''Lu rebellamentu di Sichilia'', fully ''Cronica di lu rebellamentu di Sichilia contra re Carlu'', is a Sicilian historical chronicle of the War of the Vespers written around 1290. The anonymous ''Rebellamentu'', probably written at Messina, was ascribed to Atanasiu di Iaci by Pasquale Castorina in 1883. Though the ''Rebellamentu'' sometimes adds valuable details to the history of the Vespers, it is frequently untrustworthy. Its monastic provenance is evident in its moralising tone. The antiquity of its language has placed its authenticity beyond doubt, despite its lack of an early manuscript tradition. This has not prevented speculation that it was written contemporarily with events: one verb in one manuscript is found in the first-person present; this may represent the author inadvertently stepping out of his usual frame of reference, or merely an error in that manuscript.
The ''Rebellamentu'' covers the years 1279–82 and treats
John of Procida
John of Procida ( it, Giovanni da Procida) (1210–1298) was an Italian medieval physician and diplomat.
He was born in Salerno, educated in the Schola Medica as a physician. He was a noted physician for his age and received a professorial ch ...
as a hero. It is also the earliest chronicle to record that violence broke out after a Sicilian woman was raped by a French soldier, a story also recorded by Atanasiu di Iaci elsewhere. It says that when the Sicilians complained to
Charles of Anjou
Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) ...
about their high taxes, he responded, "''Vi farro spendiri munita di soli, como altra volta havitu spisu''," threatening that he would re-issue leather money as had been done in the past. This probably indicates that the legend that
William I
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
issued leather money, otherwise first recorded by
Tommaso Fazello
Tommaso Fazello (New Latin ''Fazellus'', 1498 – 8 April 1570) was an Italian Dominican friar, historian and antiquarian. He is known as the father of Sicilian history. He is the author of the first printed history of Sicily: ''De Rebus Sicu ...
in his ''De Rebus Siculis'' (1558), was current in the late thirteenth century. The ''Rebellamentu'' also makes the
Orsini Orsini is a surname of Italian origin, originally derived from Latin ''ursinus'' ("bearlike") and originating as an epithet or sobriquet describing the name-bearer's purported strength. Notable people with the surname include the following:
*Angel ...
Pope Nicholas III
Pope Nicholas III ( la, Nicolaus III; c. 1225 – 22 August 1280), born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 November 1277 to his death on 22 August 1280.
He was a Roman nobleman who ...
party to a conspiracy to dethrone Charles of Anjou. The Florentine chronicler
Giovanni Villani
Giovanni Villani (; 1276 or 1280 – 1348)Bartlett (1992), 35. was an Italian banker, official, diplomat and chronicler from Florence who wrote the ''Nuova Cronica'' (''New Chronicles'') on the history of Florence. He was a leading statesman of ...
, who was biased against the Orsini because of the legation of
Napoleone Orsini
Napoleone Orsini (c. 1420 – September 1480) was an Italian condottiero.
The son of Orso Orsini of Bracciano, he fought for Pope Eugene IV against Francesco Sforza in 1443. Later, in the 1450s, he flanked Ferdinand of Aragon in the strugg ...
to Florence in 1306, supports the allegation.
The ''Rebellamentu'' covers John's negotiations with the
Byzantine emperor
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...
Michael VIII Palaeologus
Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire ...
Sicilian Vespers
The Sicilian Vespers ( it, Vespri siciliani; scn, Vespiri siciliani) was a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at Easter 1282 against the rule of the French-born king Charles I of Anjou, who had ruled the Kingdom of ...
, the coronation of Peter in Palermo in August 1282, the retreat of Charles to Calabria, and the entry of Peter and John into Messina in October 1282. The excerpt below describes how Peter was crowned by the Bishop of Cefalù because the incumbent of the Archdiocese of Palermo, Piero II de Santa Fede, had recently died, and the
Archbishop of Monreale
The Italian Catholic Archdiocese of Monreale ( la, Archidioecesis Montis Regalis) is in Sicily. As of 2000 it is no longer a metropolitan see, and is now a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Palermo.Giovanni Roccamezza, was away in Rome:
The Spinelli Codex, the oldest surviving copy of the text, was probably copied from an older manuscript (perhaps the original) around 1330. It was published in English translation in 2015.
Two later Tuscan histories of the Vespers—the '' Liber Jani de Procida et Palialoco'' and the '' Leggenda di Messer Gianni di Procida''—may share the ''Reballamentu'' as a source. Conversely, all three may derive from an earlier, now lost source. All three agree on the centrality of John of Procida in the Vespers. The
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
''
Les vêpres siciliennes
''Les vêpres siciliennes'' (''The Sicilian Vespers'') is a grand opera in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe and Charles Duveyrier from their work ''Le duc d'Albe'' of 1838. ...
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of ma ...
, drew upon the ''Rebellamentu'' for elements of its story, notably the rape.Clifford R. Backman (2002), ''The Decline and Fall of Medieval Sicily: Politics, Religion, and Economy in the Reign of Frederick III, 1296–1337'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 6.
Leon Plantinga
Leon B. Plantinga is an American musicologist specializing in music of the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His writings have influenced scholarship on Clementi, Beethoven, and Schumann, and his textbook ''Romantic Music'' continues to se ...
(1984), ''Romantic Music: A History of Musical Style in Nineteenth-Century Europe'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Co.), 312, writes that the libretto by Scribe was heavily influenced by Verdi, citing Andrew Porter (1978–9), "''Les vêpres siciliennes'': New Letters from Verdi to Scribe," ''Nineteenth-Century Music'', 2(2), 95–109.