PALERMO, ARCHDIOCESE OF. – A city and archdiocese of the island of Sicily. It has an area of approximately 1,416 sq. km. with a population of 707,093, of whom 705,000 are Catholics, distributed in 98 parishes, served by 303 diocesan priests and 370 regular clergy; it has a major and a minor seminary, 49 male religious communities and 124 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 308).
The boundaries of the diocese in the earliest times are unknown; the present ones repeat the Norman-era arrangement in connection with the territories of the neighboring dioceses of Monreale, Cefalù, Mazara and Agrigento. The small territory of the Palermo diocese is explained by the particular position of the city in the division of the island between Robert and Roger.
I. ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF THE CITY IN ANTIQUITY
The hills surrounding Palermo, the ancient Panormus, and the plain itself, in caves and open-air stations, preserve evidence of the earliest humanity in Sicily, belonging to the Upper Paleolithic. Other remains of a more recent civilization, of sub-Neolithic type, are to be attributed to the Sicanians of ancient historiographical tradition, of Mediterranean stock and language, and attest to their presence in the villages and in the current site of Palermo, especially on the slopes of Mount Pellegrino (Valdesi district). Toward the end of the 8th century B.C., the Phoenician-Carthaginian colony of Panormus settled on the hill of Piazza Vittoria, near a deep harbor inlet, which gradual silting has reduced to the present “Cala.” The Phoenician hypogeal necropolis along Corso Calatafimi attests to the life of the city, which flourished rapidly because of maritime trade and the development of agriculture in the surrounding area, already defined in the 4th century B.C. as the “garden” (of Sicily) by Polybius, celebrated by so many writers, from Ugo Falcando (12th century) onward, and from the 16th century to the present called the “Golden Shell.” From the original hill, Palermo extended its space toward the sea, adding to the old quarter (Paleapoli) the new one (Neapoli) along the Papireto and Maltempo streams; the complex of the two quarters was enclosed by a powerful wall, of which remains of various techniques and periods survive.Historical accounts of Panormus concern the role of its port as a Carthaginian base during the struggle between Carthage and the Greek cities of Sicily. And with the port are connected the events that followed when Rome took over, after a harsh siege in 258-57 B.C. by the consul A. Atilius Calatinus. An attempt at reconquest in 250 B.C. by Hasdrubal was repulsed by Caecilius Metellus in a hard-fought battle near the walls; nor did Hamilcar Barca succeed in it, who from Mount Pellegrino, for four years, put the Roman garrison of Panormus to a severe test without breaking its resistance. During the Roman period, Panormus, a free and immune city, continued its seafaring activity, as evidenced by the symbols on its coinage and the existence of a “curator portensissi kalendarii,” a magistrate in charge of credit for seafarers. Remains of well-decorated buildings attest to an urban renewal in the early Empire; but it is uncertain whether this coincides with the establishment of a colony, attributed to Vespasian in a document of doubtful value. Certainly Panormus gradually assumed a predominant importance among the cities of western Sicily. Gaiseric, who landed in 440 at Lilybaeum, occupied Palermo after a long resistance and sacked II. In 491 Theodoric fortified it, but Belisarius in 535, after a long siege, overcame the strength of its fortifications and managed to occupy II. Tradition points to the church now destroyed of Santa Maria della Pinta—an original basilica with an external portico—as the votive monument erected by the Byzantine conqueror. The Roman necropolis of Panormus was around the present Via Bosco, east of the walls; on the other side, in Via Cavour, are instead the Byzantine-era tombs, one of which has an epitaph of a cloth merchant from Alexandria in Egypt. The last period of Byzantine Sicily ends in the 9th century with the Arab landing in Sicily. Ziyadat Allah besieged Palermo in 830. The city resisted for a year and was taken by famine and pestilence; Arab sources, exaggerating, claim that of 70,000 inhabitants only 3,000 survived.
II. INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE PALERMO CHURCH
Open to trade with Carthaginian Africa, a region of ancient Christianity, it is likely that Palermo received the seeds of the new faith quite early. But news about the hierarchy is relatively late; the tradition of a Theodore, converter of Palermo at the beginning of the 2nd century, rests on no critical basis; nor does the mention of Palermo in the Passio of St. Agatha, a work not earlier than the 5th century, have chronological value. Also apocryphal is a letter of Pope Leo the Great with the mention of a bishop of Palermo. The first certain bishopThe Arab conquest increased Palermo’s commercial ties with Africa and innovations in agriculture, with the development of orchards and the introduction of citrus fruits—the great gift, along with the carob, that the Arabs brought to the West and which flourished in the Golden Shell. Nor are there lacking documents of a flourishing of Muslim letters. The Sicilian Abū ʿAbdallāh translated Dioscorides into Arabic; a famous teacher of law in Palermo was Abū Saʿd Luqmān; the names of several Sicilian authors of biographical works survive. A splendid flowering is found in the 11th-12th centuries in the sciences and philosophy, in law, in philology, as well as in poetry and music. Fifty years after the conquest, the monk Theodosius, taken prisoner to Palermo with his bishop after the fall of Syracuse, speaks of Palermo as a famous and populous city, surrounded by suburbs that seemed themselves proud cities. More vivid are the praises of a merchant from Baghdad, Ibn Ḥawqal, who visited Palermo at the end of the 10th century; he describes it divided into five quarters, all differently populated and seats of various activities. According to the calculations of M. Amari, from some elements of this description Palermo would then have had 350,000 inhabitants. If the main mosque was the ancient Byzantine cathedral, Ibn Ḥawqal points out 300 others in the city and 200 in the suburbs, among public, guild and private ones. But of so many Arab monuments, only a few foundation remains survive in Palermo, and a rectangular hall near San Giovanni degli Eremiti; but this is a condition, however strange it may seem, common to all of Sicily. If the original buildings are lacking, the influence of Arab art
It would be St Mamilianus, deported by the Vandals in 439, along with some of his clergy, to the island of Giglio. However, in Palermo a Christian community is presupposed in the 4th century, a series of hypogea near the Maltempo valley — where the notable sepulchral church of St Michael is found — and at Papireto, where the Porta d’Ossuna catacomb lies. As with the rest of Sicily, so too for Palermo the information on Christian life increases under St Gregory the Great. From his letters it emerges that at least one of the six monasteries founded by the Pope on the island with his own funds, that of St Hermas, was in Palermo, on the site later occupied by the monastery of St John of the Hermits; that an Isidore left his possessions for the foundation of a xenodochium in the city; and that there existed the monasteries of St Theodore, of SS Maximus and Agatha, of St Adrian, one called the Praetorian, and one for women called St Martin. St Gregory made Palermo the seat of the administration of the Church’s goods in western Sicily, when he judged it right to replace the single rector, previously seated in Syracuse, with two rectors.
Noteworthy are the dispositions he issued so that no wrong should be done to the Jews, from which it must be inferred that there existed a Jewish community of some importance and a popular current of antisemitism. Around 672 St Sergius was born in Palermo, where his father, originally from Syria, had settled; he was one of the five popes whom Sicily gave to the universal Church in that century. At the time of the Muslim conquest, a bishop named Luke managed to escape the massacre.
III. PALERMO FROM THE ARABS TO THE ARAGONESE
In 833 Ziyādat Allāh sent as his lieutenant to Palermo the prince of the blood Abū Fihr with the title of ṣāliḥ, in which is already outlined the autonomy of Sicily with almost nominal dependence on the caliphate of Qayrawān. A whole system of judicial, political and administrative magistracies arose, which was to leave lasting traces in Palermo. The history of Palermo in the Arab period reflects the fundamental motif of Sicilian events at that time: a contrast between the authority of the prince — first of the Aghlabid house, then of the Kalbid — and the Muslim nobility, against which is set the weight of the Sicilian people. Among these contrasts is notable that of 899–94 against ties with Africa, which led to an agreement with the Christians of the Val Demone. The struggle against the sons of the emir Yūsuf (d. 998) provoked a certain Byzantine revival, with some successes at the time of George Maniakes (1038), which was to sow the seed of the disappearance of Arab rule, and for the moment shattered the unity of the emirate, in which independent dominions and communities substituted themselves in various places. Palermo, by expelling the emir Samsān ad-Dawlah, governed itself as a republic under the authority of the jamāʿah, a council of heads of household, representatives of religious corporations and individuals of particular wealth and learning, which had already exercised local administrative functions. The economic development of the country, in particular, was the result of a series of initiatives that brought to Palermo benefits for Sicily, which has been demonstrated in many other countries of the West.The work of Muslim craftsmen, however, constitutes one of the fundamental elements of the art of the ensuing Norman age. Among the troops of the strategos Maniakes, in the final Byzantine attempt at reconquest of Sicily, was a contingent of Normans, already settled at that time in southern Italy; a few years later they returned to the island to take possession of it for themselves. Four years after their landing, their leaders Roger and Robert Guiscard were pressing at the gates of Palermo. The city had just been raided by the Pisans, who had forced the port, captured some ships, plundered the surroundings and carried off treasures with which they began the construction of their Duomo (q.V. PISA). The Norman siege ended in 1061. Palermo, with all of western Sicily, was held by Robert Guiscard; Roger was assigned the rest of the island not yet fully conquered. But on departing for southern Italy, Robert first left a governor of his own in Palermo, then ceded further territories to his brother; and shortly afterwards his son and successor Roger ceded half the city to his uncle. After the latter’s death, his widow Adelasia, regent for her son — also named Roger — took up residence in Palermo. Aid given to their cousin William, the new duke of Apulia, secured the other half of Palermo for the young count Roger, who soon reunited the domains on this side and the other of the Straits and on Christmas 1130 took the royal crown in Palermo.
The Sicilian spirit soon created works of art and cultural initiatives of universal value. The church of the Martorana, already completed in 1143 by the admiral George of Antioch, inspired in its central plan and mosaic decoration by the courtly taste of Constantinople, incorporates in its ogival arches and decoration Muslim elements; in the Palatine Chapel, already partly decorated at the time of its consecration (1140), some mosaics show the intervention of local craftsmen on Byzantine taste, while the ceiling is a monument of pure Oriental art. Structures and friezes of Muslim type prevail in the church of St John of the Hermits, in the original buildings of the Norman palace (here the use of brick suggests the white-and-red aspect of Palermo, noted by the traveller al-Muqaddasī), and in the suburban villas of Mare-dolce and Baida, the Zisa and the Cuba; while there intervenes, especially in sculpture, the direct experience of the marbles of southern Italy, from which derive the porphyry sarcophagi of Palermo’s duomo (once at Cefalù), the candelabrum of the Palatine, and the first expressions of the cloister of Monreale, intertwining with elements suggested by the Norman ruling class, which appear in the Cathedral (1184) but are already glimpsed in the Magione (1161) and at St Spirit (1173). Some influence is also exerted by those Lombard masters who transferred to Sicily. Scarcely had Robert Guiscard entered Palermo when the bishop Nicodemus — who, like his predecessors throughout the Islamic period, exercised his ministry in the suburban church of St Cyriaca — on returning to the city took possession again of the ancient Cathedral, which was reconsecrated.
BIBL.:
G. V. ARATO, L’Architettura arabo-normanna in Sicilia, Milano 1922, tav. 86
The influence of the Arab element in Sicily is a mere commonplace of half-education, which mistakes Mediterranean traits for Arab ethnic and cultural relics. Living side by side, for fifty, two hundred years—nowhere more than three centuries—Sicilians and Arabs neither mingled nor crossed the religious barrier. The Arab element, after a gradual thinning during what might be called the period of “captivity,” during which it had not ceased to cause some political annoyance, was opposed during the reign of William II, induced to leave Sicily, and was radically eliminated in 1223, when Frederick ordered their deportation to Lucera; in the following years they were definitively removed from their last strongholds. Even within a policy of collaboration, the Normans presented themselves in Sicily as restorers of Christianity. Count Roger, in a diploma, claims to have “in the conquest of Sicily ordained the episcopal churches”; among these, first and foremost, the Palermitan see, to which he assigned substantial possessions in various diplomas from 1086 onward, and which in 1154 was recognized as the metropolitan see of Sicily by Pope Adrian IV, who appointed Bishop Hugh to II.
A tradition attributes to this period Saint Rosalia, a virgin of illustrious lineage, who abandoned the court to live as an anchorite in the caves of Quisquina and Mount Pellegrino; her cult revived after the discovery of her relics in 1624, when, during a pestilence, she was proclaimed patroness of Palermo (R. Pirro [V. BIBLICA.]). These endowments and the initiative of the sovereigns in religious revival, especially regarding the palatine churches that arose in all Norman castles and residences, represented the first step toward that religious policy which was to culminate in the institution later called the “Sicilian monarchy” (v.).
The son and successor (1154) of King Roger, William I, faced the combined hostility of the Pope, the Emperor of Byzantium, and the German Emperor; but above all, the growing disintegration of internal forces, overseen by his minister Maio of Bari. The splendor of the Kingdom and of Palermo did not diminish, according to the contemporary account of Hugh Falcandus. The reign of William I, though he bore the nickname *Malo*, was enjoyed by his son William II. At his death (1189), the parliament elected Tancred, Count of Lecce, belonging to another branch of the House of Hauteville, while William had designated his aunt Constance, daughter of Roger II and wife of Henry VI, as his successor. Bitter struggles between the factions of the two sides, marred by excesses of the German sovereign, lasted until the arrival in Palermo of Queen Constance as regent for her son Frederick II; the boy was crowned king in the cathedral (1198). Constance secured the Kingdom under the protection of the Church, endowing the Holy See with an annual tribute of 1,000 gold pieces, and in her will appointed Pope Innocent III as guardian of her son, assisted by a regency council composed of the archbishops of Palermo, Monreale, and Capua. An image of Palermo at that time is found in a miniature from the Bern codex of Peter of Eboli’s poem, depicting groups of inhabitants arranged in their respective quarters. During this regency, the Muslims left Palermo, regrouping in the mountains of the Val di Mazara. The German counts took advantage of this, sending Marcovaldo to sack the Conca d’Oro, clash with the national militias—with the help of Muslims—and lay siege to Palermo.
A new age began when Frederick II (v.), at fourteen, assumed control of affairs. At his death (1250), Manfred succeeded him, usurping the throne from his nephew Conradin. The events that brought Sicily and Naples under Charles of Anjou united southern Italy in a new form of unity (1266–82), shattered by the Palermitan uprising of the Sicilian Vespers. Contemporaries and posterity saw in the Vespers one of the most generous examples of a people overcoming foreign oppression. Though the war led to the calling of the Aragonese dynasty—also foreign—it nonetheless gave rise to institutions suited, in the spirit of the times, to meet Sicily’s particular needs. Diplomatic and military attempts at reconquest served only to impoverish Sicily and to facilitate the consolidation of baronial power. One of these barons, Giovanni Chiaramonte, nearly autonomous lord of a vast fief, was the driving force behind the defense of Palermo during the siege of 1325 under Robert of Anjou. In the struggle between the Catalan and Latin factions, the Chiaramontes led the latter; in Palermo they possessed a palace as sumptuous as a royal residence. When the martyrdom of Queen Mary, daughter and heir of King Frederick III, and her young husband Martin of Montblanc, seemed to threaten Sicily’s absorption into the Aragonese kingdom, Andrea Chiaramonte led the personal defense, resisting in Palermo against the Aragonese army; for violating the agreed terms, he was executed in front of his palace.
IV. THE SPANISH ERA
In keeping with the new political condition of 1409, Palermo, administrative center of the island with a population estimated at 65,000 in 1492, experienced a certain revival in that century due to a flourishing of internal and external trade, for which the mole called Punta della Garita was built (1445). The city began to adorn itself with a series of new buildings—churches, monasteries, palaces—and saw the rise of notable men of culture and artists. Peter Ranzano, born at the close of the previous century, was the first historian.Toward the close of the 16th century, despite the severe plague of 1575, which was confronted by the protomedico Filippo Ingrassia, Palermo counted 119,286 inhabitants (the first figure in some way calculable from 106,000 inhabitants in 1501). Sumptuous buildings had come to enhance the city’s splendor. The inertia of the severe period persisted throughout nearly the entire 14th century; from this age remain the Chiaramonte and Sclafani Palaces (in which the first document of the new popular Sicilian painting survives), as well as the churches of S. Agostino and S. Francesco, still resonating with Romanesque survivals. The 15th century saw the flourishing in Palermo of the epigones of medieval architecture, nourished by the new currents of Catalan construction, in the lateral portico of the Cathedral (1426), in the church of the Gancia, in the works of Matteo Carnalivari, such as the Abbattellis and Aiutamiristo Palaces and the church of the Catena; while painting and sculpture more effectively sensed the seeds of the Renaissance.
In the 16th century, while painting was altered primarily by retaining without baskets and Catalan influences and absorbed Flemish influences, and sculpture flourished under the stimulus of Lombard artists, architecture approached Renaissance taste, with the Porta Nuova (1535), the arcades of the Royal Palace, the Palazzo Costantino, the remodeling of the Palazzo Pretorio, and the Loggia dei Genovesi at Garraffello. As a center of attraction for the major centers of the island, Palermo boasted throughout this period a good number of eminent personalities; among the most notable were Pietro Gavina, Elisabetta Aiutamiristo, and Iano Vitali, beloved by Leo X, who cultivated poetry around the hearth of the Accademia degli Accesi, established in 1568; Giovanni Matteo Gioberti, papal datary and later bishop of Verona; the historian Mariano Valguarnera; the sculptor Antonello Gagini; and the painter Pietro Ruzzolone.
During the following century, Palermo’s population grew slowly, reaching 160,346 inhabitants in 1714, and the city was enriched with further monuments in the Spanish Baroque style, including palaces, monasteries, and churches such as S. Giuseppe dei Teatini (1621), Casa Professa (1636), and the splendid urban layout of the Quattro Canti (1609–20), designed by the Roman architect Giulio Lasso. Among the most notable figures of this period were Paolo Silvio Bocconi, a botanist of European renown; the naturalist Carlo Ventimiglia; the archaeologist Filippo Paruta; and above all the poet Antonio Veneziano, who opened the paths of art to Sicilian dialect poetry.
The end of the War of the Spanish Succession heralded better times for Palermo and Sicily. Initially assigned to Victor Amadeus of Savoy, crowned king in Palermo (1713), the island regained its independence. The disturbances that followed in resonance with European events brought war to the gates of Palermo, where militias of Philip V and Charles VI came to fight. The praetor, Count of S. Martino, called upon the people for defense and opposed both sides. With the agreement that ceded the island to the Austrians, Count Mercy arrived in Palermo in 1719 to take possession in the name of Charles VI of Austria, III as king of Sicily, but only for a very brief time. He was succeeded, in connection with the War of the Polish Succession, by Philip V’s son, Charles III of Bourbon. With him, though also sovereign of Naples, full autonomy for Sicily was secured; he was crowned in Palermo in 1735, and with him Sicily entered a phase of full renaissance.
Historical studies boasted Canon Antonio Mongitore, investigator of every aspect of Sicilian erudition; Canon Domenico Schiavino; Giovanni Amato; the Cassinese brothers Salvatore and Evangelista Di Blasi; the archaeologist G. L. Castelli di Torremuzza; the diarist Marquis of Villabianca; and above all the jurist Canon Rosario Gregorio. Also worthy of remembrance is Archbishop G. Gasch of the Minims, called another Thomas of Villanova for his charity. The creation of the civic library and that of the Filippini at Olivella was promoted; the library of the Jesuits was expanded; and the current Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, under the name Accademia del Buon Gusto, was established in 1718. The stuccoes of Giacomo Serpotta, marvelous for their composed vitality, enriched among others the oratories of S. Zita, S. Lorenzo, and the Rosario; the decoration in “mixed” marbles adorned many churches, especially Casa Professa and S. Caterina. An urban reorganization of the old city was undertaken, with the opening and arrangement of streets and new organic districts. Public services were established, including nighttime lighting—in 1744, under Viceroy Orsini—a novelty then unknown in many European capitals. In the economic sphere, international treaties to promote trade, the increase in sulfur extraction and export, the revival of craftsmanship, and the birth of new industries were recorded. A road network linking the major centers with one another and with the capital was developed by reorganizing and improving the ancient royal *trazzere*.
Under the son and successor of the good King Charles, Ferdinand III, Palermo was embellished; with the demolition of Piazza Caracciolo came the disastrous neoclassical modernization of the Cathedral, designed by Fuga. Through the efforts of Viceroy Caracciolo, beneficial administrative and political reforms were achieved; the old Neapolitan gentleman gave form to local demands, particularly in the area of feudal organization, which, under pressure from the strong bourgeoisie slowly forming in the most populous and active *feudi*, had acquired a distinctive character. Caracciolo also abolished (1792) the tribunal of the Inquisition, which was unpopular with the people.
In the 15th century, a general Studium had opened in the convent of S. Domenico; later instruction passed to the Jesuits; but only in 1779 was the Regia Accademia degli Studi inaugurated in the Palazzo del Collegio Massimo (formerly Jesuit), which, transferred in 1805 to the convent of the Theatines, attained the status of a university. Palermo was then adorned with the Villa Giulia (1777), the Botanical Garden (1789), and the Astronomical Observatory (1790), later made illustrious by Abbot Giuseppe Piazzi, who on the night of January 1, 1801, discovered the first planetoid between Mars and Jupiter, which he named Ceres Ferdinandea. Ferdinand III fled from Naples to Palermo in 1799, and again in 1806. Palermo then became the stage for tortuous intrigues, in which the principal figures were Queen Maria Carolina and Lord Bentinck, exponent of English policy, who sought to take advantage of events to gain a foothold in Sicily.
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PALERMO, ARCHDIOCESE OF — Msgr. G. Gasch, archbishop of Palermo. Copper engraving, after an oil painting, now in the convent of S. Andrea delle Fratte.
The 19th century opened with the poet Giovanni Meli, followed by the naturalist and historian Domenico Scinà and the sculptor Valerio Villareale. The oratory of Olivella, designed by G. Venanzio Marvuglia (1729–1811), and the church of the Salvatore, by architect Paolo Amato, as well as many palaces of the nobility, were built.
V. P. FROM THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. — The new English-style constitution, approved by Parliament after the nobility had abolished the feudal system on 18 July 1812, lasted only briefly. It was revoked, after the Congress of Vienna, by Ferdinand, who became, through an artificial formula, the first king of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The liberal ferment, already at work in the memorable renunciation of feudal privileges, pitted against absolute monarchy the finest of the nobility and the great bourgeoisie of culture and wealth, led by eminent figures through whose efforts P. experienced one of the most fruitful periods of its intellectual life. The uprisings of 1820 and 1838, guided by this elite, aimed at the interdependent goals of regaining autonomy privileges and achieving constitutional freedoms. In both these revolutions, P. was the driving force behind popular action and the interpreter of the needs of the entire Sicily. When the provisional government led by Ruggero Settimo, “President of the Kingdom,” fell in 1849, P. remained the focal point of the bold efforts toward a resurgence. In the first decades following the unification of the Kingdom of Italy, P., which had remained the focal point of attraction for the entire island—having 21,909 inhabitants in 1861 and 309,935 in 1901—saw the beginning of a new period of cultural development, spurred by educational institutions, primarily the university, and study associations, including the Sicilian Society for National History. Notable names emerged in historical-critical scholarship, such as Michele Amari, Antonino Salinas, Giuseppe Pitrè, and Monsignor Gioacchino Di Marzo. No less significant was the economic and industrial development, chiefly due to the successful initiatives of the Florio family. — See plates XL1-XLII.