A defining reference work whose engaging narrative brings southern
Italy’s Middle Ages to life. This is the first major history
written in English about the Kingdom of Sicily under its Hauteville
and Hohenstaufen dynasties in the High Middle Ages. Encompassing
the island of Sicily and most of the Italian peninsula south of
Rome, this multicultural society of Muslims, Jews, and Christians
East and West, was a nexus where the civilizations of feudal
Europe, Byzantine Asia, and Fatimid Africa flourished in synergy
into the 13th century. Unlike most histories of the kingdom, this
one brings the reader much information about social culture, such
as the language and cuisine that emerged from this eclectic era to
influence southern Italy and its people in ways still seen today.
There are revealing chapters on the language popularized before
Italian, and the culinary milieu that gave us spaghetti and
lasagne. Women are never overlooked. Among them are Margaret of
Navarre, regent for five years, Trota of Salerno, author of a
medical treatise, Nina of Messina, the first woman known to compose
poetry in an Italian tongue, and the unnamed Bint Muhammad ibn
Abbad, who led a rebellion alongside her father. This long-awaited
book presents an essential chronological history supplemented by
concise sections on topics such as phylogeography, coinage, and
heraldry, with dozens of maps and genealogical tables. It has
hundreds of endnotes, a lengthy bibliography, a timeline, and
appendices on regalia, the kingdom's first legal code, the
coronation rite, the longest poem of the Sicilian School, and
historiography. A long introduction explores sources, ethnic
identity, historical views, and research methods, candidly
dispelling a few myths. This hefty volume has something for
everybody. It's a fine addition to library collections and a useful
reference for students, while its lively narrative makes it an
engaging read for anybody curious about this time and place. Those
having roots in southern Italy will discover the origins of their
ancestral culture, the ethnogenesis that led to what exists today.
This long glimpse of a singular society was worth the wait.
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