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Administration and Imperial Authority on Byzantium's Western Frontiers

Catherine Homes

in Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976-1025)

This chapter focuses on Byzantine administration in the Balkans and Southern Italy. It demonstrates how the emperor's wars with Symeon Kometopoulos, the ruler of Bulgaria, provide the key context to ... More

This chapter focuses on Byzantine administration in the Balkans and Southern Italy. It demonstrates how the emperor's wars with Symeon Kometopoulos, the ruler of Bulgaria, provide the key context to military administration in the Balkans until the final decade of the reign. It discusses the problems that John Skylitzes' Synopsis Historion presents for understanding the scope and chronology of the wars themselves, and the administrative structures that underpinned martial action. The detailed analysis of Skylitzes' testimony earlier in the book is used to generate some new answers to the most important difficulties inherent in the Synopsis Historion. It is argued that after Basil's annexation of Bulgaria in 1018, a similar style of flexible and devolved government was pursued on the new Balkan frontier as on the eastern frontier. This situation had distinct parallels in Byzantine southern Italy.Less

The Ancien Régime in the South

John A. Davis

in Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and the European Revolutions, 1780-1860

This chapter describes the crisis of the of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the context of the changes that were undermining the European Ancien Régime in the second half of the 18th ... More

This chapter describes the crisis of the of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the context of the changes that were undermining the European Ancien Régime in the second half of the 18th century. The chapter explores the impact of these changes on the economic, political, and social conditions of the Kingdom; the Bourbon monarchy's experiments in Enlightened absolutism in the closing decades of the 18th century; and its attempts to reduce the privileges of the feudatories, the church, and the powerful corporate bodies that dominated the Ancien Régime state.Less

Imagining the Enemy: Southern Italian Perceptions of Islam at the Time of the First Crusade

Joshua C. Birk

in Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Encounters and Exchanges

This chapter focuses on the disconnect between the rhetoric of holy war in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the experience of the crusading soldiers, particularly those from southern Italy. ... More

This chapter focuses on the disconnect between the rhetoric of holy war in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the experience of the crusading soldiers, particularly those from southern Italy. When scholars discuss the experience these soldiers have with Muslims, they tend to make generalized statements that these soldiers had previous experience fighting against Muslims, in a series of religious conflicts that prefigure the Crusades. What they do not generally discuss, however, is that the common experience of the southern Italian soldier was not fighting against Muslim soldiers, but fighting alongside them as allies. This background shapes the southern Italian understanding of the First Crusade, and explains why their behavior differs so markedly from that of other Crusaders.Less

A local sense of the past: spolia, reuse and all’antica building in southern Italy, 1400–1600¹

Bianca de Divitiis

in Local antiquities, local identities: Art, literature and antiquarianism in Europe, c. 1400–1700

Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries some of the most conspicuous remains of antiquity in the Italian peninsula were found in the Kingdom of Naples. These included not only Roman ruins, but ... More

Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries some of the most conspicuous remains of antiquity in the Italian peninsula were found in the Kingdom of Naples. These included not only Roman ruins, but also pre-Roman ones, such as Greek and, Italic relics, which testified to the diverse and very ancient origins of many of its centres. Magnificent ruins, such as temples or tombs, marked the landscape of cities and countryside and were regarded as traces of a glorious local past. Ancient remains were, furthermore, constantly unearthed across southern Italy either through chance findings or as a result of purposeful excavation and antiquarian research. Examining literary and artistic evidence, this essay considers local antiquity as a central theme of Southern Italian antiquarianism, for example in Capua and Venosa. It will also question the nature and perception of a diverse body of Southern Italian ‘antiquities’, which could include medieval monuments, imported classical works, or forgeries.Less

The other Italy

Antonino De Francesco

in The Antiquity of the Italian Nation: The Cultural Origins of a Political Myth in Modern Italy, 1796-1943

This chapter suggests that Giuseppe Micali’s model came under fire when, after the political unification of the Italian peninsula, it became clear that the encounter between the various parts of ... More

This chapter suggests that Giuseppe Micali’s model came under fire when, after the political unification of the Italian peninsula, it became clear that the encounter between the various parts of Italy was not a particularly harmonious one and that the problematic area of southern Italy seemed to obstruct, rather than smooth, the way towards a rapid process of stabilization for the newly unified state. The chapter also casts light on how the southern regions’ difficulty in becoming an integral part of the new unified Italy would determine the reflections on the roots of a diversity which, at the end of the 19th century, would come home to roost in the considerations concerning the Aryan and Mediterranean races which had populated ancient Italy.Less

Gender Relations among Italian Americans

Carol Bonomo Jennngs and Christine Palamidessi Moore

in American Woman, Italian Style: Italian Americana's Best Writings on Women

This chapter attempts to convey some of the thickly textured patterns of Italian-American gender relations. Edward C. Banfield put forth the theory of the southern Italian social system as an ... More

This chapter attempts to convey some of the thickly textured patterns of Italian-American gender relations. Edward C. Banfield put forth the theory of the southern Italian social system as an egregious example of “amoral familism.” This theory is still widely used by social scientists and other writers in influential intellectual circles. Banfield's view that people in southern Italy had no community or social moralities, only loyalty to their nuclear families' short term interests, is often cited or quoted. The patriarchal and amoral familism theories of the Italian-American family are well entrenched, not only among scholars, but also among oldstyle nativists and others who still speak of the Italian immigrants' “less than ideal cultural baggage,” which caused and still causes problems for a morally superior American culture.Less

“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State

Sabina Donati (ed.)

in A Political History of National Citizenship and Identity in Italy, 1861-1950

“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State

Foundations

Thomas James Dandelet

in Spanish Rome, 1500-1700

This chapter tells the story of Ferdinand and Isabella, and how they kept insinuating themselves into the political life of Naples and Rome in an effort to consolidate their power in southern Italy. ... More

This chapter tells the story of Ferdinand and Isabella, and how they kept insinuating themselves into the political life of Naples and Rome in an effort to consolidate their power in southern Italy. The young monarchs, by showing support for the church of San Pietro in Montorio in 1480, created for themselves an image that depicted them as strong allies of Naples and powerful defenders of Rome. In that same year, the interests of the Catholic Kings and those of Italy and the popes intersected, with the help of the Turkish threat to Rhodes and southern Italy. Ferdinand wanted to protect his realm of Sicily and the interests of his family in Naples. In addition, he and Isabella started to represent themselves as loyal protectors of the church. It was important to them that the policies of their court were seen as adhering to those of Rome. Stability in southern Italy and strong relations with Rome went hand in hand.Less

The Ritual of Adelphopoiesis

Claudia Rapp

in Brother-Making in Late Antiquity and Byzantium: Monks, Laymen, and Christian Ritual

This chapter presents the evidence for the ritual of adelphopoiesis as attested in the Byzantine liturgical manuscripts, from the late eighth century, until the sixteenth century and beyond. ... More

This chapter presents the evidence for the ritual of adelphopoiesis as attested in the Byzantine liturgical manuscripts, from the late eighth century, until the sixteenth century and beyond. Sixty-six manuscripts (listed in Appendix 1) were consulted. The ritual was popular throughout monastic Byzantium, in court circles in Constantinople, and among lay communities in Southern Italy. The liturgical gestures and prayers that appear with adelphopoiesis show that, in the eyes of its practitioners, the ritual bore no resemblance to marriage. It consisted of two core prayers that often appeared in conjunction with additional prayers (a table is given as Appendix 2). Sixteen prayers are known, testimony to the adaptability of the ritual. The prayers’ texts (translated in Appendix 3) show a variety of concerns, especially the avoidance of strife and the expectation of mutual support to cement an existing friendship or association, but they may also have been used to reconcile enemies.Less

Where Violence and Love Meet: Honour and Italian Society

Niamh Cullen

in Love, Honour, and Jealousy: An Intimate History of the Italian Economic Miracle

This chapter is an exploration of southern customs of love, courtship, and marriage. The notion of honour, strong in the southern regions and particularly Sicily and Calabria at least up to the late ... More

This chapter is an exploration of southern customs of love, courtship, and marriage. The notion of honour, strong in the southern regions and particularly Sicily and Calabria at least up to the late 1960s, strongly shaped courtship and marriage. Since family honour was measured by the sexual purity of unmarried daughters, young women’s lives were often tightly controlled. Honour crime, elopement, and kidnap marriage were the outward and most extreme signs of these customs and attitudes. The second part of chapter moves away from the diary and memoirs because of the difficulty in finding sources that both write openly about such experiences, and are willing to be published. Film was a medium that was increasingly used to draw attention to such customs, although crime reportage and the courtroom and are the real arena of this chapter. The well-known but seldom explored case of Franca Viola forms the core of the chapter’s second part. Kidnapped in 1965 with the aim of forcing her into marriage, Franca Viola was the first Sicilian woman to refuse to marry her kidnapper and by implication to have him prosecuted. The trial of Filippo Melodia and his accomplices in 1966 saw competing definitions of love and honour on trial in the Sicilian courtroom, each connected to different ideas of what it meant to be Italian, Sicilian, and modern. Although the trial was a great public victory for Sicilian women, with Melodia found guilty and sentenced to prison, a closer look at the sources suggests that, in private, attitudes were slower to change.Less

Labour Services and Peasant Obligations in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Southern Italy

G. A. Loud

in Italy and Early Medieval Europe: Papers for Chris Wickham

The south Italian agrarian economy in the central Middle Ages was based upon a system in which lords leased lands to peasants in return for rent, and largely upon the mezzadria—rents in kind of a ... More

The south Italian agrarian economy in the central Middle Ages was based upon a system in which lords leased lands to peasants in return for rent, and largely upon the mezzadria—rents in kind of a proportion of the crops. Under such a system issues such as serfdom were largely irrelevant. However, this chapter calls attention to instances in southern Italy, and especially in the Campania region, where labour services were still exacted, often in addition to rents in kind or cash, and asks what these may tell us about the structure of the countryside and the status of south Italian peasants.Less

Excerpt from “Tarantism and Catholicism”

Ernesto de Martino

in Anthropology of Catholicism: A Reader

Ernesto de Martino (1908–65) could be described as one of the founding figures of Italian ethnology. Until his work was translated into English, he was fairly unknown to English-speaking ... More

Ernesto de Martino (1908–65) could be described as one of the founding figures of Italian ethnology. Until his work was translated into English, he was fairly unknown to English-speaking anthropologists. Since then, however, the importance of his contributions to the field has received wider recognition. In the book Terra del Rimorso: Contributo a una storia religiosa del Sud (The Land of Remorse: A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism), de Martino unravels how alterity may be found “at home,” through a study in the southern peninsula of Salento of rural people seasonally affected by tarantismo, a form of possession attributed to the bite of the tarantola spider.1 The affliction is cured by the performance of “choreutic” dances followed by pilgrimages and offerings made to Saint Paul. For de Martino, tarantismo is the living presence of an other-than-Catholic history—an echo of earlier pagan, erotic ritual forms. Tarantism can be understood only when placed within the context of Catholicism’s regional history, its broader social and economic conflicts, and tensions around gender, kinship, and sexuality within the home. The cult is one that the Catholic Church has “purged” but also resignified and appropriated in an effort to contain its vitality. As de Martino shows, however, the church’s engagement with the cult in the first half of the twentieth century colludes with scientific and medical—particularly psychiatric—discourses. The relevance of this work for a modern anthropology of Catholicism is plain in its historical breadth and the richness and detail of de Martino’s ethnographic research. But it is also interesting for the way it highlights how questions of science, magic, and enchantment have posed challenges of different types for the modernizing, bureaucratic church.Less

Torna a Surriento

Paolo D’Iorio

in Nietzsche's Journey to Sorrento: Genesis of the Philosophy of the Free Spirit

The last chapter stands as an elegy of the Sorrento journey. D'Iorio hypothesizes that Nietzsche was unable to return to Sorrento because of the emotional trauma he had suffered since the 1876-77 ... More

The last chapter stands as an elegy of the Sorrento journey. D'Iorio hypothesizes that Nietzsche was unable to return to Sorrento because of the emotional trauma he had suffered since the 1876-77 stay, including the rupture of his friendship with Paul Rée and the death of the young Albert Brenner, as well as his definitive break with Wagner. We are led through excerpt from Meysenbug's autobiography, where she tells the story of her own return to Sorrento in 1900. She recounts how she sent a branch of laurels from Sorrento to Weimar, where Nietzsche was living his last months with his sister, Elisabeth Förster Nietzsche. Yet we see that she entirely misunderstands his thought, as she reasserts his philosophical investment in the imperishable, the divine. This, combined with the fact that Nietzsche's sister would give him a Christian funeral, sadly predicts, and initiates, the tragic misinterpretation of Nietzsche's thought that continues into our time. D'Iorio offers the suggestion that Nietzsche ought to have been buried in Sorrento, or even on the Isle of Ischia, so that he could have been reconnected with the idea of the Free Spirit, and hence remembered in this light.Less