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The story of the Sicilian Vespers is a piece of history more thrilling than any historical novel. This is the first English translation of the chief chronicle of the uprising that changed the course of European and Mediterranean history. Written by a monk in Middle Sicilian around 1290, it is the earliest narrative prose (rather than poetry) in an Italian language, pre-dating by decades the better-known works composed in Tuscan. The colorful protagonist is John of Procida, one of the leaders of the revolt. This book will appeal to students of medieval literature as well as history. In addition to the text in English and the original Middle Sicilian, it contains lengthy commentary and notes, ...
On 30 March 1282, as the bells of Palermo were ringing for Vespers, the Sicilian townsfolk, crying 'Death to the French', slaughtered the garrison and administration of their Angevin King. Seen in historical perspective it was not an especially big massacre: the revolt of the long-subjugated Sicilians might seem just another resistance movement. But the events of 1282 came at a crucial moment. Steven Runciman takes the Vespers as the climax of a great narrative sweep covering the whole of the Mediterranean in the thirteenth century. His sustained narrative power is displayed here with concentrated brilliance in the rise and fall of this fascinating episode. This is also an excellent guide to the historical background to Dante's Divine Comedy, forming almost a Who's Who of the political figures in it, and providing insight into their placement in Hell, Paradise or Purgatory.
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