SICILIA

SICILY. — By size (25,461 sq. km.), by population (4 million), and by economic importance, the principal island of the Mediterranean, where 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 Sicily continues that of the Apennines and reproduces its characteristics (the Peloritani, Nebrodì and Madonie ranges respectively recall the Aspromonte, the northern Apennines and the central Apennines), even in the presence of a broad Anti-Apennine (Etna and the Iblei) on the eastern side of the island. To this configuration are attached the internal plateaus where the terrains of the gessoso-solfifera series appear, while to the west the relief consists of isolated massifs which find their natural continuation in the Egadi Islands. Overall, the average elevation of the island is barely 410 m., and the area above 1,000 m. represents only 6% of II. The climate, of a subtropical type, is noted for the mildness of winter temperatures, the clearness of the sky and the absence or rarity of snow even in the inland regions. Yet the landscape presents a sharp contrast between these latter and the coastal fringe: in the inland districts, poor or indeed devoid of trees, reduced in the hot season to patches of parched steppe, extensive cereal cultivation prevails to a great extent, resting on large estates, whereas in the coastal plains, where water is more abundant and better distributed, small and medium-sized holdings are widespread, and rich tree crops dominate, with olives, vines, fruit trees (especially almonds and hazelnuts) and the typical citrus cultivation, in whose production Sicily surpasses all other Italian regions taken together. Livestock-raising (cattle and pack animals) and forestry (woodlands are reduced to little more than 3% of the territorial surface) are, in comparison with agriculture, of minor importance; profits, however, are not negligible.

In the early democratic life of the Greek colonies, tyranny soon succeeded, becoming common in the 5th century, and several cities, such as Gela, Agrigento, and especially Syracuse, owed their importance to II. The continuous struggle between the Carthaginians and the indigenous peoples led to Roman intervention, begun in 263 B.C. with the occupation of Messana and concluded in 210 with the fall of Agrigento. 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 imperial reorganization by Augustus, Sicily became a senatorial province, governed by a proconsul and two quaestors, and under Diocletian it was part of the Prefecture of Italy, headed by a *consularis*.

In 440, the Vandals of Gaiseric, rulers of Africa, occupied Lilybaeum and Palermo, unleashing a fierce persecution against Catholics; they returned in 455 and in 468 were repulsed by Ricimer and Marcellinus, until in 476 the island passed under the rule of Odoacer and in 491 under that of Theodoric. Sicily then enjoyed a brief period of prosperity. In 535, claiming the promontory of Lilybaeum, which had been given as a dowry to Amalfrida, sister of Theodoric, married to Trasamund, king of the Vandals, Belisarius landed at Catania and began the conquest of the island, which passed under Byzantine rule, and from 663 Constant II made it his residence until his death (668). The assassination of Constant gave rise to a military revolt led by Mezzius, soon suppressed, followed by those of Sergius (718) and Elpidius (780). Meanwhile, from the mid-7th century, Arab raids had begun, intensifying in the 8th century: no fewer than 12 times in that century the Muslims plundered Sicily, committing massacres and carrying off booty. In 827, invited by Euphemius, they landed at Mazara and began their 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 abandoned their claim to rule Sicily, but in their various attempts at reconquest they were always defeated and repulsed.

Under Muslim rule, the island was governed by an emirate based in Palermo; living conditions were decent despite the heavy taxes imposed on the people, which seemed more tolerable compared to Byzantine rule. There were good fruits in culture and art, and especially in agriculture, which did not correspond to the development of religious and civil life.

2. *Religious history.* — There are no contemporary or reliable documents on the early spread of Christianity in Sicily; however, its privileged position, at the center of the communication routes between Rome and the East, suggests that it must have occurred quite soon. During his journey to Rome, St Paul stopped as a prisoner for three days in Syracuse in the spring of 61 (Acts 28:12), too short a time to engage in apostolic work there. Then, for two centuries, there are no certain records. The traditions regarding the apostolic origins of some churches on the island are legendary, just as false is the report in the *Praedestinatus* of a supposed Sicilian council in the 2nd century (PL 53, 592), and apocryphal are the letters of popes Zephyrinus and Eutychian to the bishops of Sicily (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 80, 146).

In the 3rd century, however, there were several bishoprics in Sicily, founded and organized by Rome, as appears from the letter that the clergy of this city sent to St Cyprian in 251 concerning the issue 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 (q.v.) of Catania and Lucy (q.v.) of Syracuse was very popular even in Rome and then throughout the West. Good hagiographical information is available on St Euplus (q.v.), the martyr of Catania.

If literary documentation is scarce, archaeological monuments scattered throughout the island, but concentrated in the south-eastern region, somewhat make up for it; the underground cemeteries of Syracuse (q.v.) and Palazzolo Acreide certainly date back to the 3rd century and perhaps even to the 2nd. More or less extensive complexes are found at Melilli, Canicattini, Noto, Ispica, Agrigento, Selinunte, Marsala, Carini, Palermo, Termini Imerese, Catania, Lentini and elsewhere, all dating from the 4th–5th centuries.

In the 4th century the documentation becomes more abundant; the Sicilian Churches actively participate 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 in which letters of communion were given to the Homoiousians who had already accepted the Nicene faith in Rome. At the beginning of the 5th century Pelagius and Caelestius took refuge in the Island spreading their errors which were refuted in a letter by St. Augustine (PL 33, 673); the bishop Pascasinus of Lilybaeum (q.v.) was taken prisoner by the Vandals; and to the evils caused by them even in religious life the popes Leo I and Gelasius I sought to remedy (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 414 ff., 636 ff.). At the beginning of the 6th century, the bishops of Sicily participate 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 convene a Council in Sicily to settle the question of the Three Chapters. The correspondence 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; in this period the following bishoprics are known: Syracuse, Tyrocala, Agrigento, Lilybaeum, Carini, Palermo, Tindari, Taormina, Catania, Lentini; the great Pontiff gave a powerful impulse to ecclesiastical life and he himself took care of 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 to the papal throne.

The Byzantine government introduced its rite into the liturgy and in 732 Emperor Leo the Isaurian, also confiscating the ample patrimony of the Roman Church, subjected the churches to the jurisdiction of Constantinople.

by S.

There then flourished a flowering of Eastern monasteries which became centers of study and holiness: Joseph, George and Theophanes the Confessors, Peter and John the chroniclers. St. Gregory of Agrigento, while maintaining a high cultural level on the island, was joined by Sts. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople, Elias of Castrogiovanni, Leoluca of Corleone, Luke of Taormina, Vitalis of Castronovo, Athanasius of Catania, Simon of Syracuse, Christopher, Saba and Macarius, who illustrated it with their religious virtues. The Muslim occupation put an end to that flourishing activity, of which, after the Norman liberation, very few traces survived.

SICILY - Fresco, of Christian origin according to some scholars, imitating marble inlays, in the Grotta della Sibilla (3rd century). Watercolor by Salinas - Marsala.

period of autonomous life that impressed upon the Island distinctive features, and which, with more or less long interruptions, lasted until the unification of Italy. Roger, severing every tie of subjection to the Duchy of Apulia, first by waging war against his own brother Robert and, after the latter's death, by siding with the son of Iulius, Duke Roger I, firmly imposed his will and authority upon all, even upon the Normans who had aided him in the campaign against the Muslims. Concerned solely with amalgamating and harmonizing, in the spirit of a higher state exigency, the different subject populations. In religious matters too, he wished to have a free hand in reorganizing ecclesiastical institutions, which had gradually lapsed during Muslim rule, and he obtained from Pope Urban II (1098) those prerogatives that later led to the institution known as the "Sicilian monarchy" (q.v.). He also greatly curtailed the rights and prerogatives of the counts and barons, whom he had rewarded for their aid in the conquest of the Island, reducing their office more than anything else to that of true state officials.

With Roger II (1101–54), son of Roger I, who, having come of age in 1112, pursued a chiefly expansionist policy (reconquest of the Duchy of Apulia [1127] and the principality of Capua), Sicily attained a position of greater importance on the international stage, having become the centre of a vast state that also included the Norman domains on the mainland. The coronation of Roger as King of Sicily in Palermo cathedral (1130; his father had borne only the title of Grand Count), preceded by no slight disputes with Pope Honorius II, who viewed with disfavour his installation on the peninsula, marks the zenith of his power. Indeed, his attempts at expansion into the Balkans and Africa (1146–48) met with no favourable outcome. A vassal of the Church for the continental portion but an independent sovereign in Sicily, Roger II sought to uphold, in his dealings with Rome, the privileges granted by Urban II to his father, resisting any attempt by the Pope to curtail their exercise. Though no less authoritarian than his father, he was not averse, in matters of greatest importance, to consulting the *Cruiae generales o solemnes*, which, though not a true constitutional body and representing the interests of the higher classes—comprising barons and high prelates and, at times, also notables of the cities and demesne lands—nevertheless served to assist and, in a certain sense, to limit royal authority. During the long reign of Roger, Sicily, untouched by the baronial struggles on the mainland, enjoyed a measure of tranquillity and prosperity that were to elude it under his son William I (1154–66), amid the murky conflicts and revolts of the feudal lords, who were decidedly hostile to the democratic direction imparted to the kingdom by the minister Maio of Bari. At that time Sicily also lost its independence, William having, in the agreements of 26 June 1156, declared himself ‘vassal’ of the Church, not only for the mainland domains but also for Sicily.

After the regency of his sagacious and prudent mother, Queen Margaret, William II (1166–89) ruled the Kingdom, tranquil within and strong externally due to restored influence in Africa and successes in the East. However, the marriage between Henry VI of Swabia, son of Barbarossa, and Constance, daughter of Roger II and heir to the crown of Sicily (1186), marked a triumph for Swabian expansionist policy and opened a crisis in Sicily. The “national” party, jealous of the Kingdom’s independence, opposed the German Henry by backing Tancred, Count of Lecce, a natural son of Roger. Hence the fierce repressions Henry unleashed once he set foot in Sicily, not without the aid of the fleets of Pisa, Venice, and Genoa, and the growing hostility of the barons left him isolated. Constance, however, after her impoverished husband’s death (1197), assumed the regency for their son, the future Frederick II, restored a measure of tranquility by expelling the Germans who had made Henry’s rule odious, and summoned her son to crown him King of Sicily (1198).

After her death the same year, Pope Innocent III, as another lord of the Kingdom, likewise assumed the regency and secured Frederick II’s sovereignty on the condition that it not be united in the same person with the Kingdom of Germany. Upon reaching his majority in 1209, Frederick was soon drawn into the Kingdom’s internal strife and became its sovereign, yet his heart remained in Sicily, which he made his preferred residence and where he completed the process of Latinization and rapprochement with Italy and Europe begun by Roger I. In his political action, Frederick aimed to consolidate his absolute power in the Island, and his legislative work, entirely inspired by Roman law, is notable. He then opened his court to scholars of every branch of knowledge, as Roger II had done, and gave decisive impetus to the Sicilian School of Poetry.
SICILY - Fresco with two peacocks facing each other on the front wall of the tomb of Marcia, in the Catacomb of San Callistus (mid-4th century). Watercolor by G. Discanno. Syracuse.
SICILY - Apse of the cathedral of Monreale (12th cent.).

The opposition of the Italian communes and, in particular, the struggle against the Papacy frustrated Frederick’s ambitions, and after his death his natural son Manfredi was able to have himself crowned king at Palermo in 1258 and to assume the role of defender of Ghibellinism in Italy; but his defeat at Benevento (1266) and the consequent triumph of Guelfism brought about a new turn in the historical process of the Island. Charles of Anjou, crowned by the Pope as king of Sicily, shifted the centre of the Kingdom to the mainland, transferring the capital from Palermo to Naples, to the natural resentment of the Sicilians, who could ill bear such a diminution. The Revolution of the Vespers (31 March 1282), to which the fiscal rigour imposed on the Island by the Angevin government (the “mala signoria” of Dante, Par. VIII, 73) contributed, accentuated Sicily’s detachment from the mainland, which would keep it for many centuries almost outside Italian affairs.

The Island was occupied by Peter III of Aragon, husband of Constance, daughter of Manfredi, to whom the Sicilians themselves had offered the crown of Sicily; and the Treaty of Caltabellotta (1302) sanctioned this change of dynasty by recognising Frederick, third son of Peter II of Aragon, as king of Trinacria. Sicily, in its new international position, thus gravitated no longer towards the peninsula but towards Spain. The manifold attempts by the Angevins of Naples to reconquer Sicily, the consequent devastations and the long struggles between the most powerful Sicilian baronial families produced in the population a deep spiritual depression that made the effects of the new isolation in which the Island found itself all the more keenly felt. Nor did the reforms introduced by King Frederick himself (1295–1337) and by his successor Peter I (1337–42) serve to improve conditions. Having become an appendage of the Kingdom of Aragon, Sicily soon lost even that shadow of independence that had still remained to it until 1409, when the two crowns of Sicily and Aragon were united in the person of Martin II, after which it became a mere viceroyalty closely tied to the Aragonese crown.

IV. THE VICEROYALTY

With the new order, the long period of conflicts and struggles that had impoverished the Island came to an end, but a period of almost stagnant spiritual and economic energies also ensued, which made it easier for the various viceroys to bind the island ever more closely to Aragonese interests. The very Parliament, with its division into the three estates—military, ecclesiastical, and demesne—introduced in the time of Alfonso the Magnanimous (1416–1458) in imitation of the Catalan and Aragonese *Cortes* and representing not the general interests of the country but those of the dominant classes, became a docile instrument in the hands of the monarchy, which used it to better press upon the Island and collect taxes. With Ferdinand the Catholic (1459–1515), the subordination of Sicilian interests to those of Spain became even more pronounced, and to strengthen royal absolutism, the tribunal of the Holy Office was introduced into the Island according to the Spanish model (1487), whose harsh measures in Sicily were not justified, as in Spain, by local religious concerns. Even against the Jews, harsh measures were taken.

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 with ensuring its submission to Spanish power, thus keeping Sicily apart from the military competitions of the rest of Europe. Even the Lutheran Reformation found only rare adherents on the Island, due to the strong spiritual pressure exerted by the Holy Office; in compensation, the Jesuits, introduced into the Island in 1540, opened schools and colleges there, thus providing Sicily with a school organization of which it had hitherto been deprived. There were, however, reforms in administration, especially under Philip II (1556–98), aimed chiefly at eradicating abuses or curbing pretensions. Notable was 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 "Sicilian Monarchy." With the successors of Philip II—Philip III (1598–1621), Philip IV (1621–65), and Charles II (1665–1700)—who witnessed helplessly the decline of Spanish hegemony in Europe, Sicily fared no differently from the other Spanish dominions in Italy, where general poverty contrasted with the luxury and frivolity of the wealthier classes, always ready to obey the dictates of Madrid. There were, however, attempts at revolt for the reconquest of independence and, above all, in reaction to this wretched state of affairs, though these were rather isolated manifestations of economic distress than reflections of a clear social and political consciousness: the expulsion of Viceroy Moncada in 1516, the revolt in Palermo led by Giuseppe d'Alessi in 1647, and the more complex uprising that broke out in
SICILY - Kiosk of the church of S. Giovanni degli Eremiti (13th century). Palermo.
SICILY - Façade of the church of St Nicholas (13th century). Agrigento.

Messina in 1674. There was lacking a middle class capable of devoting itself to those initiatives in which only isolated figures of fervent patriots took part. The same guilds in which the artisans had organised themselves, and which in those revolts made the weight of the proprietor felt, had more of a religious character than an economic one, and served more the ambitions of this or that consul than the protection of the interests of the members.

The cession of the Island to Victor Amadeus of Savoy (1713–20), its passage under Austrian rule (1720–35), and finally the conquest by Charles of Bourbon, to whom the Neapolitan kingdom was also assigned, did not bring about any changes in its internal organisation, which continued to have in the traditional Parliament the symbol of its never extinguished aspiration to independence. A constant political blackmail of Sicily towards the peninsula certainly followed these events; but the long separation had formed in Sicily a mentality rather averse to any influence from the continent and nurtured a distinctly separatist spirit. Hence the support given by the island feudal lords to the viceroy Maffei against the papal bull of 20 February, which removed the “Monarchia Sicula,” considered, no less than the Parliament, a guarantee of independence; hence also the strong obstacle opposed by the Island to the penetration of the European Enlightenment movement, against which the island’s literature, imbued with religious spirit, chiefly acted as a barrier. The same publicists and writers who, in the second half of the 18th century, flourished in considerable numbers even in Sicily, and who, more open to the influences of the new thought, agitated even in the Island social and economic problems, were divided by the traditional island spirit and did not have 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), a revival is noted, thanks above all to the reforming action of the viceroy Caracciolo, aimed, in the spirit of enlightened absolutism, at abolishing privileges and restoring greater authority to the King in the Island. But, by contrast, the feudal caste entrenched itself in the traditional prerogatives of the Parliament and the other Sicilian institutions and opposed Caracciolo’s reformism and that of his successor, the viceroy Caraman, intending thus precisely to defend the “freedom” and “dignity” and the rights “always enjoyed by Sicily.” Even the Jacobin attempt of Di Blasi, in 1794, when the French Revolution was at its height, had a subdued tone that reflected the dominant tendencies. In fomenting this conservative and particularist spirit, no small influence was also exerted by the protection granted 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.

This spirit is reflected in the Constitution of 1812, through which the barons renounced all feudal rights, transforming their properties into private holdings; yet they did not thereby lose their real preeminence, so that no actual advantage accrued to the lower classes from that Constitution. After the Restoration, reacting against the centralizing policy of the Neapolitan government—which abolished the Constitution of 1812 and dissolved Parliament (1816)—Sicily directed its efforts toward separation from Naples, first attempting to restore the independence guaranteed by the Constitution of 1812 (Revolution of 1820). On 12 January 1848, rebellion broke out in Palermo and spread across the island, proclaiming the Constitution of 1812 and convening Parliament on 25 March. However, when the hoped-for protection from France and England failed to materialize, Ferdinand II of Naples succeeded in recapturing Messina in September 1848 and reasserting control over all of Sicily by 11 May 1849. A little over ten years later (June–20 August 1860), Sicily was wrested from the Bourbons by Garibaldi’s expedition and politically united with Italy through the plebiscite of 21 October 1860. Even on this occasion, however, the spirit of autonomy prevailed even among the most resolute advocates of unconditional annexation, for, as MICHELE AMARI observed, “after forty-five years of struggle with Naples, Sicily could not have gained this autonomy except under the yoke of the Bourbons,” and therefore “this island of more than two million inhabitants, hardened by half a century of disputes and two or three revolutions, would have deserved exceptions, even had there not been the example of Tuscany and the need to provide for other provinces such as Lombardy and Naples.”

V. SICILY IN THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY

Sicily was therefore the least prepared to endure the administrative centralization imposed by the Italian government on all the regions that formed the new State. Moreover, Sicily, almost devoid as it was of public works and industries, due to past neglect in this sphere of activity, and with an economic structure based on the persistent latifundium system, and thus with a large agricultural and urban proletariat, was not in the best social and economic conditions to derive from the new political situation, as it was implemented, all those advantages that could have ensured it prosperity and well-being. Having, in a short space of time, to coexist under the same laws with regions that were socially more advanced and economically richer, Sicily suffered more than any other region from the inevitable hardships that followed national unification, which required burdens and sacrifices to consolidate itself at a time when the Island was in need of special care. Hence the often violent outbursts, such as the revolt of 1866 in the province of Palermo, and those of 1893 in various parts of the Island, which, misunderstood in their true origins, were repressed by the then government in the harshest manner. The government was not successful either in religious matters. Religious Orders were very numerous in Sicily: suffice it to recall that at the time of the dissolution of religious corporations in 1866, there were in Sicily 629 conventuals distributed in 212 communes and over 239 monasteries; deep was the religious sentiment of the populations, and great was the influence exerted on them by the numerous secular and regular clergy. But the Italian government greatly offended this sentiment, or at least did not consider it in its true value, especially with regard to the question of ecclesiastical property, in connection with which it even resorted to harsh and draconian measures, seeing in the resentment always manifested by the islanders, for the scant understanding with which they were treated, almost exclusively a clerical and Bourbon manifestation. There were, however, attempts on the part of the government to investigate and study the origins of the malaise afflicting the Island, which also manifested itself in antisocial forms such as brigandage and the Mafia (famous among all, the Franchetti-Sonnino inquiry of 1876), but such attempts, due to a mentality often not free from prejudice, almost never hit the mark, and the remedies adopted were always inadequate.

Even in the Second World War, Sicily, in its patriotic love and sacrifice, was not inferior to any other region of Italy. Following the Anglo-American landing, it became a theatre of war (from 10 July to 17 August 1943) and suffered considerable damage, both in cities and in the countryside, resulting in a political, social, and economic crisis. From this arose a movement for the island’s independence (M.I.S.), which was also supported by a clandestine military movement (Volunteer Army for Sicilian Independence: E.V.I.S.), but this did not truly resonate in the consciousness of the people (the Constitution of 1812 was by then too distant in time, and the great stages of federalism and unity intervened). It nonetheless succeeded in presenting to the new rulers an age-old problem, the social and economic problem of the island, which neither the numerous inquiries of the liberal government nor the famous “assault on the latifundia” in the two decades between the First and Second World Wars had managed to resolve. The Statute (Legislative Decree of 15 May 1946), by which autonomy was granted to 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), was precisely inspired by the principle of ensuring that the island could resolve all those internal problems of life that, in the post-war crisis, had re-emerged with even greater urgency.

In S., Lipsia 1920; id., L'età degli Hohenstaufen in S., trad. it., Catania 1932; R. Caggese, Roberto d'Angiò e i suoi tempi, Firenze 1922-1930; G. M. Monti, Lo stato normanno-svevo, Napoli 1934; R. Morghen, Il tramonto della potenza sveva in Italia, Roma 1936; V. EPIFANIA, Gli Angioini di Napoli e la S., Napoli 1936; id., Riflessi di vita ital. e albori di fortuna angioina in S. alla metà del Trecento, in Arch. st. sticil., 1941, p. 121 seg.; A. Italia, La S. feudale, Roma 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 stiell. Grosshof unter Kaiser Friedrich II., Lipsia 1940; E. Pontieri, Ricerche sulla crisi della monar. sticil. nel sec. XIII, Napoli 1942; M. Scaduto, Il monache. bastiano nella S. mediev., Roma 1947; A. De Stefano, L'idea imper. di Federico II, Bologna 1952. Vicereame: A. Brofferio, St. di S. sotto Vitt. Amedeo II, Roma 1797; V. Amico, St. di S. dal 1556 al 1750, ivi 1836; S. Scrofani, Delle dominaz. degli stranieri in S., Palermo 1842; E. Laloy, La révolte de Messine, 3 voll., Parigi 1929-31; C. Caristia, Per la storia del pensiero politico sticil. durante il sec. XVIII, in Arch. st. per la S. orient., 10 (1932), pp. 490-511; V. Titone, La S. spagnuola, Mazara 1948; H. Koenigsberger, The government of Sicily under Philip II of Spain, Londra 1951; M. Petrocchi, La révolte. cittadina messinee del 1674, Roma 1953, Borboni: G. Catalano, I Borboni e la manomorta eccle. di S., in Il diritto eccl., 1848, pp. 198-213; M. Amari, La S. et les Bourbons, Parigi 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 sticil., Firenze 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., ivi 1946; V. Titone, Economia polit. nella S. del Sette e Ottocento, ivi 1947, La S. nell'unità d'Italia: M. Scalia, Mem. stor. sticil. della révoluz. del 1848-49, ivi 1932; F. Brancato, L'Assemblea stic. del 1848-49, Firenze 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 Révoluz. separatista sticil. (1820-1821), Napoli 1951, V. anche: L. Granone, Fattori e bisogni dell'econom. sticil., Girenti 1917; E. La Loggia, Gli antecedenti dell'ordinam. autonomist. stic., in Mediterranea, Palermo 1950; R. Landolina, La difesa della S. da P. Ventura a L. Sturzo, Mazara 1951.

VI. Archeologia

Oltre che per gli insigni monumenti classici, soprattutto greci, la S. è ricca di antiche me-

SICILY — Detail of a fine linen cloth depicting the stigmatization of St. Francis. Sicilian work of the 15th century. Assisi, Franciscan Museum.

death and Christian monuments. In the Hieronymian Martyrology, Cilicia and Syria are often confused with Sicily, which explains the entry for 11 Oct.: “in acervo Sicilia,” which should be corrected to “Anzarbio Cilicia”; on 21 July 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 procession of martyrs in S. Martino in caelo aureo (now S. Apollinare Nuovo) in Ravenna. At Catania, St. Eupus (BHG, no. 1410) was also venerated; mentioned in the Hieronymian Martyrology on 12 Aug., 2 and 12 Sept.; he is certainly alluded to together with St. Agatha in the inscription of Giulia Valentina in the phrase “pro foribus martyrum” (CIL, X, 7112). At Messina in the 6th century a basilica was dedicated to SS. Stephen, Pancras and Eupus. The cult of Greek saints such as Theodore, George and Christopher was widespread in Sicily. At Taormina, St. Pancras is venerated on 3 Apr.; and on 8 July with a curious legend (BHG, 1410), while in the Hieronymian Martyrology he is listed on 24 June and in the Greek synaxaria on 30 and 31 Oct. (Synax. Constantinop., p. 179).

For Lentini, the Passio of the martyrs Alphius (v.), Philadelphus, Cyricus and others (BHG, 57-62) is entirely without 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 V. the respective entries), others are also found in other localities. Thus at Salemi, the ancient Halicyae, a cemetery church is found with a mosaic pavement and tombs likewise adorned with mosaics (cf. B. Pace, La basilica di Salemi, in Monumenti antichi dei Lincei, Rome 1916). But three Christian inscriptions from Rome mention a “civis Alicensis” buried in 372 in the area of the cemetery of Callistus (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. Christ. Supplementum, Rome 1915, no. 1621); another epitaph from the year 407 likewise refers to a “civis Alicensis” (A. Silvagni, Inscr. Christ. Nova series, 1922, no. 407); a Johannis Alicensis was buried in 406 in the Vatican Basilica (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., 1857-61, no. 916); in the portico of the same Basilica was read the funerary poem of a “Helpis Siculae regionis alumnae” (ibid., II, Rome 1888, pp. 79, 6; 130, 14). At Lipari in the church of S. Giuseppe an inscription records the purchase of a 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).

Christian lamps of gilded bronze were found in the vicinity of Catania (P. Orsi, Bronzi cristiani di Catania, in N. Bull. di arch. crist., 8 [1902], pp. 140-49).

Nel territorio di Gela in contrada Zinghiliu furono identificati antichi sepolcri sfruttati poi da cristiani; lo stesso si è riscontrato presso Butera e presso Licata. A Grotta Murata sui monti S. Angelo Muxaro si sono trovati avanzi di un'antica comunità eremitica.

A Roma nel «Coemeterium maius» si è rinvenuta l'iscrizione sepolcrale greca di un siciliano di nome Callisto (M. Armellini, Scoperta della cripta di S. Emerenziana, Roma 1877, p. 100). Per il sarcofago cristiano nella cattedrale di Palermo V. Wilpert, Sarcofagi, II, tav. 239, 2, pp. 324, 352; III, pp. 20-25.

J. Fuhrer e V. Schultze, nell'opera Die altchristlichen Grabstätten Siziliens (Berlino 1907) hanno pubblicato gli ipogei di Ferla (p. 172 sg.), Melilli (p. 174 sg.), Lentini (p. 178 sg.), Molinello (p. 181 sg.), Cassibile (p. 185 sg.), Spaccaforno-Rosolini (p. 190 sg.), Cava d'Ispica (p. 193 sg.), S. Croce Camerina (p. 195 sg.), Licodia Eubea (p. 197 sg.), Chiaramonte-Guelfi (p. 198 sg.), Granieri (p. 201 sg.), Cittadella (p. 202 sg.), Naro (p. 205 sg.), Termini Imerese (p. 218 sg.), Palermo (pp. 220-35), Carini (p. 236 sg.), Lilibeo-Marsala (vigna Spalla, p. 242; ipogeo sotto S. Francesco, p. 240; Grotta della Sibilla e ipogeo presso la chiesa dei Niccolini, pp. 246-53), Priolo (pp. 253-55).

VII. Art

1. Architecture

In Syracuse, remains of Byzantine architecture are rare. Two small churches in the localities of Vigna di Mare and Bagni di Mare near S. Croce Camerina, and two churches, S. Niccolichio and S. Micidario in Sortino, are considered Byzantine basilicas. Arab monuments are also rare, mostly destroyed or transformed by Christian reconstruction during the Norman period, during which construction continued, however, following Byzantine and Arab traditions with insertions of Romanesque and then Gothic taste. Examples of these styles remain, in addition to the churches and monuments of Palermo (q.v.), in the Duomo and the Annunziata dei Catalani in Messina; in the cathedrals of Monreale and Cefalù; in the church of the Trinity in Castelvetrano; in the Abbey of S. Spirito in Caltanisetta and the Benedictine abbey in Bronte; in the apses of the cathedral in Catania and the church of S. Pietro, built by the architect Girardo il Franco in Casalvecchio Siculo.

The Swabian period is distinguished from the Norman by a more pronounced production of civil and military architecture: fortresses, defensive walls, castles such as the Palazzo dello Steri and the Palazzo Sclafani in Palermo; the Maniace Castle in Syracuse, and Ursino Castle, built by Riccardo da Lentini in Catania; the Osterio in Cefalù; the Castle in Paternò and many others scattered in strategic points of the Island. Characteristic of this style are the famous portals and the large windows of the upper floors, often adorned with zigzag friezes and 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 in Palermo, of S. Agostino in Trapani, the Matrice in Enna, of S. Maria in Randazzo, the monastery of S. Spirito in Agrigento, the Badiazza at the foot of the hill of S. Spirito, S. Maria degli Alemanni and S. Francesco d'Assisi in Messina.

Examples of late Chiaramontana architecture with the addition of Catalan elements are the two Taormina constructions of the Badia Vecchia and the Palazzo S. Stefano, dating from the early 15th century, when Tuscan and especially Catalan fixtures prevail. In this century, the figure of the architect Matteo Carnelivari from Noto stands out; he worked extensively in Palermo and Messina, where, unfortunately, very little survived the earthquake of 1908.

Also from this period are the Corvai and Ciampoli Palaces in Taormina, the Finocchiaro house in Randazzo, the Lanza, Montalto, and Bellomo Palaces in Syracuse, S. Giorgio and the bell tower of the Duomo in Agrigento, the bell tower and the portico of the Duomo in Erice.

The 16th century presents in Palermo, besides some churches of very interesting structure, the Archbishop’s Palace by the architect Di Fazio (1583). More abundant is the Baroque architecture, which has its own characteristics because it remained more closely tied to classical sobriety and composure in its schemes, reserving whimsy for ornamentation. Palermo preserves the most notable 17th-century monuments, the churches of G. Amico, P. Amato, Angelo Italia, Andrea Giganti, and G. Amato, as well as numerous palaces and villas. In Trapani, noteworthy are the church of the Jesuit College and the Carmelite convent. In Catania, destroyed by the earthquake of 1693, little remains from the 17th century; the city was rebuilt in the 18th century by the architect Vaccarini, remembered for the façade of the Cathedral, the Almo Studio, the Senatorial Palace, and the churches of S. Giuliano and S. Agata. Noto suffered the same fate, but today it appears as a splendid amphitheater of 18th-century churches and palaces, largely the work of Pompilio Picherali, who also designed the façade of the cathedral of Syracuse. Here one may also note the Beneventano and Del Bosco Palaces. Of the architect Marvuglia, the convent of S. Martino alle Scale (1770) near Monreale is remembered.

2. Sculpture

Although in the little church of S. Sebastiano in Syracuse there are Byzantine sculptures adapted to the portal, very rare are the testimonies of Byzantine and Arab sculpture in Sicily. Dating to the Norman period are the fine capitals of the churches of that age, those of the cloisters of Cefalù and Monreale, the latter works by marble-workers from various regions, while the bronze doors of Monreale are by Bonanno Pisano and Barisano da Trani.

The portal of the Holy Prison in Catania, on the other hand, recalls Burgundian art, while the candelabrum and the sculptures of the pulpit of the Palatine in Palermo are attributed to Campanian Neo-Hellenistic art. Even in the dry period, sculpture reveals itself essentially decorative. Thus the capitals of the cloister of S. Giovanni degli Eremiti and the upper part of the Palazzo Sclafani in Palermo. The Quattrocento, however, presents itself as particularly rich in plastic works, since artists from northern Italy such as Domenico Gagini from Bissone (v.) and Francesco Laurana (v.) arrived on the island. Also remembered from the Quattrocento are the sepulchral monument of the viceroy d’Acuña in the cathedral of Catania, by Antonello Freri, and that of Bishop Bellorado in the cathedral of Messina, by G. B. Mazzola. In the Cinquecento, the art of Antonello Gagini (v.) flourishes, who also worked extensively in the ornamentation of pulpits and funerary monuments; other notable sculptors of this period were Giuliano Mancino and Bartolomeo Berrettaro, who worked in Palermo, Alcamo, Termini, and Erice, and Ferraro da Giuliana, who adorned the mother church of Castelvetrano with stuccoes. Toward the end of the Cinquecento, followers of Michelangelo arrived in Messina from northern Italy, such as Montorsoli, who created the fountains of Orion and Neptune in Messina, and Andrea Calamec, author of the monument to Don Giovanni d’Austria. A beautiful Madonna and Child by Michelangelo Nacherini is preserved in Castroreale. Notable from the Seicento are the monument to Charles V by Scipione Li Volsi in Palermo and the *S. Benedetto in gloria* by I. Marabitti in Monreale. The sculptures of choir stalls and wooden stalls from the 17th century are due, for the most part in S., to Vigo La Pica from Trapani or to Ferraro da Giuliana. Friar Umile Pintorno from Petralia, instead, dedicated himself to the carving of famous crucifixes. The art of stucco, which has its beginnings in the Seicento, develops admirably Serpotta (v.) and his followers.

3. Painting

Examples of Byzantine and Late Antique painting are found in the Grotta del Crocifisso and the Grotta di S. Lucia; in Syracuse in the Oratorio di S. Lucia and in the Catacombe di S. Giovanni; and traces in the necropolis of Pantalica. Nothing noteworthy remains of Arab painting, while 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 influences. Of the painting of the dry period few traces remain. Important, however, for following the local art current are the painted decorations on the ceiling beams of the cathedrals of Cefalù and Syracuse, the Palazzo Bellomo in Syracuse, and S. Agostino in Trapani (now in the Museum), which are connected to the decorations of the Steri in Palermo, attributed to the Sicilian artists Cecco di Naro, Simone da Corleone, etc. In the 15th century, painting in Sicily shows various trends: Flemish and Catalan, but one can also note a vein of local art linked to the various currents of Mediterranean art through painters such as Riccardo Quartararo, Tommaso de Vigilia, and Pietro Ruzzolone, of whom the painted cross from both sides of the Matrice of Termini Imerese is remembered. Then, standing apart from the others, is Antonello da Messina (v.) and his followers, among whom is Pietro de Saliba. Of the 16th century, the names to be remembered are Vincenzo degli Azani (paintings in the Museum of Palermo), Alibrandi, and Polidoro da Caravaggio (paintings in the Museum of Messina), and Bernardino Niger (paintings in the church of the S. Carcere in Catania). Only in the 17th century did painting in the Island find resolution with Caravaggio, Rodriguez, and Pietro Novarelli (v.). They are followed by painters of lesser importance, such as the portraitist Antonio Alberti, Quagliata, and Agostino Scilla, who worked extensively in Messina, and finally Mattia Stomer, who with *The Adoration of the Shepherds* in the town hall of Monreale still shows an example of the influence of Flemish art in Sicily. Among the 18th-century decorators, mostly tributary to Campanian art, one may recall Olivio Sozzi and Vito d'Anna, certainly the best of them all.

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 organized into ecclesiastical provinces. Catania is the only archiepiscopal see that is not metropolitan. Messina is a metropolitan see with three suffragan dioceses: Lipari, Nicosia, and 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 cardinalatial see. Siracusa is a metropolitan see for the dioceses of Caltagirone, Noto, Piazza Armerina, and Ragusa, the latter of which was erected as a diocese on 6 May 1950 and is united *aeque principaliter* with Siracusa.

All the dioceses and archdioceses listed together constitute the Sicilian conciliar region. Already, the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, with a circular dated 24 August 1889, sanctioning the practice of episcopal conferences introduced in several regions of Italy since 1849, had established its territorial boundaries in accordance with the known divisions of Italy. The Sacred Consistorial Congregation, with a decree dated 15 February 1919 (AAS, 11 [1919], pp. 72–74) and a circular letter of 22 March of the same year, reconfirmed what had previously been established and provided a list of the conciliar regions of Italy, fixing the boundaries for Sicily as above.

With the *motu proprio* *Qua cura* of Pius XI, dated 8 December 1938, concerning the establishment of ecclesiastical tribunals for the handling of matrimonial cases in Italy, it was decreed that for the entire Sicilian conciliar region, matrimonial nullity cases must be brought in first instance before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Palermo and in second instance before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Naples (AAS, 30 [1938], pp. 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).

IX. FOLKLORE

Of the very rich folkloric material offered by Sicily, an attempt must be made 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 popular traditions in Sicily is not as pronounced as in Sardinia and Corsica, marginal and less exposed to communications areas, because, in addition to being more closely connected with the rest of Italy and open to the various currents of civilization in the Mediterranean basin, Sicily itself has been a center of creation and dissemination, in the rest of Italy, of manifestations of popular life.

However, there are characteristic folkloric elements in Sicily, mainly recognizable in costumes and rural handicraft products. The current female dress, even in the Siculo-Albanian and Lombard colonies, is characterized by the wide cloak, white and red, adorned with gold and silver ribbons, which covers the head and torso, descending to the waist and in some places (Ragusa) to the feet: this cloak, called in Augusta capoltone and elsewhere cimogghia-miserii, constitutes the distinctive ornament of fiancées and brides (common, in its essential line, to other Mediterranean countries), and to wear it has the value of a rite marking the passage from one state to another. Fiancées can also be recognized by a ribbon that the future mother-in-law weaves into their hair. Very picturesque is the wedding costume of Cesarò, in the province of Messina: a green damask bodice, a little jacket of velvet with silver buttons and a heavy pleated skirt (in the Archaeological Museum of Palermo).

Seo ethnographic of Palermo preserves an example weighing nine kilos. Sumptuous in color and embroidery are the festive costumes of women in the Albanian colonies of Palazzo Adriano and Piana dei Greci. The Sicilian male costume is characterized by a cloth cap, brown for peasants, blue for fishermen, sometimes very long, folded over the right shoulder, and a wide belt, blue or green, which in S. Fratello has in the center a yellow copper plate engraved with the figures of the Madonna or the Crucifix.

The rural ornamentation 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 carved by the Sicilian peasant with the tip of a knife, spools and wooden spoons stand out for their ornamentation, as do busks offered as love tokens to fiancées (a beautiful example 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: in one from S. Fratello, two superimposed groups depict a man and a woman dancing the tarantella and two itinerant musicians.

Scenes of peasant life and figures of saints are the most frequent engravings adorning the friscaletto or farantù, a reed flute typical of shepherds. Chivalric scenes are almost always reproduced on the sides of the carts, which differ from those, also painted, of Romagna in the motifs of the decoration (the only common figurative element is the image of St. George slaying the dragon), as well as in the technical particularities of construction. The cart thus becomes a mobile instrument for the preservation and dissemination of chivalric epic, which the uncultured painter-figurist learns orally from the theater of the popes and from the cantastorie, whose preferred repertoire is the cycle of Charlemagne with the marvelous deeds of the paladins of France, Orlando and Rinaldo.

During Holy Week, the puppet show represents the Passion of Christ. Indeed, the tradition of sacred representations during Holy Week and of religious stories that “the poor of the city—writes Pitrè—sing at dusk each day along the streets or before the houses of those devotees who usually give them a few pennies as alms” is very much alive in Sicily.

Probably deriving from earlier Tuscan models and spreading well beyond the island’s borders, these sacred narrative poems, moralizing in content and in ottava rima—now epic (ab ab ab cc) and now Sicilian (ab)—with rhymes almost always interlaced (chain-rhymed), display a distinctive stylistic physiognomy and a marked regional character. The most original are the first and second Passions (Toschi, op. cit. in bibl.), which Deca Niculaci may well have had before him when composing his own. Yet the larger body of Sicilian religious stories that survives dates from the sixteenth century onward: composed by popular poets (among whom Fullone and Pavone are remembered) or improvised by folk versifiers during poetic contests held on the occasion of a saint’s feast. Vigo provides particulars and names when describing the feast of St John in Palermo on 24 June 1852:

There were some five or six thousand spectators. At the stroke of midnight the saint was brought out into the square, placed on the bier, and five poets mounted it: Antonio Russo, aged six, guided by his father Salvatore, a blacksmith; Giovanni Pagano, a farmer; Andrea Pappalardo, a shoemaker; and Salvatore from Misterbianco, a farmer. One by one they improvised, celebrating the life and miracles of the saint, recalling the duties of godfathers toward godchildren and of compadres toward comadres… and then they entered the lists among themselves: all used ottava rima except Pappalardo, who employed the sestet with the final lines rhyming in couplets; none left the field, all equally happy and imaginative improvisers.

Even in the lyric-narrative songs—short sacred compositions in lyric meter and narrative content that the people call rasiuneddi to distinguish them from the longer stories (also called rasiuni)—one must recognize Sicily as their place of origin, where they reach their greatest intensity and diffusion. These pieces, which treat exclusively the cycle of the Holy Family and are used as cradle songs, connect with lullabies that in Sicily are generally indicated by the term vo (probably an abbreviation of voga) and many of which, of rare beauty, succeed in expressing singular nuances of affection through the use of diminutives preferred in «eddu» («iddu») and «uzzu». A notable archaic element is the suspended cradle, designated by the term naca (vàx'x), which, as Rohlfs’s research shows, occupies a vast area in Sicily but also extends over much of southern Italy.

Of insular creation in both content and style are the strambotti in Sicilian ottava rima: even if Sicily cannot be considered, as D’Ancona wished, the birthplace of the strambotto, it was certainly from the fifteenth century onward a center of its diffusion, and strambotti of unmistakably Sicilian craftsmanship have been found among the papers of Boiardo.

Folktales and legends, commonly called cunti (stories), are also a clear mirror of the Sicilian soul, and the repertoire, shared with the theater of the popes, 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. The legend of the Baroness of Carini is typically Sicilian in the sentiments it expresses.

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

The Sicilian patronal festivals have a particular scenic character: suffice it to recall that of St. Rosalia in Palermo and of St. Agatha in Catania. The traditional Sicilian Carnival features the mask of Nannu, a puppet and sometimes a living character representing Carnival, who in some towns, such as Licata, is accompanied by a woman, Nanna, who carries a baby in her arms; in inland towns, Nannu is carried on a donkey and, before dying, makes a will in the presence of a notary represented by another puppet: “Lassu a li dotti li testi cunfusi / 'Ntra tanti libri e 'ntra tanti scrittura; / Lassu a l'avvocati li causi persi / E a li duttura ci lassu la cura; ecc.” Various transformations survive in the old dances: the chivou, l'arascuni, la ruggera, la fasola, la tubiana, la capona. Also still in use is the contradance, which, though deriving directly from the French contredanse, assumes particular forms in Sicily. Of the games, it is difficult to identify, as Pitrè himself noted, the characteristic Sicilian types: most of them, like that of the hopscotch and of the ambassador, are widespread over a vast area of Europe.

To religious life may be traced the numerous and beautiful ex-voto offerings preserved in the Pitrè Museum (the oldest date from the 17th century) and those still offered today in the church of St. Calogero in Agrigento and in the grotto of St. Rosalia in Palermo. To the magical world, however, must be referred the cult of the “corpi decollati” (beheaded bodies, those of the executed and drowned). A practice also known in France under the name of enclavement corresponds to the binding of the wolf and the fox, enraged by the evil eye, against which it is necessary to repeat three times special formulas of exorcism, each time tying a knot on a cord.

Più legata alla tradizione risulta generalmente l'architettura popolare dei paesi di montagna. Tra le costruzioni a carattere primitivo prevale la forma circolare della capanna (pagghiaru), che nasconde forse un originario significato magico-simbolico, ed è comune anche a costruzioni in pietra, quali i trulli pugliesi e i nuraghi sardi. Vedi tav. XXX-XXXIII.