Sicily

SICILY. - By size (25,461 sq km), by number of inhabitants (4 million) and by economic importance, the principal island of the Mediterranean, in which it occupies a privileged position, at the center of communications between the two basins (western and eastern) of this sea and almost a bridge between the opposite shores of Europe and Africa.

I. GEOGRAPHY

The relief of S. continues that of the Apennines and reproduces its characteristics (the Peloritani, Nebrodi and Madonie recall respectively the Aspromonte, the northern Apennines and the central Apennines), also because of the presence of a broad Sub-Apennine belt (Etna and the Iblei) on the eastern side of the island. Against this pattern lean the internal plateaus in which the terrains of the gypsum-sulphur series appear, while to the west the relief consists of isolated massifs that find their natural continuation in the Egadi. On the whole, the average elevation of the island is barely 440 m, and the zone above 1000 m represents only 6% of it. The climate, of a subtropical type, is known for the mildness of its winter temperatures, the serenity of its sky and the absence, or rarity, of frosts even in the internal regions. But the landscape presents a sharp contrast between the latter and the coastal strip: in the internal districts, poor in or even devoid of trees, reduced in the hot season to patches of parched steppe, extensive cereal cultivation prevails by far, resting on the latifondo, whereas in the coastal plains, where water is more abundant and better distributed, small and medium-sized properties are widespread, and rich tree crops dominate, with olives, vines, fruit trees (in particular almonds and hazelnuts) and the typical cultivation of citrus fruits, in whose production S. surpasses all the other Italian regions taken together. Stock-raising (free-range and pack animals) and forestry (the woods are reduced to little more than 3% of the territorial surface) are, in comparison with agriculture, of slight importance; not negligible profits, from fishing, instead (tuna, swordfish, anchovies, sponges, etc.), which is carried on almost exclusively by the islanders themselves. Mineral resources are not lacking (sulfur in the interior, asphaltic bitumen in the Ragusa area), but they do not offer industrial development on a large scale. Nevertheless, alongside a flourishing craft industry, recent years saw a greater variety of initiatives also in the sector of large-scale industry (milling, chemicals, printing). A clear indication of this is found, moreover, in the increase in trade. As for human settlement, along the coastal perimeter density reaches its maximum values and all the major urban centers arise (among others the 3 that each exceed 100,000 inhabitants); in the interior, over vast expanses, the countryside appears deserted of inhabitants and the population lives concentrated in large rural centers, often rising on the heights, to escape malaria, which has not yet been entirely eradicated.

	Provinces	Area in sq km	Population Census 1936 1-1-1950 (in 1000 inhab.)		Density per sq km	Population of the capital (in 1000 inhab.)
Agrigento	3041	408	465	153	40
Caltanissetta	2104	250	294	140	57
Catania	3552	701	780	219	292
Enna	2562	213	238	93	27
Messina	3248	612	661	204	227
Palermo	4977	883	1005	202	491
Ragusa	1523	217	241	158	54
Siracusa	2199	276	321	146	70
Trapani	2500	368	408	163	75
SICILY	25,706	3928	4413	172	—

II. ANCIENT HISTORY

1. Civil history

According to the Greek historians, the first inhabitants of Sicily, in the west, were the Sicani, who in the farthest strip of the island had intermingled with a foreign population, giving rise to the mixed-race group of the Elymians with the centers of Segesta and Eryx; in the east were the Siculi, who had immigrated from Italy. In the 8th and 7th centuries B.C., in the west, the Phoenicians founded the colonies of Motya, Soluntum, Panormus (Palermo), and in the east the Greeks founded those of Syracuse, Naxos, Leontini, Catana, Zancle (Messina), Megara, Gela and later Acre, Casmenae, Camarina, Selinus, Agrigentum, Himera.

The democratic life of the beginnings in the Greek colonies was soon succeeded by tyranny, which in the 5th century became common, and several cities, such as Gela, Agrigentum and above all Syracuse, owed their importance to it. The continuous struggle between Carthaginians and natives led to the Roman intervention, begun in 263 B.C. with the occupation of Messana and concluded in 210 with the fall of Agrigentum. In the second half of the 2nd century B.C. Sicily experienced the horrors of the servile wars, and in the 1st century those of the struggles between Octavian and Pompey. In the organization of the Empire by Augustus, Sicily was a senatorial province, governed by a proconsul and two quaestors, and in that of Diocletian it formed part of the prefecture of Italy under a consularis. In 440 the Vandals of Genseric, masters of Africa, occupied Lilybaeum and Palermo, stirring up a fierce persecution against the Catholics; they returned in 455 and in 468, repulsed by Ricimer and by Marcellinus, until in 476 the island passed under the dominion of Odoacer and in 491 under that of Theodoric. Sicily then experienced a brief period of prosperity. In 535, claiming the promontory of Lilybaeum which had been given as a wedding gift to Amalafrida, sister of Theodoric, wife of Thrasamund king of the Vandals, Belisarius landed at Catania and began the conquest of the island, which passed under the dominion of the Byzantines, and from 663 Constans II made his dwelling there until his death (668). The killing of Constans gave rise to a military revolt led by Mezezius, soon put down, which was followed by those of Sergius (718) and of Elpidius (780). Meanwhile, from the middle of the 7th century the incursions of the Arabs had begun, and they intensified in the 8th century: no fewer than 12 times in this century the Muslims plundered Sicily, committing massacres and carrying off booty. In 827, called by Euphemius, they landed at Mazara and began the methodical conquest of the island, more or less hindered by the Byzantines. In 831 Palermo fell, in 843 Messina, in 859 Castrogiovanni (Enna), in 878 Syracuse, in 903 Taormina, in 965 Rametta. The Byzantines never renounced dominion over Sicily, but in their various attempts at reconquest they were always defeated and repulsed. Under Muslim domination the island was governed by the emir who resided at Palermo; living conditions were tolerable despite the heavy taxes imposed on the people, which seemed more bearable in comparison with Byzantine extortion. There were good results in culture and art and above all in agriculture, which was not matched by the development of religious and civil life.

2. Religious history

On the first spread of Christianity in Sicily there are no contemporary and reliable documents; its privileged position, at the center of the communication routes between Rome and the East, suggests however that this must have happened quite early. St. Paul on his journey to Rome stayed as a prisoner for three days at Syracuse in the spring of 61 (Act. 28, 12), too short a time to be able to carry on apostolic work there. Then for two centuries there are no certain records. The traditions about the apostolic origin of certain churches of the island are legendary, just as the notice of the Praedestinatus about an alleged Sicilian council in the 2nd century (PL 53, 592) is false and the letters of the popes Zephyrinus and Eutychian to the bishops of Sicily are apocryphal (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 80, 146).

In the 3rd century, however, there existed in Sicily certain bishoprics, founded and organized by Rome, as appears from the letter that the clergy of this city sent to St. Cyprian in 251 concerning the question of the lapsi (CSEL, 3, 2, p. 553) and from the councils held under Pope Cornelius (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI, 43). The cult of the martyrs Agatha (v.) of Catania and Lucy (v.) of Syracuse was very popular also in Rome and then throughout the West. About St. Euplus (v.), martyr of Catania, there is good hagiographic evidence.

If the literary documentation is scanty, the archaeological monuments scattered more or less everywhere but predominantly in the south-eastern region make up for it in some way; the underground cemeteries of Syracuse (v.) and of Palazzolo Acreide certainly go back to the 3rd century and perhaps even to the 2nd. More or less extensive complexes are found at Melilli, Canicattini, Noto, Ispica, Agrigentum, Selinus, Marsala, Carini, Palermo, Termini Imerese, Catania, Lentini and elsewhere, all referable to the 4th-5th centuries.

With the 4th century the documentation becomes more abundant; the Sicilian Churches take an active part in the Donatist and Arian controversies; St. Athanasius repeatedly praises the orthodoxy of the bishops of the island (PG 25, 250, 558, 726; 26, 1030); St. Basil has epistolary relations with Sicily (ibid. 32, 754); Socrates (Hist. eccl., IV, 12) speaks of a council held in Sicily around 366 at which letters of communion were given to the Homoiousians who had already accepted the faith of Nicaea at Rome. At the beginning of the 5th century Pelagius and Caelestius took refuge on the island, spreading their errors there, which were refuted in a letter of St. Augustine (PL 33, 673); the bishop Paschasinus of Lilybaeum (v.) was a prisoner of the Vandals; and the popes Leo I and Gelasius I sought to remedy the ills caused by them also in religious life (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 414 ff., 636 ff.). At the beginning of the 6th century, the bishops of Sicily take part in the councils of Pope Symmachus; Fortunatus of Catania is sent by Pope Hormisdas as legate to Constantinople, Pope Vigilius proposes to the emperor Justinian to convoke in Sicily the council to settle the question of the Three Chapters. The epistolary of St. Gregory the Great is a precious source for the Sicilian churches between the end of that century and the beginning of the 7th century; in this period 10 bishoprics are known: Syracuse, Triocala, Agrigentum, Lilybaeum, Carini, Palermo, Tindari, Taormina, Catania, Lentini; the great Pontiff gave a powerful impulse to ecclesiastical life and himself saw to the erection of several monasteries. The fruits of this activity were soon seen, and between the 7th and 8th centuries no fewer than 5 Sicilians or men educated in Sicily ascended the papal throne.

The Byzantine government introduced its rite into the liturgy, and in 732 the emperor Leo the Isaurian, also confiscating the rich patrimony of the Roman Church, subjected to the jurisdiction of Constantinople the churches by S. There then followed a flourishing of Eastern monasteries that became a forge of studies and of holiness: Joseph, George and Theophanes the hymnographers, Peter and John the chroniclers, St. Gregory of Agrigento the exegete, kept the cultural level high on the island, while Sts. Methodius patriarch of Constantinople, Elias of Castrogiovanni, Leoluca of Corleone, Luke of Taormina, Vitalis of Castronovo, Athanasius of Catania, Simon of Syracuse, Christopher, Baba and Macarius adorned it with religious virtues. The Muslim occupation cut short that flourishing activity, of which very few traces survived until the Norman liberation.

Agostino Amore

III. NORMAN-SWABIAN-ARAGONESE PERIOD

The Norman conquest began in 1060, but the last to fall, in 1091, were the Muslim strongholds of Butera and Noto. With it, Sicily was spiritually reunited with Italy and with Europe. In fact, with Roger of Hauteville (1072-1101), the true executor of the enterprise begun under the command of his brother Robert Guiscard, came the first organization of the conquered lands and the beginning of that process of re-Latinization by which the island was reassimilated into the Western world. With him, too, began that long period of autonomous life that imparted to the island particular characteristics and that, with more or less lengthy interruptions, lasted until the Italian national unification. Roger, having broken every bond of subjection to the Duchy of Apulia, first waging war against his own brother Robert and, after the latter's death, siding with his son, Duke Roger I, energetically imposed upon everyone, including the very Normans who had helped him in the enterprise against the Muslims, his will and his authority, concerned with nothing else than blending and harmonizing, in the spirit of a higher exigency of the State, the different subject populations. Even in religious matters he wished to have free hands in reconstituting the ecclesiastical institutions that had gradually fallen into decay during the Muslim dominion, and he had Pope Urban II (1098) confer upon him those prerogatives that later led to that institution which was called the "Sicilian monarchy" (v.). He also greatly limited the rights and prerogatives of the counts and barons, whom he rewarded for the help given in the conquest of the island, reducing their office more than anything else to that of true and proper State officials.

With Roger II (1101-54), son of Roger I, who, having come of age in 1112, chiefly pursued an expansionist policy (reconquest of the Duchy of Apulia [1127] and of the principality of Capua), Sicily rose to a position of greater importance on the international stage, having become the center of a vast State that also included the Norman dominions of the mainland. The coronation of Roger as king of Sicily in the cathedral of Palermo (1130; his father had assumed only the title of grand count), preceded by no slight conflicts with Pope Honorius II, who had viewed unfavorably his installation in the peninsula, marks the height of his power. Indeed, the attempts at expansion also in the Balkans and in Africa (1146-48) were not favorably concluded. A vassal of the Church for the continental part but an independent sovereign in Sicily,

Roger II intended to make prevail in his relations with Rome the privileges granted by Urban II to his father, opposing every attempt on the part of the Pope to limit their exercise. Although no less authoritarian than his father, he was nevertheless not averse, in decisions of greater importance, to consulting the Curiae generales or solemnes, which, although not a true constitutional organ and representing the interests of the higher classes, composed as they were of barons and high prelates and, at times, also of notables of the cities and of the demanial lands, nevertheless had the task of assisting and, in a certain way, limiting the royal authority. During Roger's long reign, Sicily, extraneous to the baronial struggles of the mainland, enjoyed a relative tranquility and prosperity which, on the other hand, were lacking under his son William I (1154-66), because of the murky conflicts and the uprisings of the feudatories, decidedly hostile to the democratic direction imparted to the Kingdom by the minister Maio of Bari. Then Sicily also lost her independence, since William, in the agreements of 26 June 1156, declared himself "vassal" of the Church, not only for the dominions of the mainland but also for Sicily.

After the regency of his mother, the sagacious and prudent Queen Margaret, William II (1166-89) held the Kingdom, tranquil internally and strong externally because of the restored influence in Africa and the successes achieved in the East, but the marriage between Henry VI of Swabia, son of Barbarossa, and Constance, daughter of Roger II and heir to the crown of Sicily (1186), marking a success of the expansionist policy of the Swabians, opened a crisis in Sicily, in that the "national" party, jealous of the Kingdom's independence, opposed to the German Henry Tancred, count of Lecce, natural son of Roger. Hence the ferocious repressions by Henry as soon as he could set foot in Sicily, not without the help of the fleet of Pisa, Venice and Genoa, and the void created around him by the ever-growing hostility of the barons; Constance, however, having assumed after the sudden death of her husband (1197) the regency for her son, the future Frederick II, restored a certain tranquility, driving out the Germans who had made Henry's government hated, and, having summoned her son to her side, had him crowned king of Sicily (1198).

After her death, which occurred in that same year, Pope Innocent III, as high lord of the Kingdom, having in turn assumed the regency, assured Frederick II the sovereignty of it on the condition that it should not be united in the same person with the Kingdom of Germany. Having become of age in 1209, Frederick was soon led by internal dissensions to interfere in the affairs of that Kingdom to the point of becoming its sovereign, but his heart remained in Sicily, making it his preferred residence and completing in it that process of Latinization and of drawing closer to Italy and to Europe already begun by Roger I. Frederick, in fact, in his political action, aimed at consolidating his absolute power in the island, and his legislative work, wholly inspired by Roman law, is noteworthy, while he then opened his court to cultivators of every branch of knowledge, as Roger II had already done, and gave, with the "Sicilian poetic school," considerable impulse to the the rise of the new Italian literature. The opposition of the Italian communes and in particular the struggle against the Papacy crushed Frederick's ambitions, and after his death, Manfred, his natural son, was indeed able to assume the royal crown at Palermo in 1258 and to take on the role of defender of Ghibellinism in Italy; but his defeat at Benevento (1266), and the consequent triumph of Guelphism, brought about a new direction in the historical development of the Island; Charles of Anjou, crowned by the Pope as king of S., moved the center of the Kingdom to the mainland, transferring the capital from Palermo to Naples, with the natural resentment of the Sicilians, who bore such a diminution poorly. The Revolution of the Vespers (31 March 1282), to which the fiscal rigor to which the Island was subjected by the Angevin government contributed, among other things (the «mala signoria» of Dante, Par., VIII, 73), accentuated the detachment of S. from the mainland, which would keep it for many centuries almost outside of Italian destinies.

Peter III of Aragon, husband of Constance, daughter of Manfred, to whom the Sicilians themselves had offered the crown of S., occupied the Island, and the Treaty of Caltabellotta (1302) sanctioned that change of dynasty by recognizing Frederick, third-born son of Peter II of Aragon, with the title of king of Trinacria. In its new international position, S. thus gravitated no longer toward the peninsula, but toward Spain. The many attempts on the part of the Angevins of Naples to reconquer S., the consequent devastations and the long struggles among the most powerful Sicilian baronial families, brought about, among the populations, a strong spiritual depression that made the effects of the new isolation into which the Island had fallen more grievously felt. Nor did the reforms introduced by King Frederick himself (1295-1337) and by his successor Peter I (1337-42) serve to improve its conditions. Having become an appendage of the Kingdom of Aragon, S. soon also lost that shadow of independence that had still remained to it until 1409, when, that is, the two crowns of S. and of Aragon having been united in the same person of Martin II, it became nothing more than a simple viceroyalty closely bound to the crown of Aragon.

IV. THE VICEROYALTY

With the new order the long period of conflicts and struggles that had impoverished the island came to an end, but there also began a period of almost stagnation of spiritual and economic energies, which made easier the work of the various viceroys in binding the island ever more closely to Aragonese interests. Parliament itself, with its division into three branches — military, ecclesiastical and demanial — introduced in the time of Alfonso the Magnanimous (1416-1458) on the model of the Catalan and Aragonese "Cortes" and representing not the general interests of the country but those of the ruling classes, became a docile instrument in the hands of the monarchy, which used it to press the harder upon the island and to collect its tributes. Under Ferdinand the Catholic (1459-1515) the subordination of the interests of Sicily to those of Spain became even greater, and in order to strengthen royal absolutism the tribunal of the Holy Office was introduced into the island according to the Spanish system (1487), whose severities in Sicily did not have their justification, as in Spain, in local religious preoccupations. Action was also taken with relentless zeal against the Jews.

The conditions of the island did not improve when, under Charles V (1519-56), it became part of a vast empire that included, along with Italy, Spain and Germany. The viceroys who governed it were concerned above all else with ensuring its submission to Spanish power; thus keeping Sicily apart from the warlike competitions of the rest of Europe. Even the Lutheran Reformation had but few proselytes in the island, owing to the strong spiritual pressure exercised by the Holy Office upon Sicily; in compensation the Jesuits, introduced into the island in 1540, opened schools and colleges there, thus giving Sicily a school organization of which until then it had been deprived. There was no lack, however, of reforms in the administration, especially under Philip II (1556-68), tending above all to root out abuses or to curb high-handedness. Famous is the struggle of the viceroy Marco Antonio Colonna against the Holy Office in defense of viceregal authority, and that in defense of the prerogatives of the "Monarchia Sicula". With the successors of Philip II — Philip III (1598-1621), Philip IV (1621-65) and Charles II (1665-1700) — who witnessed powerless the decline of Spanish hegemony in Europe, Sicily had no fate different from the remaining Spanish dominions in Italy, where misery was general, in contrast with the arrogance and frivolity of the wealthier classes, always ready to obey the slightest signal from Madrid. There is no lack, however, of attempts at revolt for the reconquest of independence and, above all, as a reaction to that sad state of affairs, but they are rather isolated manifestations of economic hardship than the reflection of a clear social and political conscience: the expulsion of the viceroy Moncada in 1516, the revolt in Palermo led by Giuseppe d'Alessi in 1647, and the more complex one that broke out in Messina in 1674. There was no middle class to give vigor to those initiatives, in which only isolated figures of fervent "patriots" shone. The very guilds in which the artisan class had come to be organized, and which made the weight of their intervention felt in those revolts, had more a religious than an economic character, and served the ambitions of this or that consul more than the protection of the interests of their members.

The cession of the island to Victor Amadeus of Savoy (1713-20), its passing under Austrian rule (1720-35) and finally the conquest by Charles of Bourbon, to whom the Neapolitan territory was also assigned, did not bring about changes in its internal order, which continued to have in the traditional Parliament the semblance of its never-extinguished aspiration to independence. A political rapprochement of S. to the peninsula certainly came about as a result of these events; but the long separation had formed in S. a mentality rather resistant to any influence from the continent and had nourished a decidedly separatist spirit. Hence the support given by the island's feudal class to the viceroy Maffei against the papal bull of 20 Feb. 1714, which abolished the "Monarchia Sicula," regarded, no less than the Parliament, as a guarantee of independence; hence too the strong obstacle opposed by the island to the penetration of the European Enlightenment movement, against which the island's literature, marked by a religious spirit, served above all as a barrier. The very publicists and writers who flourished in large numbers in S. as well in the second half of the 18th century, and who, more open to the influences of the new thought, stirred up in the island too problems of a social and economic character, obeyed a traditional island spirit and did not have a deep resonance in the country. Nevertheless, during the government of Charles III of Bourbon (1735-59) and that of his son Ferdinand III (IV of Naples; 1759-1825), an awakening is noticeable, thanks above all to the reforming action of the viceroy Caracciolo, tending, in accordance with the spirit of enlightened absolutism, to overthrow privileges and to restore a greater authority of the King in the island. But by contrast the feudal caste entrenched itself behind the traditional prerogatives of the Parliament and the other Sicilian institutions and opposed the reformism of Caracciolo and that of his successor, the viceroy Caramanico, intending thereby precisely to defend the "liberty" and the "dignity" and the "rights" always enjoyed by S. Even the Jacobin attempt of Di Blasi, in 1794, when the French Revolution was at its height, has an entirely local coloring that reflects the dominant tendencies. In fomenting this conservative and particularistic spirit, no small influence was also exerted by the protection lent by England to the dynasty, which had taken refuge in the island during the struggle against Napoleon, by establishing a military base in the Mediterranean.

The Constitution of 1812 is marked by this spirit, by which the barons renounced all feudal rights, transforming their holdings into private possessions: without, however, thereby losing their real pre-eminence, so that the lower classes derived no effective advantage from that Constitution. After the restoration, reacting against the centralizing policy of the government of Naples, by which the Constitution of 1812 was abolished and the Parliament dissolved (1816), S. directed its efforts toward detaching itself from Naples, first attempting to restore the independence guaranteed by the Constitution of 1812 (revolution of 1820). On 12 Jan. 1848 the rebellion began in Palermo and spread to the whole island, proclaiming the Constitution of 1812 and convoking the Parliament on 25 March. But, the hoped-for protection of France and England having failed, Ferdinand II of Naples succeeded in retaking Messina in Sept. 1848 and in regaining the whole of S. on 11 May 1849. A little more than ten years later (11 June - 20 Aug. 1860) S., with Garibaldi's expedition, was taken from the Bourbon and politically united with Italy thanks to the plebiscite of 21 Oct. 1860. But even this time the autonomist spirit predominates even among the most determined supporters of unconditional annexation, because, as Michele Amari said, "after a struggle of 45 years with Naples, one could not have taken from S. this autonomy that it enjoyed under the yoke of the Bourbons," and, therefore, "S., an island of 2 million and more inhabitants, trained in half a century of disputes, in two or three revolutions, would have deserved exceptions, even if there were not the example of Tuscany, and the need to provide for other provinces like Lombardy and Naples."

V. SICILY IN THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY

Sicily was therefore the least prepared to submit to the administrative centralization immediately extended by the Italian government to all the regions that formed the new State. Moreover, Sicily, being almost devoid of public works and industries, owing to past neglect in this branch of activity, and with an economic structure based on the persistent latifundium, and consequently with a large agricultural and urban proletariat, was not in the best social and economic conditions to draw from the new political situation, as it had been brought about, all those advantages that could have assured it prosperity and well-being. Having come, within a short span of time, to live under the same laws with socially more advanced and economically richer regions, Sicily, more than any other region, had to suffer the inevitable hardship that followed national unification, which required burdens and sacrifices in order to consolidate itself, at a moment when the Island was in need of special solicitude. Hence the often violent explosions such as the revolt of 1866 in the province of Palermo, and those of 1893 in various parts of the Island, which, not understood in their true origins, were repressed by the government of the time in the harshest manner. The government was no more fortunate in religious matters either. The religious Orders were very numerous in Sicily: suffice it to recall that at the time of the dissolution of the religious Corporations, in 1866, there existed in Sicily 629 convents distributed across 212 municipalities and over 239 monasteries; the religious sentiment of the populations was deep, and great was the ascendancy that the numerous secular and regular clergy had over them. But the Italian government also did not a little to thwart that sentiment, or at least did not consider it at its true value, especially with regard to the question concerning ecclesiastical property, in relation to which it also acted with harsh and draconian measures, seeing in the resentment always manifested by the islanders, for the scant understanding with which it was treated, almost exclusively a clerical and Bourbon manifestation. Nevertheless, there was no lack of attempts on the part of the government to investigate and study the origins of the malaise from which the Island suffered and which also manifested itself in antisocial forms, such as brigandage and the mafia (famous among all, the Franchetti-Sonnino inquiry, in 1876), but such attempts, owing to a mentality often not free from prejudices, almost never hit the mark, and the remedies adopted were always inadequate.

Even in the Second World War, Sicily, in patriotic love and sacrifice, was inferior to no region of Italy. Having become, as a result of the Anglo-American landing, a theater of war (from July 1 to Aug. 17, 1943), it suffered considerable damage, both in the cities and in the countryside, with a consequent political, social and economic crisis. Hence the resurgence of a movement for the independence of the Island (M. I. S.), to which a clandestine military movement also sought to give support (Volunteer Army for Sicilian Independence: E.V.I.S.), but it did not have true resonance in the conscience of the people (the Constitution of 1812 was by then too distant in time, and the great stages of federalism and unity stood in between). It nevertheless served to put before the new rulers an already ancient problem, the social and economic problem of the Island, which neither the numerous inquiries of the liberal government nor the famous "assault on the latifundium" in the twenty years between the First and Second World Wars had managed to solve. The Statute (legislative decree of May 15, 1946) by which autonomy was recognized for Sicily, "within the political unity of the Italian State, on the basis of the democratic principles that inspire the life of the nation" (art. 1), is indeed inspired by the principle of guaranteeing to the Island the resolution of all those problems of internal life that in the postwar crisis have re-emerged even more urgently.

in S., Leipzig 1920; id., L'età degli Hohenstaufen in S., Italian trans., Catania 1932; R. Caggese, Roberto d'Angiò e i suoi tempi, Florence 1922-1930; G. M. Monti, Lo stato normanno-svevo, Naples 1934; R. Morghen, Il tramonto della potenza sveva in Italia, Rome 1936; V. Epifanio, Gli Angioini di Napoli e la S., Naples 1936; id., Riflessi di vita ital. e albori di fortuna angioina in S. alla metà del Trecento, in Arch. st. sicil., 1941, p. 121 ff.; A. Italia, La S. feudale, Rome 1940; C. A. Garufi, Per la stor. dei monast. di S. nel tempo normanno, in Arch. st. per la S. orient., 18 (1940), pp. 1-96; W. E. Heupel, Der sicil. Grosshof unter Kaiser Friedrich II., Leipzig 1940; E. Pontieri, Ricerche sulla crisi della monar. sicil. nel sec. XIII, Naples 1942; M. Scaduto, Il monaches. basiliano nella S. mediev., Rome 1947; A. De Stefano, L'idea imper. di Federico II, Bologna 1952. Viceroyalty: A. Brofferio, St. di S. sotto Vitt. Amedeo II, Rome 1797; V. Amico, St. di S. dal 1556 al 1750, ibid. 1856; S. Scrofani, Delle dominaz. degli stranieri in S., Palermo 1842; E. Laloy, La révolte de Messine, 3 vols., Paris 1929-31; C. Caristia, Per la storia del pensiero politico sicil. durante il sec. XVIII, in Arch. st. per la S. orient., 10 (1932), pp. 499-511; V. Titone, La S. spagnuola, Mazara 1948; H. Koenigsberger, The government of Sicily under Philip II of Spain, London 1951; M. Petrocchi, La rivoluz. cittadina messinese del 1674, Rome 1953. Bourbons: G. Catalano, I Borboni e la manomorta eccles. di S., in Il diritto ecl., 1848, pp. 198-213; M. Amari, La S. et les Bourbons, Paris 1849; M. Marino, La cacciata degli Austriaci dalla S., Palermo 1920; C. La Forte, Sul giacobinismo in S., in Arch. st. per la S., 8 (1942), pp. 282-368; E. Pontieri, Il tramonto del baronaggio sicil., Florence 1943; id., Il riformismo borbonico nella S. del Sette e dell'Ottocento, Palermo 1947; F. Brancato, Il Caracciolo ed il suo tentativo di riforme in S., ibid. 1946; V. Titone, Economia polit. nella S. del Sette e Ottocento, ibid. 1947. Sicily in the unity of Italy: M. Scalia, Mem. stor. sicil. della rivoluz. del 1848-49, ibid. 1932; F. Brancato, L'Assemblea sic. del 1848-49, Florence 1946; id., La S. nel movim. per l'unità d'Italia, Palermo 1947; R. Romeo, Il Risorgim. in S., Bari 1950; N. Cortese, La prima Rivoluz. separatista sicil. (1820-1821), Naples 1951. See also: L. Granone, Fattori e bisogni dell'econom. sicil., Girgenti 1917; E. La Loggia, Gli antecedenti dell'ordinam. autonomist. sic., in Mediterranea, Palermo 1950; R. Landolina, La difesa della S. da P. Ventura a L. Sturzo, Mazara 1951.

Francesco Brancato

VI. ARCHAEOLOGY

Besides its distinguished classical monuments, especially Greek ones, S. is rich in ancient me-

Christian memories and monuments. In the Jeronymian Martyrology Cilicia and Syria were often confused with Sicily, thus explaining the entry on October 11 "in acervo Siciliae" which must be corrected to "Anazarbo Ciliciae"; on July 21 one reads "in Silica Simeonis." The most venerated martyrs of Sicily were Lucy (v.) and Agatha (v.); both are in the Canon and represented in the series of martyrs in St. Martin in caelo aureo (today St. Apollinaris Nuovo) in Ravenna. In Catania St. Euplus was also venerated (BHG, n. 1410), commemorated in the Jeronymian on August 12, and on September 2 and 12; he is certainly alluded to together with St. Agatha in the inscription of Julia Florentina in the expression "pro foribus martyrum" (CIL, X, 7112). In Messina in the 6th century a basilica was dedicated to Sts. Stephen, Pancras and Euplus. The cult of Greek saints such as Theodore, George and Christopher was widespread in Sicily. In Taormina St. Pancras is venerated on April 3 and July 8 with a curious legend (BHG, 1410), while in the Jeronymian he is indicated on June 24 and in the Greek synaxaria on October 30 and 31 (Synax. Constantinop., p. 179).

For Lentini the Passio of the martyrs Alphius (v.), Philadelphus, Cyrinus and others (BHG, 57-62) is absolutely devoid of any foundation, as is that of St. Alphius (v.) at Lipari. Besides the ancient Christian monuments of Agrigento, Catania, Lipari, Messina, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo Acreide, Palermo, Ragusa, Syracuse, Taormina (for which see the respective entries), others are also counted in other localities. Thus at Salemi, the ancient Halicyae, a cemetery church was found with a mosaic pavement and tombs also with mosaic decoration (cf. B. Pace, La basilica di Salemi, in Monumenti antichi dei Lincei, Rome 1916). But three Christian inscriptions from Rome recall a "civis Alicensis" buried in 372 in the area of the cemetery of Callistus (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. Christ. Supplementum, Rome 1915, n. 1621); another epitaph of the year 407 also refers to a "civis Alicensis" (A. Silvagni, Inscr. christ. Nova series, ibid. 1922, n. 407); a Johannis Alicensis was buried in 496 in the Vatican Basilica (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. christ., I, ibid. 1857-61, n. 916); in the portico of the same Basilica one read the sepulchral poem of a "Helpis Siculae regionis alumnae" (ibid., II, Rome 1888, pp. 79, 6; 130, 14). At Lipari in the church of St. Joseph an inscription recalls the purchase of the tomb made by Elpiste and Irene, containing the dates of the years 409 and 470; while in the same place another inscription offers the date of 394 (Notizie degli scavi, 1929, pp. 84-85).

In the surroundings of Catania three Christian lamps in gilded bronze were found (P. Orsi, Bronzi cristiani di Catania, in N. Bull. di arch. crist., 8 (1902), pp. 146-49).

In the territory of Gela in the Zinghilino district ancient tombs were identified, later exploited by Christians; the same has been found near Butera and near Licata. At Grotta Murata on the mountains of S. Angelo Muxaro remains of an ancient eremitic community have been found.

In Rome in the "Coemeterium maius" the Greek sepulchral inscription of a Sicilian named Callistus was found (M. Armellini, Scoperta della cripta di S. Emerenziana, Rome 1877, p. 100). For the Christian sarcophagus in the cathedral of Palermo see Wilpert, Sarcofagi, II, pl. 239, 2, pp. 324, 352; III, pp. 20-22.

J. Fuhrer and V. Schultze, in the work Die altchristlichen Grabstätten Siziliens (Berlin 1907) have published the hypogea of Ferla (p. 172 ff.), Melilli (p. 174 ff.), Lentini (p. 178 ff.), Molinello (p. 181 ff.), Cassibile (p. 185 ff.), Spaccaforno-Rosolini (p. 190 ff.), Cava d'Ispica (p. 193 ff.), S. Croce Camerina (p. 195 ff.), Licodia Eubea (p. 197 ff.), Chiaramonte-Guelfi (p. 198 ff.), Granieri (p. 201 ff.), Cittadella (p. 202 ff.), Naro (p. 205 ff.), Termini Imerese (p. 218 ff.), Palermo (pp. 220-35), Carini (p. 236 ff.), Lilibeo-Marsala (vigna Spalla, p. 242; hypogeum beneath S. Francesco, p. 246; Grotta della Sibilla and hypogeum near the church of the Niccolini, pp. 246-53), Priolo (pp. 253-55).

Enrico Josi

VII. ART

1. Architecture

In S. there are few remains of Byzantine architecture. The two small churches at Vigna di Mare and Bagni di Mare near S. Croce Camerina and two churches, S. Nicolicchio and S. Micidiario at Sortino, are considered Byzantine small basilicas. Arab monuments are rare, for the most part destroyed or transformed by the Christian reconstruction in the Norman period, during which, however, building continued following Byzantine and Arab traditions with grafts of Romanesque and then Gothic taste. Examples of this survive, besides in the churches and monuments of Palermo (v.), in the Cathedral and the Annunziata dei Catalani at Messina; in the cathedrals of Monreale and Cefalù; in the church of the Trinità at Castelvetrano; in the abbey of S. Spirito at Caltanissetta and the Benedictine abbey at Bronte; in the apses of the cathedral at Catania and of the church of S. Pietro erected by the architect Girardo il Franco at Casalvecchio Siculo. The Swabian period is distinguished from the Norman by a more pronounced production of civil and military architecture: strongholds, defensive walls, castles such as the Palazzo dello Steri and the Palazzo Sclafani at Palermo; the Castelli Maniace, at Syracuse, and Ursino, built by Riccardo da Lentini at Catania; the Osterio at Cefalù; the Castle at Paternò and many others scattered at the strategic points of the island. Characteristic of this style are the famous portals and the broad windows of the upper floors often adorned with zig-zag friezes and with inlays of lava and pumice that contrast with the severe appearance of the whole. To this period belong the churches of S. Agostino and S. Francesco d'Assisi, of S. Giovanni di Bajda at Palermo, of S. Agostino at Trapani, the Matrice at Enna, of S. Maria at Randazzo, the monastery of S. Spirito at Agrigento, the Badiazza at the foot of the hill of S. Spirito, S. Maria degli Alemanni and S. Francesco d'Assisi at Messina. Examples of late Chiaramonte architecture with the addition of Catalan elements are the two Taormina buildings of the Badia Vecchia and the Palazzo S. Stefano, already from the early fifteenth century, when Tuscan and especially Catalan influences prevail. In this century stands out the figure of the architect Matteo Carnelivari da Noto, who worked much at Palermo and at Messina where, unfortunately, very little survived the earthquake of 1908.

From this era, moreover, are remembered the Palazzi Corvaia and Ciampoli at Taormina, the casa Finocchiaro at Randazzo, the Palazzi Lanza, Montalto, Bellomo at Syracuse, S. Giorgio and the bell tower of the Cathedral at Agrigento, the bell tower and the portico of the Cathedral at Erice.

The sixteenth century presents at Palermo, besides some churches of very interesting structure, the archiepiscopal palace by the architect Di Fazio (1583). Baroque architecture is richer and has characteristics of its own for having remained more adherent to classical sobriety and composure in its schemes, reserving its whimsy for ornamentation. Palermo preserves the most notable seventeenth-century monuments, the churches of G. Amico, P. Amato, Angelo Italia, Andrea Giganti and G. Amato, and numerous palaces and villas. At Trapani the church of the Collegio dei Gesuiti and the convent of the Carmelites are notable. At Catania, destroyed by the earthquake of 1699, little of the seventeenth century is found; the city was rebuilt in the eighteenth century by the architect Vaccarini, of whom are remembered the façade of the Cathedral, the Almo Studio, the Palazzo senatorio and the churches of S. Giuliano and S. Agata. Noto too suffered the same fate, but today it appears as a splendid amphitheater of eighteenth-century churches and palaces due in large part to Pompeo Picherali, also the author of the façade of the cathedral of Syracuse. Here the Palazzi Beneventano and Del Bosco are also noted. Of the architect Marvuglia is remembered the convent of S. Martino alle Scale (1770) near Monreale.

2. Sculpture

Although in the small church of S. Sebastiano at Syracuse there are Byzantine sculptures adapted to the portal, the testimonies of a Byzantine and Arab sculpture in S. are very rare. To the Norman era belong the beautiful capitals of the churches of that age, the others of the cloisters of Cefalù and Monreale, the latter works of marble-workers from various regions, while the bronze doors of Monreale are by Bonanno Pisano and Barisano da Trani.

The portal of the S. Carcere at Catania recalls, instead, Burgundian art, while the candelabrum and the sculptures of the pulpit of the Palatina at Palermo are attributed to Neo-Hellenistic Campanian art. In the Swabian period too, clearly, sculpture reveals itself as essentially decorative. Thus the capitals of the cloister of S. Giovanni degli Eremiti and the overdoor of the Palazzo Sclafani at Palermo. The fifteenth century presents itself, instead, as particularly rich in plastic works since artists arrive in the island from northern Italy such as Domenico Gagini da Bissone (v.) and Francesco Laurana (v.). From the fifteenth century are also remembered the sepulchral monument of the viceroy d'Acuna in the cathedral of Catania, by Antonello Freri, and that of bishop Belloro in the cathedral of Messina, by G. B. Mazzola. In the sixteenth century the art of Antonello Gagini (v.) stands out, who worked much also on ornaments of tribunes and funerary monuments; other known sculptors of this era were Giuliano Mancino, Bartolomeo Berrettaro who worked at Palermo, Alcamo, Termini and Erice. Ferraro da Giuliana who adorned with stuccoes the mother church of Castelvetrano. Toward the end of the sixteenth century there arrive at Messina, again from northern Italy, some followers of Michelangelo such as Montorsoli, who was the author of the fountains of Orion and of Neptune at Messina, and Andrea Calamec, author of the monument to d. Giovanni D'Austria. Of Michelangelo Nacherini a beautiful Madonna with child is preserved at Castroreale. Of the seventeenth century are notable the monument to Charles V by Scipione Li Volsi at Palermo and the S. Benedetto in gloria by I. Marabitti at Monreale. The sculptures of choirs and wooden stalls of the seventeenth century are due in S. for the most part to Vigo La Pica da Trapani or to Ferraro da Giuliana. Fra Umile Pintorno da Petralia dedicated himself, instead, to the carving of famous crucifixes. The art of stucco, which has its beginnings in the seventeenth century, develops in the eighteenth century with Giacomo Serpotta (v.) and his followers in a marvelous way.

3. Painting

Examples of Byzantine painting are found at Lentini in the Grotta del Crocifisso and in the Grotta di S. Lucia; at Syracuse in the oratory of S. Lucia and in the catacombs of S. Giovanni; and traces in the necropolis of Pantalica. Nothing noteworthy remains of Arab painting, whereas in the Norman period there are the splendid mosaics of the cathedrals of Cefalù (1148) and Monreale and of the churches and the Royal Palace of Palermo, with reflections of Byzantine art and Arab reminiscences. Of the painting of the Swabian period scanty traces remain. Important in any case for following the current of local art is the painted decoration of the beams in the ceilings of the cathedrals of Cefalù and Syracuse, of the Palazzo Bellomo in Syracuse, of S. Agostino in Trapani (now in the Museum), which connect back to the decorations of the Steri in Palermo, due to the Sicilian artists Cecco di Naro, Simone da Corleone, etc. In the fifteenth century painting shows various tendencies in Sicily: Flemish and Catalan, but one can note, among other things, a vein of local art connected with the various currents of Mediterranean art through the painters Riccardo Quartararo, Tommaso de Vigilia, Pietro Ruzzolone, of whom the cross painted on both sides of the Matrice of Termini Imerese is remembered. Standing apart from the others, the work of Antonello da Messina (v.) and of his followers, among whom Pietro de Saliba, then withdraws. From the sixteenth century are to be remembered the names of Vincenzo degli Azani (paintings in the Museum of Palermo), of Alibrandi and of Polidoro da Caravaggio (paintings in the Museum of Messina), of Bernardino Niger (paintings in the church of the S. Carcere of Catania). Only in the seventeenth century does pictorial art in the Island rise again, with Caravaggio, Rodriguez and Pietro Novelli (v.). There follow painters of lesser importance, such as the portraitist Antonio Alberti, Quagliata and Agostino Scilla, who worked a great deal in Messina, and finally Mattia Stomer who, with the Adoration of the Shepherds of the town hall of Monreale, still shows an example of the influence of Flemish art in Sicily. Among the eighteenth-century decorators, for the most part tributary to Campanian art, one may recall Olivio Sozzi and Vito d'Anna, certainly the best of them all.

Maria Pia Cosentino

VIII. CONCILIAR REGION

Ecclesiastically, Sicily is divided into 14 dioceses (Acireale, Lipari, Nicosia, Patti, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Cefalù, Mazara del Vallo, Trapani, Caltagirone, Noto, Piazza Armerina, Ragusa), 5 archdioceses (Catania, Messina, Monreale, Palermo, Siracusa), and one prelature nullius (S. Lucia del Mela). It includes one diocese for the Italo-Albanians (Piana degli Albanesi) and the archimandrite of the Most Holy Savior.

With the exception of Catania, Acireale, Piana degli Albanesi and the prelature nullius of S. Lucia del Mela, which are immediately subject to the Holy See, the others are constituted into provinces. Catania is the only archbishopric that is not metropolitan. Messina is a metropolitan see with three suffragan dioceses: Lipari, Nicosia, Patti; Monreale is metropolitan for the dioceses of Agrigento and Caltanissetta; Palermo is metropolitan for the dioceses of Cefalù, Mazara del Vallo and Trapani, and has long been a cardinalitial see. Siracusa is a metropolitan see for the dioceses of Caltagirone, Noto, Piazza Armerina and Ragusa, the last of which was erected as a diocese on 6 May 1950 and is united aeque principaliter to Siracusa.

The whole of all the dioceses and archdioceses listed constitutes the Sicilian conciliar region. Already the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, with the circular dated 24 Aug. 1889, sanctioning the use of episcopal conferences, introduced as early as 1849 in several regions of Italy, had established its territorial limits, adhering to the known divisions of Italy. The Sacred Consistorial Congregation, with the decree dated 15 Febr. 1919 (AAS, 11 [1919], pp. 72-74) and with the circular letter of 22 March of the same year, reconfirmed what had been previously established and gave the list of the conciliar regions of Italy, fixing for Sicily the above.

With the motu proprio Qua cura of Pius XI, dated 8 Dec. 1938, concerning the constitution of ecclesiastical tribunals for the handling of matrimonial cases in Italy, it was established that throughout the entire Sicilian conciliar region cases of matrimonial nullity must be handled in the first instance before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Palermo, and in the second instance before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Naples (AAS, 30 [1938], p. 410 ff.; cf. Normae pro exequendis litteris apostolicis "Qua cura", of the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, dated 10 July 1940, AAS, 32 [1940], p. 304).

Vincenzo Fagiolo

IX. FOLKLORE

Of the very rich folkloric material offered by S., it is worth attempting to identify, in order to characterize the region, what is typical of the island and what is common to other areas, bearing in mind that the insularity of the forms of popular tradition in S. does not present itself as accentuated as in Sardinia and Corsica, lateral areas little exposed to communications, because, besides being more closely joined to the rest of Italy and open to the different currents of civilization of the Mediterranean basin,

S. was itself a center of creation and of irradiation, in the rest of Italy, of the manifestations of popular life.

However, there are in S. characteristic folkloric elements, recognizable mainly in the costumes and in the products of rural craftsmanship. Of the present-day female dress, also in the Sicilian-Albanian and Lombard colonies, characteristic is the ample mantle, white and red, adorned with gold and silver ribbons, which covers the head and the bust, descending to the waist and in some places (Ragusa) to the feet: such a mantle, called at Augusta cappottone and elsewhere camagghio-miserii, constitutes the distinctive ornament of betrothed women and brides, (common, in its essential line, to other Mediterranean countries), and ammontorsi* has the value of a rite that marks the passage from one state to another. Betrothed women are also recognized by a ribbon that the future mother-in-law weaves into their hair. Very picturesque is the nuptial costume of Cesarò, in the province of Messina: a bodice of green damask, a little velvet jacket with silver buttons and a heavy pleated skirt (in the Mu-

ethnographic museum in Palermo, an example weighing nine kilograms is preserved). The festive costumes of the women in the Albanian colonies of Palazzo Adriano and Piana dei Greci are sumptuous in color and embroidery. The Sicilian male costume is characterized by the cloth cap, brown for peasants, blue for fishermen, sometimes very long, folded over the right shoulder, and a wide sash, blue or green, which at S. Fratello has at its center a yellow copper plate engraved with figures of the Madonna or the Crucifix. Rural ornament generally has an illustrative character, with themes drawn mostly from the lives of the saints, from history and from epic legends. Among the household objects worked with the point of a knife by the Sicilian peasant, distaffs and wooden spoons stand out for their ornamentation, as do busk stays offered as gifts to fiancées as tokens of love (a very beautiful one, from S. Pietro Patti, in three colors, green, red and black, preserved in the Pitrè Museum) and spinning wheels, especially those made in the Lombard colonies: on one from S. Fratello are depicted, in two superimposed groups, a man and a woman dancing the tarantella and two wandering musicians. Scenes of peasant life and figures of saints are the most frequent engravings that adorn the friscaletto or farantù, a cane whistle, the typical musical instrument of shepherds. Chivalric scenes are almost always reproduced on the sides of the carts, which differ from those of Romagna, though these too are painted, in the motifs of their decoration (the only common figurative element is the image of St. George killing the dragon), as well as in the technical peculiarities of their construction. The cart thus becomes itself a mobile instrument for the survival and diffusion of the chivalric epic, which the untutored painter-figurist learns orally from the puppet theater and from the storytellers, whose preferred repertoire is the cycle of Charlemagne with the marvelous deeds of the paladins of France, Orlando and Rinaldo.

During Holy Week the opra di pupi instead represents the Passion of Christ. Indeed, the tradition of sacred representations during Holy Week is alive in Sicily, as are the religious stories that «the poor of the city - writes Pitrè - sing at nightfall of each day along the streets or before the houses of those devout persons who are accustomed to give them a few coins as alms». Probably modeled on earlier Tuscan models and diffused well beyond the confines of the island, these sacred narrative poems, of moralizing content, in octaves now epic (ab ab ab cc) now Sicilian (ab), with rhymes almost always miracati (chained), present their own stylistic physiognomy and a marked regional character: the Passions I and II are highly original (Toschi, op. cit. in bibl.), which Deca Niculaci perhaps had in mind when he composed his own. But the largest group of Sicilian religious stories that we possess dates back to the 16th century and later: composed by poets of the people (among whom the names of Fullone and Pavone are remembered), or improvised by plebeian poets, during contests on the occasion of the feast of some saint. On details and names, Vigo, speaking of the feast of St. John in Palermo on June 24, 1862: «There were five to six thousand spectators: at the stroke of midnight the Saint came out into the square, was placed on the bier, and five poets climbed up: Antonio Russo, six years old, guided by his father Salvatore, a blacksmith; Giovanni Pagano, farmer; Andrea Pappalardo, shoemaker, and Salvatore from Misterbianco, farmer. One by one they poetized, celebrating the life and miracles of the Saint, recalling the obligations of godfathers toward their godchildren, of cronies toward their cronies..., and then they came to compete among themselves: all used the octave, except Pappalardo, who used the sestina with the last verses in rhymed couplets: no one left the field, all equally happy and imaginative improvisers».

Also in the lyric-narrative canzuni, brief compositions on a sacred subject in lyric meter and narrative content, which the people call 'razinueddi to distinguish them from the stories (also called 'razinui), one must recognize their long origin in Sicily, where they reach their greatest intensity and diffusion. Such compositions, which treat solely the cycle of the Holy Family and are used as cradle songs, connect with lullabies, which in Sicily are generally indicated by the term va' (probably an abbreviation of voga) and many of which, of rare beauty, succeed in expressing singular nuances of affectivity through the use of the diminutives preferred in -eddu (-iddu) and -uzzu. A notable archaic element is the suspended cradle, designated by the term naca (vāz) which, as results from the investigation carried out by Rohlfs, occupies a vast area in Sicily, but also includes much of southern Italy.

Of island creation, in content and style, are the strambotti in Sicilian octave: even if Sicily is not to be considered, as D'Ancona wanted, the birthplace of the strambotto, it was certainly, from the 15th century on, a center of irradiation, and strambotti of sure Sicilian workmanship have been found among the papers of Boiardo.

Also the novellas and legends, generically called canti (tales), are a clear mirror of the Sicilian soul, and the repertoire, common to the puppet theater, is connected with chivalric traditions and reflects various epochs in its deeds and characters, such as the Arab Mamuka, the Norman count Roger, Frederick II of Swabia, the Sicilian Vespers, down to the Bourbons and Garibaldi. Typically Sicilian, for the feelings expressed in it, is the legend of the Baroness of Carini.

Among the customs that mark the cycle of human life, for the most part common to other regions of the peninsula and to other countries, characteristic is that, now vanished, of shaving the bride's eyebrows before the wedding; a singular variety of the funeral meal (cunsulo or cunsulatu) is reported by Pitrè at Gioiosa Marea, where a donkey, laden with food, follows the funeral procession, and immediately after the burial the meal is consumed among the relatives, on the ground or in a house near the cemetery.

The Sicilian patronal feasts present a particularly scenic character: it suffices to recall that of St. Rosalia in Palermo and of St. Agatha in Catania. Traditional to the Sicilian carnival is the mask of Nannu, a puppet and sometimes a living person representing Carnival, who in some towns, as at Licata, is accompanied by a woman, Nanna, who carries a small child in her arms; in the inland towns, Nannu is carried on a donkey and, before dying, makes his will in the presence of the notary represented by another puppet: «Lassu a li dotti li testi cunfusi/ 'Ntra tanti libri e 'ntra tanti scrittura'; Lassu a l'avvucati li aussi persi/ E a li duttura ci lassu la cura; - etc. Variously transformed, the old dances survive: the chiouu, the tarascani, the ruggera, the fasola, the tubiana, the capona. Still in use is also the contradance which, although deriving directly from the French contredanse, assumes particular forms in Sicily. Of the difficult games, it is possible to identify, as Pitrè himself noted, the characteristic Sicilian types: most of them, like that of the campana and of the ambasciatore, are diffused over a vast area in Europe.

The numerous and very beautiful ex-voto preserved in the Pitrè Museum (the oldest date from the 17th century) and those that are still offered today in the church of St. Calogerus in Agrigento and in the grotto of St. Rosalia in Palermo relate to religious life. While the cult of the "beheaded bodies" (executed and drowned persons) must be referred to the magical world. It is a practice known also in France under the name of enclavement; to it corresponds the binding of the wolf and the fox, attributed to the evil eye, against which special formulas of exorcism must be repeated three times, each time tying a knot on a small cord.

The popular architecture of the mountain villages generally proves more closely tied to tradition. Among buildings of a primitive character, the circular form of the hut (pagghiaru) prevails, which perhaps conceals an original magical-symbolic meaning, and it is also common to stone constructions, such as the Apulian trulli and the Sardinian nuraghi. - See plates XXX-XXXIII.