03727cam a22003493u 4500 77626 UtSlPG 20260610134810.0 m cr n 260607r20261903utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d UtSlPG it iso639-1 DG PQ Catalano, Michele, 1884-1955 La venuta dei Normanni in Sicilia nella poesia e nella leggenda Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2026 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Release date is 2026-01-06 Barbara Magni and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images made available by The Internet Archive) "La venuta dei Normanni in Sicilia nella poesia e nella leggenda" by Michele Catalano is a historical-literary study written in the early 20th century. It explores how the Norman conquest of Sicily was remembered, shaped, and reimagined across medieval Latin poetry, later epics, chronicles, and popular legend, and how these narratives evolved into nationalist readings in modern times. The focus is on sources, motifs, and the tension between sober historiography and the allure of epic and folklore. The opening of the study sets the scene with the Arab-Norman wars and the Norman rise in Sicily, arguing that such exploits naturally fed poetry and legend despite later, cooler chronicling. It then examines 11th–12th century Latin writing: Guglielmo Appulo’s classicizing epic on Robert Guiscard and the siege of Palermo, and Malaterra’s partisan Historia Sicula—with inserted leonine verses, miracle-laden episodes (like St. George at Cerami), and probable apocrypha—while noting how Italian chronicles tended to filter out marvels. The next section argues for an embryonic Norman-Sicilian epic cycle, citing shared medieval motifs (the coffin stratagem, providential framing), the widely diffused treasure-statue tale attached to Guiscard, and echoes in French chansons and Arthurian lore localized in Sicily (Mongibello, Fata Morgana), with a cautious reading of Dante’s inclusion of Guiscard. Catalano concludes this medieval cycle remained thin and soon eclipsed, replaced in popular taste by the Carolingian cycle, owing to cultural, political, and scholarly factors. He then surveys a learned revival in the 17th–18th centuries: Balli’s Tasso-like Palermo liberato, fragmentary or lost poems by Sorba, Munebria, and Morabito (often centered on Serlone), Reitani’s baroque Aeneid pastiche, and Vitale’s dialect Sicilia liberata—an energetic romance-epic rich in myth and nature—plus Meli’s unrealized plan. The beginning of the 19th-century chapter ties the new epics to Sicilian autonomist sentiment, highlighting Vigo’s Ruggiero as a patriotic allegory (with infernal machinery, set pieces, and a final acclamation of Ruggero), and briefly noting other contemporary works known through titles, fragments, and correspondence. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: Catania: Tip. Sicula di Monaco e Mollica, 1903 Ruggiero, I, conte di Sicilia, 1031-1101 -- In literature Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, approximately 1015-1085 -- In literature Normans -- Italy -- Sicily -- In literature Sicily (Italy) -- History -- 1016-1194 -- In literature https://archive.org/details/CatalanoLaVenuta/page/n5 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77626 118346 118346