Storia e Politica (Dec 2020)
Die spätmittelalterliche geschichte siziliens als patchwork. Die neuerfindung der novissimorum temporum Im werk De Rebus Siculis Decades Duae des dominikanischen gelehrten Tommaso Fazello (1558)
Abstract
The Work De Rebus Siculis Decades Duae by Tommaso Fazello, scholar of the Ordo Praedicatorum, was published in 1558 and soon after it revolutionized the way Sicily’s history was reconstructed and described. This study refers to the six fundamental points of Fazello’s book and develops and clarifies each point the Dominican historian started from to write a harmonious and organic history of Sicily, dealing with a very long period between the Flood (he thinks it happened 2242 years after the creation of the world) and the abdication of Emperor Charles of Habsburg in favor of his son Philips II. Fazello’s book is based on a Thomist conception of the world and its sources are archeological excavations and very often mythological groundless traditions. But the author describes vividly with accuracy the usages and customs of the population living in Sicily as he has a direct personal experience of all the processions and events taking place in the island. Consequently De Rebus Siculis Decades Duae is one of the most fascinating evidence how the history of Sicily in the European historiography, from Late Middle Ages to the Humanism, is read, interpreted and written.
