Sicily
Sicily
For most of the Renaissance, the Mediterranean island of Sicily (now part of Italy) was part of the political world of Spain. The island's main distinction during this time came from its role in ancient Greek and Roman history. The few Sicilian scholars and artists of note sought fame elsewhere.
Sicily was linked to the mainland kingdom of Naples until 1282, when it revolted against Charles of Anjou, the French ruler of the two kingdoms. Sicily then came under the control of the Spanish kingdom of Aragon. It remained in Spanish hands for more than 400 years, except for a few years in the mid-1400s, when it was temporarily reunited with Naples. Sicily's monarchs usually ruled from afar, and powerful local barons and their followers had considerable influence. The feudal* nobility generally supported the monarchs, to whom their privileges were tied. But the nobles' resistance to urban growth and Aragonese fiscal policy revealed their power. Sicily passed to the Spanish Habsburgs in 1516.
Before the 1300s the island's economy was dominated by the western part of Sicily and the city of Palermo, which produced grain and wine. Later, economic power shifted to the east and the city of Messina, which had silk, sugar, wine, and oil. The founding of universities in Catania (1445) and Messina (1590s) reveal the increasing importance of Sicily's eastern region. The overall trend during the Renaissance, however, was toward greater poverty and outlawry in Sicily.
The island appears in a few literary works of the Renaissance. Machiavelli's The Prince (1513) mentions Sicily only in connection with an ancient story of the king of Syracuse (in Sicily). Shakespeare set his comedy Much Ado about Nothing (1600) in the court of an Aragonese prince in Messina, and scenes of his play A Winter's Tale also take place in Sicily. In addition, the island produced several notable figures, including the scholar Marineo Siculo (ca. 1444–1536), who established a humanist* school in Spain, and the painter Antonello da Messina (ca. 1430–1479), who worked in Naples and northern Italy.
- * feudal
referring to an economic and political system in which individuals gave service to a lord in return for protection and use of the land
- * humanist
referring to a Renaissance cultural movement promoting the study of the humanities (the languages, literature, and history of ancient Greece and Rome) as a guide to living