Sicilian Mediaevalism: The Refashioning of the Sicilian Vespers during the Risorgimento and the Contemporary Age

Abstract

The article addresses the complex issue of Sicilian medievalism as it relates to the reinterpretation of the Sicilian Vespers during the Risorgimento. From a historiographical perspective, this phenomenon is of particular interest, as it allows for an examination of how the Sicilian ruling and revolutionary classes during the uprisings of 1820, the 1830s, and 1848 reappropriated and instrumentalized the medieval past to serve their political aims. The historical works of nineteenth-century Sicilian intellectuals thus contributed to the construction of a romanticized image of medieval Sicily – variously portrayed as the island of powerful emirs, a realm of peace and religious tolerance under the Normans, or the site of miraculous popular uprisings such as the Vespers. These historiographical interpretations, imbued with strong patriotic and identity-forming overtones, have significantly shaped twentieth-century historical discourse and continue to exert influence today, both in popular historical narratives and in the broader collective imagination.