo numero di fattorie di epoca greca. Un vero e proprio utilizzo intensivo del territorio si registra a partire dall’età ellenistica, ma è soprattutto nella tarda antichità che si avviano ristrutturazioni e si intensifica il numero di insediamenti. Il panorama che si delinea spazia dalla fase arabo-normanna fino al medioevo. Oltre 260 tavole a colori, mappe, disegni e supplementi documentano per la prima volta l'archeologia delle zone interne della Sicilia in maniera intensiva.


Die Monti Sicani zwischen Agrigent und Palermo waren archäologisch weitgehend unbekannt. Der Survey auf 274 km² hat ein neues und dichtes Bild der Siedlungsstrukturen zwischen der Kupferzeit und dem Mittelalter ergeben. Die prähistorischen Fundstellen zeichnen ein dichtes Bild von der Abfolge der frühen Siedlungen und vom erstaunlichen Vordringen griechischer Einflüsse in diese küstenfernen, gebirgigen Bereiche, in denen neben Grenzheiligtümern sogar eine kleine Zahl von griechenzeitlichen Gehöften entsteht. Eine Konzentration der Landnutzung beginnt im Hellenismus gefolgt von einer Neustrukturierung und Siedlungsverdichtung vor allem in der Spätantike. Der Blick reicht über die arabisch normannische Phase bis zum Mittelalter. Über 260 Farbtafeln Karten Zeichnungen und Beilagen dokumentieren erstmals die Archäologie des sizilianischen Binnenlandes.

This essay investigates aspect of Sicilian culture and history through the analysis of architectures and artefacts. Sicily is studied in the wider context of Italy, highlighting its distinctive characteristics, both in the culture and in the arts, including a brief description of the term ‘Sicilianità’.
The research is based on the following artistic manifestation: Syracuse cathedral; Zisa castle in Palermo and a four-lingual funerary stele; the ‘Ephebus of Mozia’; Messina cathedral; the Baroque town of Caltagirone and the staircase of Santa Maria del Monte.
Following the analysis of the above, the focus moves towards modern heritage and conservation concerns, reflecting on how present Italy is affected by it. Villa Palagonia in Bagheria is taken as evidence of how Sicilian heritage is threatened by political corruption. Studio Formafansma studied the relationship be- tween Sicilian crafts and traditions, and the outcome of their research, ‘Moulding Tradition’, is an example of how craftsman and designers should reflect their time and cultural environment, rather than perpetuating past models.
This research underlines the importance of cultural exchanges. After a critical analysis of my own Italian background, I propose how an external impulse could help the development of the future art scene of Italy.

The Norman Kingdom of Sicily is reputed to be a haven of peaceful coexistence of cultures and a paragon of Christian religious tolerance in Medieval Europe. Many scholarly works discussing tolerance in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily focus on Muslims under Norman rule. The kings’ favorable attitude toward Muslims is most often quoted as proof of their religious tolerance, while Ibn Jubair, a traveler from Spain, reveals feelings of humiliation and slavery of Muslims. In this article, I have examined how the status of Muslims changed in a changing political situation, and concluded that the relationship between Normans and Muslims were not so simple. Opposition could be created by not only religion but also other factors. The difference in religion or cultural background did not serve as a clear line of confrontation, and those who were at the center of power in the Norman kingdom of Sicily had various cultural backgrounds. Thus, we cannot simply regard the Normans as the majority in the kingdom, or see the Normans’ stance towards Muslims as being «religious tolerance ».

Access versions of this article online at: http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/27005/

or...
http://www.medievalists.net/2010/02/16/the-muslims-of-sicily-under-christian-rule/

or....
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1IBspuVRwnUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+society+of+norman+italy&hl=en&ei=9weYTYGPMYWt8APD8P0X&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

In G. Mandalà and I. Pérez Martín (eds), with the assistance of A. Bellettini, Multilingual and Multigraphic Documents and Manuscripts of East and West, Piascataway (NJ), Gorgias Press, 2018, pp. 123-158.
ABSTRACT: This essay is focused on the materiality of the written culture(s) of the Islamic Sicily (827–1091), investigated through the Arabic, Jewish and Greek prisms. Other than a limited set of events and texts well known by means of indirect tradition, what remains of the written culture of that period? The present paper tries to answer to this question thanks to the history of written culture, i.e., the study of the processes related to the production of written texts, the different forms of their use, and the means that have allowed their preservation over time, well aware that silences and absences exceed what is offered by the sparse direct testimonies which has survived. The picture delineated is rich in nuances and entanglements, very revealing about the historical processes that Sicily underwent afterwards and about the cultures which interacted in its cultural space.

The royal collection formed by Vittorio Emanuele III (1869-1947) was published in the twenty volumes of the "Corpus Nummorum Italicorum", between 1910 and 1943, but not fully. This volume aims at presenting, for the first time,  the Arabic coins from the royal Italian collection, in the Museo Nazionale Romano (Rome).
The book got an honourable mention from the association of Italian Professional Numismatists (NIP) and the Samir Shamma Prize 2018 from the Royal Numismatic Society (London)
For a review see: http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/News/Numismatics-The-royal-discipline/4?&id=5217&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CoinsWeekly+01.03.2018&newsletter=CoinsWeekly+01.03.2018

Dopo un excursus sulle origini e la vicenda della comunità giudaica della terra feudale di Militello nel Val di Noto (Regno di Sicilia) nel XV secolo, l'autore presenta un inedito spaccato di vita quotidiana degli ebrei conversi o neofiti ("the former Jews") di Militello nei primi decenni del XVI secolo, attraverso la capillare lettura delle carte custodite negli archivi locali, con riferimento agli aspetti economici, sociali, familiari e alle iniziative repressive perpetrate contro di loro dai funzionari dell'Inquisizione spagnola, come le sanzioni pecuniarie per sospetti atti di "criptogiudaismo". Questo studio si pone in continuità con il lavoro di Nadia Zeldes sullo status degli ebrei conversi siciliani negli anni successivi all'Espulsione (1492), e integra col contributo dei documenti notarili custoditi negli archivi del territorio le informazioni note dai registri dell'Inquisizione Spagnola in Sicilia e da altre fonti del tempo. Attività economiche, presenza urbana, vita familiare, persecuzioni e trasformazioni identitarie di un gruppo sociale fra Medioevo e Modernità.

In the summers of 2005 and 2006 the paleopathology team of the University of Pisa carried out a survey in north-eastern Sicily to investigate the funerary structures of Modern Age attested there, but still largely ignored and misunderstood. A particular kind of funerary apparatus is preserved in the crypts under the churches: after the death, the corpses of laymen and priests were placed in special structures named “colatoi” (“strainer rooms” used to desiccate the bodies, eliminating the bodily fuids). Two typologies are identified: the “sitting colatoi” and the “horizontal colatoi”; the survey permitted to propose an interpretation about their use and destination. An inventory of the abundant human mummiàed remains still in situ was also drawn up. The research was extended to the draining and mummification practices attested in other regions of southern Italy in the XVIII and XIX centuries, with a reflection about the concept of death in terms of duration and of secondary burial first developed by Hertz and Van Gennep. From the present study it emerges how these concepts, which seemed to have been uprooted by the Catholic Church, tenaciously resisted in the heart of modern Mediterranean Europe.

Conca d’oro è il nome della fertile piana, compresa tra mare e monti, che circonda la città di Palermo per una estensione di ca. 100 km2, celebrata per la sua feracità sin dalla antichità classica. Il presente studio intende delineare la storia del toponimo, indagando le implicazioni linguistiche e culturali ad esso connesse. Attestato come Co(n)ca  aurea nella temperie di rinnovamento culturale che investe la città di Palermo intorno al 1470, il toponimo potrebbe celare una formazione paraetimologica ibrida arabo-latina, in analogia ad altri casi siciliani già noti (es. Mongibello).