Normans

Although scholars tend to draw a line of confrontation between the conquerors Normans and the conquered Muslims and Greeks in the kingdom of Sicily, the actual relationship among these people was not so simple. In the kingdom there was a relatively developed bureaucracy staffed by officials with varied cultural backgrounds.  The kings and these bureaucrats took a stand against the aristocrats, who had solely Latin Christian backgrounds.  In fact, the keynote of the political history of the kingdom was a process in which the kings together with bureaucrats held down the aristocrats and cities of the peninsula.  The kings and bureaucrats, who had different cultural backgrounds but were highly educated and cultured, took a stand against aristocrats who were not well cultured but trained as warriors.  However, this line of confrontation was visible only during the peacetime.  During the wartime, a line of confrontation was drawn within aristocrats and cities that had military power.  Aristocrats and cities were divided into a pro-king group and an anti-king one, and fought amongst each other, while bureaucrats were usually on the side of the kings.  This suggests that even the mighty Norman kings supported by the bureaucrats were by no means absolute.  The strong Norman kingship of Sicily was in fact only made possible by a delicate balance of power among aristocrats, cities, and bureaucrats.

Although Allen Brown did not write extensively about Wales, he was certain that the Normans had made a big difference to its history by inaugurating a conquest that was completed, some two centuries later, by Edward I. 1 Members of the Battle Conference, on its visit to Gregynog, about eight miles west of the motte of Hen Domen near Montgomery, 2 will hardly need persuasion that Norman conquest and settlement were significant in Wales. After all, in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries the Normans and their allies established control over a substantial swathe of the country, extending in an arc along its eastern borders and southern coast, and created marcher lordships that enjoyed extensive autonomy until the reign of Henry VIII. Yet precisely how much difference the Normans made is a matter for continuing debate. Now, I should explain at the outset that my aim is not to try and assess the nature and impact of Norman conquest and settlement in Wales. Rather, what follows will focus on how historians have viewed the place of the Normans in Welsh history, and especially how and how far these conquerors have been integrated into narratives of national history. In other words, this paper is essentially historiographical in its approach. True, Allen Brown was somewhat impatient of the efforts of previous scholars, who, he believed, had muddied the waters by their partisan stance in relation to the Norman conquest of England. Yet, as he clearly saw, his own work responded to those earlier interpretations and in turn contributed to continuing debates about the extent and significance of the Normans in English history. 3 Historiographical reflection is valuable, indeed inescapable, in any serious effort to offer new interpretations of a given subject. That, then, is one justification for my topic: by looking at the work of previous historians, we may gain a clearer understanding of the premises and frameworks underpinning more recent studies of the Norman impact on Wales. But there is more to the enterprise than that. While looking back to previous historians' work provides a background and context for the present state of the subject, it does not follow that we should adopt a Whiggish view that tends to deprecate earlier scholars for their lack of rigour or understanding in order to celebrate the allegedly higher standards of our own day. Instead, an investigation of earlier interpretations of the Normans' place in the history of 1 R. Allen Brown, The Normans, Woodbridge 1984, 5, 73, 153; idem, The Normans and the Norman Conquest, 2nd edn, Woodbridge 1985, 11, 226. I am grateful to all those at the Battle Conference who provided feedback on the lecture at Gregynog, to Neil Evans and J. Beverley Smith for their comments on a draft of the published version, and to Nancy Edwards for her encouragement and support. 2 Cf. Brown, Normans; Chibnall, Normans. Cf. also works which, while narrower in geographical scope, set Norman expansion in a wider context than that of the individual countries of

The idea of a Norman ethnic identity, of a Normannitas, has long been discussed by contemporary historiography. Nonetheless, this field of studies seems always to be caught up between two distinct types of discussion and theoretical basis: one more focused on Late Antiquity/Early Middle Ages and the other on the Late Middle Ages. Stressing connections between 10 th and 11 th century Normandy and the classical past, we propose applying the ethnogenesis concept and the extensive research it spawned on the construction of late antique ethnic identities to deepen our understanding on the forging of an early Norman identity. Acknowledging the extensive discussion over Scandinavian influence or Frankish continuity in the formation and development of the Norman duchy, we propose a different approach to Dudo of Saint-Quentin's Gesta Normannorum, viewing the text more in connection with a late-antique tradition of historical writing on 'barbaric' gentes. Seeing the work through that lens, this paper utilizes recent research by Lesley Abrams, Mark Hagger and Fraser McNair on 10 th century Normandy and attempts to understand how the construction of a gens normannorum identity could have been instrumental to the Norman dukes in their seeking to establish authority over a diverse group of elites, arguing that they did so through an idea of Normanness completely centered on and emanating from the ruling Rollonid lineage.

In 1132 a, important battle was fighted by the new king of Sicily Roger II and Norman rebel Barons near the river Sarno (near Vesuvius). The paper examines the tactical movements of troops before battle, the forces and equipments, and finally all the battle phases.

Whilst historians often regard the Norman Kingdom of Sicily as centralised and administratively advanced, County and Nobility in Norman Italy counters this traditional interpretation; far from centralised and streamlined, this book reveals how the genesis and social structures of the kingdom were constantly fraught between the forces of royal power and a re-invented local aristocracy. The result of thorough research conducted on the vast source material for the history of this fascinating twelfth-century world, this book sheds important new light on medieval Italy.

In the 1980s work began on construction of the vast underground Castle Mall shopping centre in Norwich. The associated archaeological excavation was one of the largest of its kind in northern Europe, designed to investigate not only the castle bailey but also pre-Conquest settlement and, for the post-Conquest period, areas of the surrounding medieval city.

The report describes evidence for late Saxon streets, houses and graveyards; the developing fortifications of an urban castle established before 1100; gradual encroachment by the townspeople into the castle precinct after the 13th century; documentation relating to the ownership and development of properties within the Castle Fee; crafts and industries associated with these plots - notably bell-founding; a late medieval assemblage of great significance from the barbican well including ironwork, leather waste, bird and animal bone; and sizeable finds assemblages resulting from the steady infilling of castle ditches with domestic and commercial refuse.

Although Parts I and II both contain summary accounts of the faunal remains, setting them into their wider context and including additional information on craft activities, the scale of the data made publication of a separate and more specialised report on the faunal remains desirable and this is published here as Part III.

According to a traditional view villeins (villani) in Norman Sicily consisted of two basic classes, those who owed their lords hereditary service in person and those who owed service with respect to the terms of their tenure of land. Those scholars who recently examined relevant terms in Arabic documents seem to share this view. For example, Jeremy Johns showed us a list of Latin, Greek and Arabic words categorized into two groups, a class of “registered” villeins (ḥursh) and a class of “unregistered” villeins (muls), while Alex Metcalfe explains that Arabic and Greek terms to refer to villeins can be resolved into two basic categories, “registered” and “unregistered” families. In this paper, I will make it clear that muls and ḥursh were not a pair of opposite Arabic terms indicating two different classes of villeins, but that muls simply signify those who were not listed in the previous documents.

This article analyzes how the neighbors of the Byzantines, the Lombards (who occupied a portion of southern Italy), and the Normans (who put an end to Byzantine rule in southern Italy in 1071), described their common adversary. The examination of the features that the chroniclers living in early medieval southern Italy attributed to the Byzantines demonstrates that, at least for this part of Europe, there is evidence of strong hostility to Byzantium before the twelfth century, a period traditionally perceived as crucial for the deterioration of relations between Westerners and Constantinople.

The Norman Kingdom of Sicily is reputed to be a haven of peaceful coexistence of cultures and a paragon of Christian religious tolerance in Medieval Europe. Many scholarly works discussing tolerance in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily focus on Muslims under Norman rule. The kings’ favorable attitude toward Muslims is most often quoted as proof of their religious tolerance, while Ibn Jubair, a traveler from Spain, reveals feelings of humiliation and slavery of Muslims. In this article, I have examined how the status of Muslims changed in a changing political situation, and concluded that the relationship between Normans and Muslims were not so simple. Opposition could be created by not only religion but also other factors. The difference in religion or cultural background did not serve as a clear line of confrontation, and those who were at the center of power in the Norman kingdom of Sicily had various cultural backgrounds. Thus, we cannot simply regard the Normans as the majority in the kingdom, or see the Normans’ stance towards Muslims as being «religious tolerance ».

Mercenary soldiers were widespread in medieval Europe and the Near East during the Middle Ages. Probably the most famous example of them remains the Varangian Guard, an elite imperial unit that Byzantine Emperor Basil II (976-1025 CE) formed at the end of the 10th century . The “Varangians” was the name given by the Greeks, Rus' people, and others to Vikings, who famously raided many parts of Europe between the 9th and 11th centuries.. According to “Matiane Kartlisa”, the Georgian medieval chronicle, some three thousand Varangian soldiers had been involved in the conflict between the Georgian king Bagrat IV and Liparit IV Baghwashi, the powerful feudal lord of Kldekari (southwest Georgia), in 1042. This account contains many interesting insights into  medieval Georgia as well as the  Viking exploration. Historians continued to debate the ethnicity of these Varangian mercenaries and whether they were a raiding party or a mercenary group employed by either Bagrat IV or Liparit. The size of the Varangian contingent also remains a subject of debate since the medieval chronicle’s claim of 3,000 warriors is clearly dubious and requires more critical analysis.
The present article scrutinizes available historical sources and studies by Georgian and foreign historians about the Varangians in Georgia. It seeks to challenge and dispel some of the persisting myths, including the long-standing claim that Swedish Viking Ingvar the Far-Travelled had been in the Georgian king’s employ. Evidence of use of Frankish mercenaries by King Bagrat IV of Georgia in the 1060s shows that the use of mercenary companies was a common practice in medieval Georgia. Therefore the presence of the Varangians was not unusual.

In questo elaborato si vogliono verificare le tracce della cultura islamica in Sicilia, terra di conquista saracena, in particolar modo nella Cappella Palatina di Palermo, grande esempio di fusione di elementi culturali arabi, bizantini e latini. Queste tre culture si sono succedute nell’isola in diversi momenti dell’epoca medievale: la prima presenza in Sicilia è quella dei Bizantini, dal VI secolo, successivamente sostituiti dagli arabi dal IX secolo al XII, quando i Normanni diventeranno sovrani dell’isola e tenteranno un recupero degli elementi culturali latini, senza però mai eliminare le tracce islamiche; gli elementi della cultura araba importata dai saraceni, poi dai Fatimidi, costutuiranno il terreno ideologico e artistico dal quale esaltare la magnificenza dei sovrani normanni.
Si sono utilizzate fonti cartacee per la bibliografia, mentre quelle riguardanti la Cappella Palatina sono state ricercate in rete, e includono studi in riviste sull’aspetto artistico architettonico e linguistico e, soprattutto, materiale fotografico recuperato o dalle stesse riviste online o da siti specializzati. In tal senso si rimanda al sito www.cappellapalatinapalermo.it, che ha realizzato un interessantissimo tour virtuale in 3D dell’intero complesso architettonico.

Biomolecular evidence has great potential to address unanswered questions about the nature and scale of migration into early medieval England. Previous isotopic studies of early medieval mobility and migration have mostly been site specific, focussing on the identification of outliers, occasionally comparing to a baseline or other sites for context. Here we present the results of a large-scale synthetic analysis of isotopic data for mobility in early medieval England, utilising both published and new data. We show gendered and regionally specific mobility histories in early medieval England for the first time at scale, and demonstrate chronological fluctuations linked to events such as the Adventus Saxonum and Scandinavian settlements of the 9th century AD onwards. First generation migrants and their possible regions of origin are identified, and narratives of migration from the end of the Roman period to the 11th century AD are re-framed considering the new evidence presented.

This article revisits the failed attempt to conquer Lisbon by a combined host of Anglo-Norman and Portuguese crusaders in 1142 within the wider context of both the crusader movement to the Holy Land and the Iberian Reconquista. Focusing on the Historia Gothorum, De expugnatione Lyxbonensi and other sources, it endeavours to demonstrate the degree of involvement of the Anglo-Norman contingents in maritime adventures at a time when no other crusades had been declared. Finally, it illustrates the consequence of this undertaking for the final conquest of Lisbon, as part of the Second Crusade, in 1147.

The importance of Galloway's Gaelic clans (or kindreds) on the medieval and later history if south-west Scotland has been neglected. The research presented here re-assesses their importance and significant influence on the history of the region.

Onuncu ve on birinci yüzyılda kabile tarzı hayattan devletleşmeye geçen iki toplum iki ayrı kıtada dikkat çeker. Bunlar Avrupa’da Normanlar Asya’da ise Selçuklulardır. Normanlar İskandinav kökenli olan Vikinglerin, Selçuklular ise Türkistan’dan göçen Oğuzların arasından çıkmışlardır.
Bu iki hanedanda bulundukları kıtaya dağılarak birden fazla devlet kurmuşlardır. Bu devletler canlılıkları ve başarıları ile bilinmektedir. Bu yeni kurdukları devletler ve hanedanlarla çevrelerine etki etmiş ve etkilenmişlerdir. Bunların ikisi de genellikle disiplinli orduları ve örgütlenmedeki başarıları ile bilinirler.
Bu çalışmada bu iki toplum ve hanedan mukayeseye tabi tutulmuş ve buna binaen değerlendirmeler yapılmıştır. Karşılaştırmalar yaparken esas olan taht veraset sistemi olduğu için siyasi tarih olarak taht değişimi esnasındaki olaylara ve görüşlere odaklanılmıştır. Böylece bu toplumların ve taht veraset usullerinin zamanla ne süreçlerden geçtiği ortaya konulmuştur.

Scritti all’inizio del XII secolo da un normanno di provenienza meridionale, i Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum rappresentano una delle fonti principali per lo studio e la comprensione della prima crociata che si concluse con la sanguinosa conquista di Gerusalemme (1099). Con una narrazione lucida ed essenziale, l’anonimo cronista fornisce al lettore odierno una preziosa ricostruzione di uno degli eventi che avrebbe maggiormente segnato la storia europea e i suoi rapporti con le altre civiltà gravitanti nell’area mediterranea.
Il volume contiene i testo latino e la traduzione italiana largamente commentata.

Archaeological evidence and historical sources allow for further reflections on defensive structures of Media valle del Sele, an important area of the Salernitan principality. Therefore, moving from the most recent data that have come to light, we will attempt to demonstrate the diachronic nature of fortifications systems between Eboli and Campagna, and how it played a central role in the settlement, political and social dynamics during Lombard age and the early years of Norman conquest. In particular, the paper focuses on two complementary castella, strategically placed along via campanina, the medieval road passing through locus Tuscianus and Locus Furanus: the castle of Monte di Eboli and the fortress of Alegisio.
The interdisciplinary methodology shows innovative dating proposals on two castles investigated that, as a consequence, postpone the dynamic strengthening activity in Media valle del Sele between 10th and 11th century, originated by the direct presence of princely authority, which evolved with the society of the late Lombard world and, finally, was transformed by inclusion in the Salernitan context of Normans.

Tutti i diritti riservati. Impaginazione: Sabina Coratelli con il contributo di Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro" Questo volume è dedicato alla memoria di Raffaele Licinio s. luCà, Scritture e libri in Terra d'Otranto fra XI e XII secolo, in Bizantini, Longobardi e Arabi in Puglia nell'Alto Medioevo. Atti del XX congresso internazionale di studio sull'alto Medioevo (Savelletri di Fasano, 3-6 novembre 2011), Spoleto 2012, pp. 487-548: 504 ss. (ma cf., per quanto attiene in particolare alle scritture, le pp. 524 ss.). 6 Per il rapporto tra storia evenemenziale e trasformazioni delle scritture, cf. le parole di G. CaVallo, La scrittura greca libraria tra i secoli I a.C.-I d.C. Materiali, tipologie, momenti, in Paleografia e codicologia greca. Atti del II Colloquio internazionale (Berlin-Wolfenbüttel, 17-21 ottobre 1983), a cura di D. Harlfinger -G. Prato, Alessandria 1991, I, pp. 11-29 e II, pp. 5-30 (tavole): 11 (rist. in Id., Il calamo e il papiro: La scrittura greca dall'età ellenistica ai primi secoli di Bisanzio, Firenze 2005, pp. 107-122: 107). Per il concetto di longue durée e per la questione dei découpage historiques, oltre alle opere di Fernand Braudel, mi limito a rimandare al libro-testamento di J. le goff, Faut-il vraiment découper l'histoire en tranches?, Paris 2014. 7 Della seconda fase normanna si tratterà nella parte III, insieme alla prima fase sveva, per i motivi che si diranno. Per speculum in aenigmate Bulgari 12 , Armeni 13 , Berberi 14 , Arabi musulmani e cristiani 15 , da Longobardi e, a partire dall'XI secolo, da Normanni 16 : gruppi etnoculturali che, in taluni casi almeno, coltivarono una produzione manoscritta nella propria lingua.

Nel 1716 Dom Martène ritrovò nell'abbazia di Gembloux, tra i pochi volumi scampati a un incendio che aveva distrutto il celebre cenobio, un testo -fino a quel momento sconosciuto -che narrava gli eventi della prima crociata che avrebbe poi pubblicato l'anno seguente nel terzo tomo del suo Thesaurus novus anecdotorum. 2 Il testo in questione risultò essere opera di un chierico normanno nato intorno agli anni ottanta dell'XI secolo, 3

Wotan-Odhinn; il Signore dei morti, la divinità sciamanica germanica, fra le più sacre delle popolazioni scandinave, che lo riconoscevano quale nume della guerra e di coloro che per sua causa morivano 1 . Il di lui nome riconduceva alla radice indoeuropea Wat (Wot-), dalla quale derivavano una serie di lemmi indicanti il furore o l'ispirazione divina 2 .

Oblio e memoria di Boemondo d'Altavilla nella storiografia normanna Introduzione «Non esistono artifici volontari per dimenticare ma ne esistono per ricordare male» 1 . Partiamo da quest'affermazione di Umberto Eco per dare sostanza al nostro contributo che verterà sulla figura di Boemondo d'Altavilla, figlio di primo letto di Roberto il Guiscardo, nonché sui differenti giudizi circa la sua partecipazione alla "prima crociata" 2 tratti da due testimonianze coeve, il De rebus gestis Rogerii di Goffredo Malaterra 3 e i Gesta Francorum di Anonimo 4 . Non è possibile parlare per far sparire qualcosa: ogni asserzione è di per sé una presenza. Del resto, memoria e oblio rappresen-1 U. Eco, Ars oblivionalis. Sulla difficoltà di costruire un'Ars oblivionalis, «Kos», 30 (1987), p. 53. 2 Utilizziamo tale espressione pur con tutte le cautele del caso. Sul concetto di crociata nel XII secolo vedi comunque C. Tyerman, L'invenzione delle crociate, trad. ital. Torino 2000, pp. 13-51. 3 De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comitis et Roberti Guiscardi ducis fratris eius auctore Gaufredo Malaterra, ed. E. Pontieri, in Muratori, R.I.S. 2 , 5/1, Bologna 1925-1928 [= d'ora in poi GM]. Tale edizione presenta molti punti controversi, come ribadito ancora di recente da E. D'Angelo, Ritmica ed ecdotica nel testo di Goffredo Malaterra, in Poesia dell'alto medioevo europeo: manoscritti, lingua e musica dei ritmi latini, a cura di F. Stella, Firenze 2000, pp. 383-394 [ora ristampato in D'Angelo, Storiografi e cronologi latini del Mezzogiorno normannosvevo, Napoli 2003, pp. 216-226]. La prof.ssa Marie-Agnes Lucas-Avenel dell'Università di Caen sta attualmente lavorando a una nuova edizione critica del testo. 4 Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, edd. R. Hill --R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford Medieval Texts, London 1962 [= d'ora in poi GF]. V. ora anche l'edizione italiana Le gesta dei Franchi e degli altri pellegrini gerosolimitani, a cura di L. Russo, Alessandria 2003. bullettino106parte2.qxp 05/05/2004 14.01 Pagina 61 LUIGI RUSSO 5 Sul rapporto memoria-oblio molti spunti sono forniti da M. Augé, Le forme dell'oblio, trad. ital. Milano 2000, pp. 23 ss. 6 Cfr. F. Ohly, Geometria e memoria. Lettera e allegoria nel Medioevo, trad. ital. Bologna 1985, p. 166 [edito originariamente col titolo Bemerkungen eines Philologen zur Memoria, in Memoria. Der geschichtliche Zeugniswert des liturgischen Gedenkens im Mittelalter, a cura di K. Schmid --J. Wollasch, München 1984, pp. 9-69]; O.G. Oexle, Memoria und Memorialüberlieferung im früheren Mittelalter, «Frühmittelalterliche Studien», 10 (1976), pp. 70-95. Più in generale sulla consapevolezza della volatilità della memoria nelle società tradizionali si vedano le considerazioni di F. Simone, La Terza Fase. Forme di sapere che stiamo perdendo, Roma-Bari 2002 2 , pp. 57-58. 7 Al riguardo vedi le stimolanti riflessioni su 'Documento/monumento' di J. Le Goff, Storia e memoria, trad. ital. Torino 1988, pp. 443-455. 8 Cfr. J. Assmann, La memoria culturale. Scrittura, ricordo e identità politica nelle grandi civiltà antiche, trad. ital. Torino 1997, pp. 44-45.

Inaugurato nel febbraio del 2010 1 , il Museo Nicolaiano di Bari ospita oggi, tra i numerosi reperti in esso presenti, la pergamena originale fatta redigere da Boemondo alla vigilia della partenza per la Terrasanta. Il documento in questione si apre solennemente: «Ego Boamundus, Robberti ducis filius, hanc potestatem et auctoritatem do et concedo tibi Guidelmo flammengo catepano civitatis nostre Bari ut tu, in vice mea, de cuncta hereditate que michi in eadem civitate mea Baro pertinet, videlicet casis casilibus curtis vineis vinealibus olivis terris simul et de omni causa mea que intus in Baro michi pertinet, et foris licentiam habeas vendere, vicariare, dare, et concedere, sine requisitione et contrarietate mea meorumque heredum et successorem, sive nostrorum omnium hordinatorum, et quicumque a te acceperit, firmum et stabile illi ita permaneat» 2 .

Falcone Beneventano ha testimoniato che nell’Assemblea di Ariano del 1140, Ruggero II, oltre ad aver emanato quel corpo di leggi noto come  Assise di Ariano, decise “di introdurre una sua sola moneta che chiamò ducato…..e introdusse anche tre follari di bronzo”.  Per comprendere le ragioni di tale decisione non ci si è finora soffermati abbastanza sull’'animus' del sovrano e sullo specifico contesto storico-politico. Dall’esame emerge la ferma volontà di Ruggero di rendere effettiva l’unificazione del Regno, nato dalla soppressione violenta delle tante entità politiche preesistenti. A questa logica vanno ricondotte tutte le decisioni assunte nell’Assemblea convocata, a dieci anni dall’incoronazione palermitana del 1130, per suggellare  l’effettivo dominio dell’intero Regno dopo dure azioni militari contro ribelli interni e nemici esterni. E di qui la decisione di battere nuove monete, anch’esse pensate come strumento di unificazione. Lo studio si è soffermato su un dato normativo finora rimasto in ombra, ma acutamente già rilevato da un giurista trecentesco: Biagio da Morcone. Significativa è infatti una norma delle Assise che prevede la pena di morte per i falsari di monete. Ruggero con tale disposizione volle innovare rispetto al diritto longobardo, largamente utilizzato fino ad allora nel Mezzogiorno d’Italia, che prevedeva invece la più blanda pena del taglio della mano. Sullo sfondo di questa valenza politica della ‘riforma monetaria’ si è poi passati ad un’analisi puntuale delle fonti disponibili per tentare di mettere a fuoco le specifiche tipologie di monete, di individuarle concretamente in esemplari rinvenuti e di  comprenderne la vita reale.

The purpose of this chapter is to explore these two phases of Norman involvement in the peninsular wars against the Muslim inhabitants. Why did the Normans depart from their homeland in the first place? How did the Normans' incursions into the Italian peninsula help to explain their involvement in Iberia? Was the rising antagonism between the Normans and their local Christian Iberian allies an important factor in their change in strategy? Finally, how did the changing political circumstances in Iberia and in the Anglo-Norman realms conspire to transform the nature of Norman involvement in the peninsula?

There has been a lot of work on the political history of Normandy in recent years, and this is changing understanding of the duchy's origins and development. Some of this work has examined the actions, relationships and settlement of the Vikings in the years prior to the 'treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte' and the inception of Normandy (traditionally dated to 911). The conditions that allowed the Vikings under Rollo to embed themselves in local society have been explored, and it has become clear that the Northmen were well-established in the region long before their settlement was officially recognized by Charles the Simple. The narrative sources which provide the foundation for any political history of Normandy, particularly Dudo of Saint-Quentin's Historia Normannorum or De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum, have also been the focus of a great deal of work. Dudo's intentions have been discussed at length, and while the provision of a historically accurate account was not among them, his work can now be used to suggest something of the ambitions of Duke Richard II and the concerns of those Franks who came into contact with him and his warriors. Until the 1970s, historians thought that Normandy was created swiftly and that it was unified from the outset. Now, a much more nuanced view is forming, which sees the establishment of Normandy as a slow process of confrontation and unification. Chance gave the dukes dominion over the Bretons and allowed them to take and hold the Avranchin. Elsewhere, the going was harder. Confrontation with the lords of Bellême and counts of Chartres led to stalemate. Within the frontiers thus established, the dukes had to fight to make their authority a reality and to weld Normandy into the unified family observed by Ralph Glaber in the later 1030s – although what Glaber did not know was that the duchy had still not taken its final form by that date.

Il contributo tratta della genesi della tecnica di decorazione muraria ad intarsi nella Campania normanna e della sua prima diffusione nel Meridione. Un approfondimento è dedicato alle esperienze calabresi, in particolare a S. Maria del Patir presso Rossano.

In calabria, la decifrazione della complessa vicenda costruttiva di età medievale, nei suoi risvolti tecnici, organizzativi e socio-economici, si è progressivamente arricchita grazie a diversi contributi speciici che hanno interessato non solo gli ediici più rappresentativi ma anche le espressioni di un'architettura "minore". molti studi, da tempo rivolti all'esperienza costruttiva calabrese, hanno già approfondito il tema nei risvolti più propriamente formali e culturali. tuttavia, Emilia Zinzi ha più volte indicato come imprescindibile un approccio diretto agli aspetti "materici", riconoscendo così anche al materiale costruttivo un valore informativo, che non è solo dato scientiico, ma anche preziosa testimonianze dell'attività umana del fare e segno di una più profonda dimensione dell'uomo che ci avvicina maggiormente alla progettualità, alle motivazioni, all'organizzazione, agli strumenti, ai gesti, alla fatica sessa del costruire.

This article explores the involvement of the Norman nobility in the wars between Christians and Muslims in the Ebro Valley in the  rst half of the 12th Century. The work recognises how the participation of this particular ethno-cultural group in the peninsula was renovated to a certain degree by the deeds and religious transformation that took place as a result of the preaching and success of the First Crusade. Furthermore, by exploring the careers of Rotrou of Perche, Robert Burdet and Walter Guidvilla this piece demonstrates how their religiosity as well as the  lial relations and traditional desire for wealth that characterise this group of warriors, made the Iberian theatre of con ict so attractive at this particular period. Also, this article, tries to show how their Iberians lay and clerical coreligionists perceived the usefulness of these Norman contingents in their con ict with the Almoravids.

The Fécamp Psalter is a Norman illuminated manuscript produced around the year 1180. It contains a portrait of its patron kneeling in prayer and turned towards the Beatus page. This person is to be identified with a high-ranking woman of the Angevin state. Her appearance and her position in the manuscript, together with certain related contemporary visual examples, permit us to hypothesize about her identity. The study of this artistic commission also helps us to understand better the processes of patronage that operated between individuals and monastic houses in twelfth-century Europe, and enriches our understanding of the concepts of female self-awareness and biblical pre-figuration in medieval art.

Tematem pracy jest wyprawa Rusów na Konstantynopol, zorganizowana w 860 roku, przedstawiona w "Powieści Minionych Lat" pod rokiem 866. Autor podjął próbę całościowego przedstawienia problematyki związanej z wyprawą, ze szczególnym podkreśleniem sytuacji w jakiej znajdowało się wówczas Wschodnie Cesarstwo oraz szczegółowym opisem genezy osadnictwa normańskiego na ziemiach dzisiejszej Rosji, wyróżniając przy tym plemię Rusów, jako głównego oponenta Bizancjum, nadchodzącego z ziem Wschodniej Słowiańszczyzny