The episode is narrated in the De Gestis Civium Astensium by Guglielmo Ventura who, although coeval to the story, was not a direct witness to the fact. Combetti, Tori (.)ġ8In 1305, there was an episode connected to the suspected murder of John I, the last Marquis of Montferrat descendant of the House of Aleramici, only male heir of William VII of Montferrat. 15 Gugliemo Ventura, De gestis civium Astensium et plurium aliorum (1260-1325), ed.We are in Messina, in 1168: the people rise in defence of the fourteenyear-old king William II. The greatest concentration of testimonies concerning the territories of the northern centre of the peninsula takes place from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century.ġ4The first of a long series of episodes of ritual murders is set in Sicily. The Italian peninsula turns more than once into the theatre of gruesome events: among the practices of corpse destruction that were typical of urban uprisings, late medieval Italian chronicles report several episodes of cannibalism that are related not so much to the numerous testimonies of nutritional anthropophagy of that period, but rather to the use of aggressive practices and violation of body integrity, common in the late Middle Ages 12. Zorzi, “Le esecuzioni delle condanne a morte a Firen (.)ġ3But, as we said, Christians also boast their own anthropophagi 11. 11 During the pilgrimage for the conquest of the Holy Land which is usually called “First Crusade” (b (.).There is no lack of discordant voices: in the case of necessity some Arab jurists allow the use of anthropophagy when the strategy used to find human flesh does not involve murder. Among the legal sources, the scholar explains, the agreement is not unambiguous but most of the testimonies call for the death penalty, and the burning of the body of those who practiced cannibalism (the implementation of the norm is attested even during famines, like the one that struck Baghdad in 334/945-956, or Egypt in 597/1201). Likewise, it is difficult to evaluate the possible intentions of the aggressors: truthful or not, the commentary on the will to assimilate the heroic virtues of Serlone through the cannibalistic act is certainly beneficial to the heroic celebration of the character.ġ1In truth, as explained by Giuseppe Madalà, from a religious point of view Islam condemns anthropophagy as well as any invasive practice on the human body, based on the Qur’an (5, 3) and the sayings of the Prophet ( hadith). Only two of the men of the Norman entourage succeeded in saving themselves, passing unnoticed under a pile of tortured bodies.ġ0As often happens, we do not have elements that can confirm the cannibalistic episode. Serlone’s head was placed on a stake and paraded through the city’s squares, while those of the other corpses were sent as a tribute to the king of Africa, the emir zīrita Tamīm b al-Mu’izz (1062-1108). The Altavilla, taken by surprise, was overwhelmed by the enemy who, stronger in number, mortally pierced him and then devoured his heart, to assimilate the invaluable courage of the dead. This occurred in 1072 following a Muslim ambush, when the Norman was near Cerami to defend his border territories. He narrates the death of Serlone II of Altavilla, nephew of Ruggero, represented as a mythical and chivalrous hero in epic tones that echo the genre of the chanson de geste. In the eleventh century, the Benedictine monk Geoffrey Malaterra, commissioned by Roger I of Altavilla to pass on the history of the Norman conquest of Sicily, gives an account of cannibalism practised by Saracens 9. But this Italian island is not just a land of mythical devouring giants. 9 Geoffrey Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comitis et Roberti Guiscardi duc (.)ĩSicily has been renowned since ancient times for being a land of man eating Cyclops, a belief that was later transferred to the Arab-Islamic West 8.Perfectly corresponding to such a prototype is the figure of Tabur, the Saracen against which the hero William of Orange strenuously fights in the Chanson de Guillaume, a literary work dating back to the first half of the twelfth century loosely inspired by the historical figure of William I of Toulouse (750 ca – 812).ĢBy depicting the enemy, stigmatizing their diversity as a monstrous and terrifying being, Christian authors at the same time celebrate the valour of the heroes capable of annihilating such an adversary: defenceless paladins without blemish and without fear, facing bestialized and monstrous characters. ġLong fangs, sharp claws and excessive hirsutism: these are some of the traits that characterize the stigmatization of the enemy in Old French chansons de geste. Je l’eüst mort quant sa hanste li fruisse 1. Gros out le cors, si out l’eschine curbe, Wathelet-Willem, Paris, Les belles lettres, 1975, v.
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