Sicily – and especially Syracuse – seems to have had an ongoing preoccupation with paired eyes as an apotropaic or magico-religious symbol. This brief paper explores some signature pieces and speculates that the excised eyes of Santa Lucia, patron saint of Syracuse, may be but a recent embodiment of a propensity that dates back to the Neolithic era.

Beyond the texts on women’s medicine associated with the name of a 12th-century female medical practitioner from Salerno named Trota (or the title, “Trotula”), the most widely circulated texts were those deriving from the ancient Greek *Gynecology* of Soranus (2nd century CE). In particular, the Latin translation/adaptation by Muscio (or Mustio),…[Read more]

This preface introduces in the main issues of the volume.

This blogpost summarizes findings presented at a talk at Erfurt University on 16 May 2023, in the series KFG “Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formation,” Global Exchange: Trade, Knowledge, and Religion. In this blogpost we present our key argument that rigorous correlation between archaeological, genomic, and documentary evidence dem…[Read more]

Melus, rendered “Meles” in Greek sources, first appears in 1009 when he and a relative named Dattus rebelled against the east Roman governor-general, the katepano, taking Bari, Ascoli and Troia, before being defeated by a new katepano in 1011 and fleeing to the prince of Salerno. This chapter looks at the evidence for identified Armenians in eas…[Read more]

The establishment of an Aghlabid, then Fāṭimid-Kalbid dominion in Sicily had a deep impact not only on the island and on Mediterranean power constellations, but also on mainland Italy, especially in its Southern parts. Although the Peninsula was under continuous attack between the ninth and eleventh centuries, all attempts to place it under su…[Read more]

Architecture Space and Society Research Centre, Birkbeck (University of London) Friday 1st March 2019
Keynes Library, School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/conquest-and-construction-tickets-55022443610

Pseudo-Arabic is a form of ornament, derived from Arabic script, which appears in both Islamic and Christian contexts from the 10th century onwards. The city of Bari in south-east Italy, and its hinterland, boasts a number of examples of this motif. This article explores how pseudo-Arabic was employed in Bari and how the circulation of luxury…[Read more]