Mediterranean Chronicle is an international refereed journal, working under the aegis of Ionian University.

MC aims at promoting a discussion on culture/s in the Mediterranean world focusing on the Greek and Roman worlds (Medieval-Byzantine culture will also be included).

Papers that will present contributions in all the fields of Humanities concerning Mediterranean civilization

will be published.

MC will be published provisionally as one volume per year.

Contributions are welcome in one of the following languages: Italian, Greek, French, English or Spanish.

All articles should be accompanied by an abstract of about 200 words in English.

Topics: Humanities, History, Archaeology, Classics.

 

Mediterranean Chronicle

Editor in Chief

Spyros Asonitis (Ionian University)

Editor

Vaios Vaiopoulos (Ionian University)

Editorial Board

Antonio Calabria (University of Texas, San

Antonio)

Brian A. Catlos (Univ. of California Santa Cruz

– Univ. of Colorado at Boulder)

Aurelio Cernigliaro (Università Federico II,

Napoli)

Philippo D¶Oria (Università Federico II, Napoli)

Nikolaos Gonis (UCL)

Nicolas Karapidakis (Ionian University)

Arnd Kerkhecker (Institut für Klassische

Philologie. Universität Bern)

Masako Kido (Kyoritsu University, Tokyo)

Alfonso Leone (Università Federico II, Napoli)

Dominique Mulliez (Université de Lille III,

Directeur de l'École française d'Athènes)

Theodoros Pappas (Ionian University)

Dimitrios Tsoungarakis (Ionian University)

Publisher

DIAVLOS PUBLICATIONS

72-74 Mavromichali Str. Athens,

10680, GREECE

tel. +30 210 36 31 169

fax +30 210 36 17 473

www.diavlosbooks.com

info@diavlos-books.gr

© Spyros Asonitis – Vaios Vaiopoulos

Copyright for the journal as a whole belongs to

the editors; however copyright in the individual

articles belongs to their authors. Articles and

reviews represent the personal views of the author.

For individual or institutional subscriptions

please consult the web site

(www.mediterraneanchronicle.org) or contact

the publisher (Diavlos Publications).

Articles can be submitted electronically to the

editors: asonitis@ionio.gr,

vaiosvaiopoulos@gmail.com or

vvaiop@ionio.gr.

A journal on culture/s in the Mediterranean World

http://www.mediterraneanchronicle.org/

ISSN 1791-9266

Volume 1

Corfu 2011

 

Contents

Editorial note......................................................................................................................3

Premessa di Alfonso Leone................................................................................................7

Massimo Perna: Minoan and Mycenaean Archives:

the Problem of Documents on Perishable Material.......................................................9

Helen Gasti: Narrative Self-Consciousness in Virgil¶s Aeneid 3.....................................27

Φώτης Πολυμεράκης: Θρησκευτικές αντιλήψεις του Δέκιμου Μάγνου Αυσόνιου:

χριστιανός ή εθνικός;...................................................................................................45

Brian Catlos: Who Was Philip of Mahdia and Why Did He Have to Die?

Confessional Identity and Political Power in the Twelfth-Century Mediterranean ....73

Lamia Hadda: Architectures de tradition islamique dans la Sicile normande ...............103

Nicolas Karapidakis: Lecture politique de la période de la «domination franque»

dans les pays et les territoires grecs...........................................................................129

Daniela Santoro: La rete aperta. Pratica medica nel tardomedioevo siciliano...............143

Benedetto Vetere: Otranto, San Cataldo e Brindisi. Gallipoli e Taranto.

Centri costieri e porti del Salento ..............................................................................153

Benigno Casale: Le porte di Amalfi nel secolo XV.......................................................205

Sandra Bernato: Artigianato e commercio a Girona (1442-1453) .................................215

Alfonso Leone: Alfonso il Magnanimo e il credito mercantile......................................235

Gerassimos D. Pagratis: L¶emporio di Corfù nel 16o secolo.........................................239

Antonio Calabria: Early Modern Naples: The Violent Tenor of Life ............................261

Book reviews..................................................................................................................281

Guidelines for authors ....................................................................................................293

 

Editorial note

Mediterranean Chronicle (MC) is a new journal open to all subjects related to the humanities, ranging from the precursors and beginnings of the Greco-Roman and other cultures developed in the Mediterranean, to the impact and perception of those cultures in the modern Mediterranean world and the Western civilization in general. 

MC is published under the aegis of the Ionian University and with the generous support of “Diavlos Publications”, which hosts this ambitious initiative in a period extremely difficult for efforts of this kind. MC is the fruit of discussions and bonds of friendship and scientific collaboration among the members of the editorial board, who come from various universities, mainly European (especially Italian and Greek), but also American and Japanese.

Among these members, special credit is due to our friend prof. Alfonso Leone, whose role has been and remains crucial not only with regard to the conception of the idea of creating an international journal based in Corfu and

focusing on Mediterranean culture, but also in terms of the support of this initiative, when time came to pass from ideas and thoughts into action.

Special credit for their support, ideas and suggestions should also be recognized to our friends, prof. N. Gonis, prof. Arnd Kerkhecker and dr. Ilias Yarenis.

Thanks to its geographical position and to its role as a place of cultural fusion and interaction, Corfu has been selected as the seat of the journal. The presence of the Ionian University has also been important for such a choice: established in 1984, endowed with the tradition of the Ionian Academy –the first academic institution in South Eastern Europe– with the Departments of

History as well as Archive and Library Science and a special interest in Mediterranean culture, Ionian University has been considered as the ideal institution to host a journal focusing on Mediterranean civilization. After all, the particular physiognomy of the island hosting our initiative functions as a point of cultural “meeting” and dialogue among various traditions, along with an almost inherent interest in culture, art and

literature –fields in which all influences coexist and are incorporated in a uniquely harmonious way. In this spirit the seat of MC symbolizes the variety of tendencies that the journal hopes to express. 

The members of the editorial board, representing a variety of fields, tendencies, methodologies and ways of thinking, co-shape the physiognomy and targets of MC and guarantee the interdisciplinary character and quality of its publications, which is additionally secured by a wide net of reviewers according to the topic of the contributions accepted.

Articles written in English (which will also be used in indexes and on the web site), French, Greek, Italian and Spanish are accepted by MC. Shorter 

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Mediterranean Chronicle 1 (2011)

notes concerning books, reviews and presentations related to the Mediterranean world are also welcome.

Through our web site there will be free access to the contents and abstracts of every volume, while subscribers will have free access to the full text. Links to the full text of conference proceedings or to separate articles

relative to the topic of the journal will be available as well as “calls for papers” for conferences around the world.

The success of our undertaking can obviously be achieved through the presence of our journal in as many libraries of universities, institutes or scholars all over the world as possible. As such, the assistance of our

colleagues is a conditio sine qua non for the diffusion and the development of Mediterranean Chronicle.

The editors and the editorial board are open to any suggestion that would contribute to the further improvement of this initiative, the widening of its perspective, and the success of our goals.

In the present volume contributions are presented in chronological order, starting from prehistoric Antiquity and reaching Early Modern times. 

Massimo Perna (“Minoan and Mycenaean Archives: the Problem of Documents on Perishable Material”) comments on the existence of Linear A and B documents on perishable materials, demonstrating the wide diffusion

of different perishable materials not only in the Minoan culture but also in Mycenaean palaces.

Helen Gasti (“Narrative Self-Consciousness in Virgil¶s Aeneid 3”) examines some instances of narrative and poetic self-consciousness in Aeneid 3 as manifested in the rich textures and inter/intratextualities of its beginning

and closure. Gasti discusses the devices used to mark the beginning of the narrative in Book 3 and then proposes a systematic analysis of the end demonstrating, thus, the poet's innuendos about the solution given to his

poetic dilemma between his epic ambitions and Hesiodian–Callimachean poetics.

Fotios Polimerakis (“Θρησκευτικές αντιλήψεις του Δέκιμου Μάγνου Αυσόνιου: χριστιανός ή εθνικός;”) addresses the old dispute on the question of Ausonius' religion, reexamining Green's position according to which

Ausonius was nominally a Christian, although his works reveal many pagan beliefs. Polimerakis refers to certain poems by Ausonius that testify distinctly to his Christianity, concluding that Ausonius remained faithful to his pagan education and was one who hovered on the borderland which separated the new religion from the old.

Brian Catlos (“Who Was Philip of Mahdia and Why Did He Have to Die? Confessional Identity and Political Power in the Twelfth-Century Mediterranean”), starting from the execution of Philip of Mahdia, a chamberlain and admiral of Roger II of Sicily, discusses issues concerning 

- 4 -

Editorial note

Philip's identity along with the king¶s policies regarding Muslims as well as cultural exchanges and influences in the Mediterranean during that period.

Lamia Hadda (“Architectures de tradition islamique dans la Sicile normande”) examines the influence of Islamic architecture on religious monuments of Norman Sicily, and point out the wide circulation of artistic

models, artisans and artists who worked in the Sicilian ambit and found the new dynamic center of this period¶s artistic production at the Norman Court.

In his essay “Lecture politique de la période de la «domination franque» dans les pays et les territoires grecs”, Nicolas Karapidakis attempts an overview of the period of Frankish domination in Greece, demonstrating

the contradictions of other more partial approaches.

Starting from the issue of granting licences to physicians and surgeons, Daniela Santoro (“La rete aperta. Pratica medica nel tardomedioevo siciliano”), investigates the mentality and fears of the time which led one to

rely on and trust men and women of dubious expertise in order to find cure. Santoro points out the medley of two different cultures and two different healing practices which were destined to a perennial intertwining: the

popular and the scholarly, the official and the alternative.

Benedetto Vetere (“Otranto, San Cataldo e Brindisi. Gallipoli e Taranto. Centri costieri e porti del Salento”) presents the role of the ports and urban

centers of Salento in the trade routes leading to the Dalmatian coast and the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the nature of the commercial activities in those centers in the Middle Ages.

Benigno Casale (“Le porte di Amalfi nel secolo XV”), exploring the medieval city's gates on the basis of a rich documentation, offers a lot of information on the topography of the medieval city of Amalfi. However he

admits at the same time that the nature of the sources itself poses limits to conclusions, as they belong to periods with big chronological gaps in between.

In her article “Artigianato e commercio a Girona (1442-1453)” Sandra Bernato examines the intense commercial activity at Girona during the 15th century, and the preparation for the city¶s entrance to the wider development of Catalan economy, which would happen after 1454.

Writing within the frame of financial medieval history, Alfonso Leone (“Alfonso il Magnanimo e il credito mercantile”) comments on the deterioration of the external debt of Southern Italy during Alfonso¶s reign in

Naples.

Gerassimos Pagratis (“L'emporio di Corfu nel 16o secolo”) examines the nature of trade served by the market of Corfu in the 16th century, along with

the conditions and methods of its organization, in combination with the analysis of representative figures dealing at the island's market during the

16th century.

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Mediterranean Chronicle 1 (2011)

In his essay “Early Modern Naples: The Violent Tenor of Life” Antonio

Calabria takes us to Naples and its development during the 16th century. He

points out the realignments in Naples' population, reviewing some of the

main themes of its social history concerning marginal groups, the poor, the

rootless, the prostitutes considered as the main factors of violence in the

kingdom of Naples.

This first volume of Mediterranean Chronicle ends with three book

reviews: Nikos Linardos on Youval Rotman¶s Byzantine Slavery and the

Mediterranean World, Biagio Passaro on Gerassimos Pagratis' Οι εκθέσεις των

Βενετών Βαΐλων και Προνοητών Κερκύρας (The Reports of the Venetian Baili

and Provveditori of Corfu (16th century)), and N.G. Moschonas on Polyptychon/

Πολύπτυχον, Homenaje a Ioannis Hassiotis – Αφιέρωμα στον Ιωάννη Χασιώτη.

We strongly believe that Mediterranean Chronicle will add a valid voice

to the academic dialogue on Mediterranean culture. Its collaboration with

colleagues from all over the world dealing in the framework of their research

with the various aspects of Mediterranean world will create a forum for new

scholars as well as mature contributors. The extent up to which we will be

able to move towards this direction will be indicative of the success of this

ambitious and fascinating adventure.

Spyros Asonitis

Vaios Vaiopoulos

Corfu, January 2011