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© 2016 ANNE MALTEMPI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED i SICILIANITÀ IN THE RENAISSANCE: SICILIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE WRITINGS OF SICILIAN HUMANISTS TOMMASO SCHIFALDO AND LUCIO MARINEO SICULO A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Anne Maltempi July, 2016 i SICILIANITÀ IN THE RENAISSANCE: SICILIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE WRITINGS OF SICILIAN HUMANISTS TOMMASO SCHIFALDO AND LUCIO MARINEO SICULO Anne Maltempi Thesis Approved: Accepted: Advisor Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Michael Levin Dr. John C. Green Faculty Reader Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Martha Santos Dr. Chand Midha Department Chair Date Dr. Martin Wainwright ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people to whom I owe a great deal of thanks, and all of my gratitude for helping me through the process of completing my Master’s degree in History. First I would like to thank all of the professors in the History Department at the University of Akron, I have learned so much from all of them. I would like to extend a special thanks to my advisor Dr. Michael Levin, and my second reader Dr. Martha Santos whose classes and encouragement have helped me grow as a scholar, and whose advice in revising and editing this manuscript were essential to the completion of this project. I would also like to thank my peers and colleagues who inspire me and help learn new things every day including Dr. Tom Weyant, Kathryn Mcdonald-Miranda, Nathaniel Bassett, Suraj Lakshminarasimhan, Brittany Amiet, Kenneth Kosovich, Devaun Tyler, and so many others. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my close friends and family whose love and support has carried me through the last two years. I would like to thank my fiancée Daniel Hovatter for his kindness and consideration as I work toward my academic goals. I would also like to thank my four brothers Vince, Frank, Danny, and Anthony who always taught me new ways of seeing the world. Additionally, I would like to thank my grandmother Anna, and most especially my grandfather Vincenzo Maltempi who instilled in me the love of culture, heritage, and history. Finally, I would like to give the biggest thanks to my parents Salvatrice and Carlo Maltempi for their love, for always nurturing my dreams, and for giving me the courage to follow my heart. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….........1 Sicilianità: The Concept of Sicilian National Identity.................................................19 II. TOMMASO SCHIFALDO AND THE SICILIAN SCHOOLS……………….........22 Schifaldo and the Latin-Sicilian Vernacular..…....................................................28 Professorship, Pedagogy, and Greek Tradition..…………………………............31 Schifaldo and Sicilian National Identity..………………………………..............35 Schifaldo and the Spanish Crown…………………………..................................40 Conclusion……………..……………………………...........................................41 III. LUCIO MARINEO SICULO: A SICILIAN HUMANIST IN SPAIN…………......43 The Importance of Language…………...………………………………..............45 The Explanation of Origin: Rome and Sicily……………………………............52 History, Sicilian Hellenistic Scholasticism, and Sicilianità..…………….............55 Sicilian Rebellion: The Vespers & the Construction of National Identity............62 The House of Aragon and Sicily: Siculo as an Agent of Spanish Empire & Sicilianità...............................................................................................................71 Conclusion: Siculo and Professorship…………………………………...............73 iv IV. CONCLUSION………………………………………………….…………………76 Tommaso Schifaldo…...…………...………………………………..............77 Lucio Marineo Siculo………………….……………………………............79 Schifaldo and Siculo: Indicators of Sicilianità...……………………............83 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………....87 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Renaissance was a movement which permeated all of western Europe through the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Throughout these several centuries Renaissance thought played a crucial role in the development of significant social, religious, and political change. Coupled with the thirst to return to the greatness of ancient Rome, those who participated, actively or inactively, in the Renaissance facilitated the rediscovery and rebirth of classical Greek and Roman scripts. This movement was shaped by a heavy influence of humanism as it moved from Italy, to Spain, France, Germany, and England, taking on various national values and characteristics as it evolved. The effect of the renaissance in many of these countries has been studied thoroughly as the movement shifts and is shaped by the different national values in each country, which indicates a clear reciprocal relationship of influence between Renaissance values and national values. In past scholarship some areas in Europe have been studied more than others. Italy, the country where the Renaissance began, is an interesting case. Certainly, many scholars have thoroughly investigated the Renaissance in Florence—arguably the heart of Renaissance culture—Venice, Rome, and Milan. However, there is little written on the Italian South. It seems counterintuitive to believe that the Renaissance was relegated solely to Northern Italy if, eventually, it had the ability to spread across the English 1 Channel. I seek to explore and understand what influences of the Renaissance are visible in the Italian South, specifically in Sicily, and how the Italian South in turn influenced the Renaissance. Within the vast and prolific archives of Italian Renaissance historiography very little can be found in regards to the Italian south, and there is an even greater dearth of sources on Sicily. Scholars have written extensively about Sicily within the historical record of the Middle Ages when Palermo was one of the most prestigious cities holding the court of Frederick II. Under the reign of Frederick II Sicily flourished in both wealth- seeking and national pursuits. The School of Sicilian Poetry established under Frederick II was one of the most influential intellectual institutions of the period. The premiere form of poetics which would later be adopted by, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), perhaps the greatest Renaissance writer, humanist, and philosopher, the sonnet, was originally written at the Sicilian School of Poetry by Jacopo da Lentino. However, after the Middle Ages and after the Sicilian School of Poetry was moved to the North of Italy, there is very little historical exploration of the island until roughly the early 1700s. It is imperative to fill this historiographical gap in order to understand how Sicily contributed to the Renaissance, and to further understand how Sicily functioned as part of the broader Spanish empire. Humanist philosophy which served as the prominent form of thought for most all Renaissance intellectual endeavors was thriving in Sicily in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This is evident in the works of two particular Sicilian humanists Lucio Marineo Siculo (1444-1533) and Tommaso Schifaldo (1430-1500?). I argue that through the works of Siculo and Schifaldo Sicilian humanism influenced Spanish humanism and scholarship; therefore, as an export of the Spanish empire, 2 Sicilian scholasticism became an agent of the Spanish empire while simultaneously serving as an indicator of a distinct Sicilian national identity. There is clear evidence in the writings of both Lucio Marineo Siculo and Tommaso Schifaldo of the construction of a Sicilian national identity. It is precisely this construction of Sicilian national identity which I have termed Sicilianità. The humanist movement in Renaissance Italy was primarily a movement of language which predicated itself upon the rediscovery of antiquity. Central to the rediscovery of the ancients was the revival of the greatness of ancient Rome, and understanding the works of men rather than the work of the divine. Man was at the center of study, and vernacular languages were being elevated as a means of disseminating this new work, and Latin was an elevated language, the language of the church and therefore of the Divine. As the humanists became more involved in rediscovering secular literary works including philosophical works Greek also became very important. Roman writers such as Cicero became incredibly important to the northern Italian humanist movement, as did Livy, Ovid, Seneca, and many others. As is stated by historian Anthony Grafton, Italian Humanism’s main scholarly thrusts were “…a purified Latinity, a delight in the recovery of ancient classical texts, a concern for source criticism, a dialogical, sometimes ambiguous irony fueled by history, and an occasional propensity to take the posture of the iconoclastic outsider…”1. It is necessary, then, to understand exactly what form did humanism take in Sicily. In other words, what exactly makes Sicilian humanism, Sicilian? Historian David 1 Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, Salvatore Settis, The Classical Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), 465. 3 Abulafia berates previous historians for ignoring the Italian south as an innovator and contributor to Renaissance ideals. Abulafia writes, “…it is simply not the case that southern Italy and Sicily produced no native writers and artists of exceptional caliber…This, again, is evidence of historians’ obsession with Florence…”2. Indeed, Sicily had a strong scholastic tradition stemming from its Greek