The Invention of Sicily
A Mediterranean History
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Whether you’re vacationing in Italy or simply an armchair traveler, this guide to the Mediterranean island of Sicily is a dazzling introduction to the region’s rich 3,000-year history and culture.
A rich and fascinating cultural history of the Mediterranean’s enigmatic heart Sicily is at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, and for over 2000 years has been the gateway between Europe, Africa and the East. It has long been seen as the frontier between Western Civilization and the rest, but never definitively part of either. Despite being conquered by empires—Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Hapsburg Spain—it remains uniquely apart. The island’s story maps a mosaic that mixes the story of myth and wars, maritime empires and reckless crusades, and a people who refuse to be ruled.
In this riveting, rich history Jamie Mackay peels away the layers of this most mysterious of islands. This story finds its origins in ancient myth but has been reinventing itself across centuries: in conquest and resistance. Inseparable from these political and social developments are the artefacts of the nation’s cultural patrimony—ancient amphitheaters, Arab gardens, Baroque Cathedrals, as well as great literature such as Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s masterpiece The Leopard, and the novels and plays of Luigi Pirandello. In its modern era, Sicily has been the site of revolution, Cosa Nostra and, in the twenty-first century, the epicenter of the refugee crisis.
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Journalist Mackay debuts with an astute and revealing portrait of Sicily as a vibrant, historically "autonomous" island with a singular culture fashioned by its proximity to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He delves into the establishment of the first Greek settlements around 750 BCE; the golden age of the Greek city-state of Syracuse in the third century BCE, while the rest of the island was engulfed in the First Punic War with Rome; and the ninth-century Islamic conquest that gave rise to Sicily's UNESCO-recognized Arab-Norman architecture. Skillfully segueing from one period to the next, Mackay packs the narrative with insights into how historical events impacted Sicilian culture. At the height of the Black Plague in the 14th century, for instance, "the bright gold Byzantine mosaics of Sicily's churches and chapels began to be replaced by darker, stranger pieces" that featured "dog people, humans with multiple heads, unicorns and other more ambiguous monsters." Mackay also chronicles the history of the Sicilian Mafia, documenting its 19th-century origins, suppression by Mussolini in the 1920s, and post-WWII resurgence, though he stresses the short history of Cosa Nostra on an island where Cicero walked. The author's keen eye for telling details and lucid prose make this an accessible introduction to a complex and fascinating culture.
