The Ferraris Chronicle: Popes, Emperors, and Deeds in Apulia 1096-1228 - Paperback

by Jacqueline Alio (Author)

This is the first English translation of a chronicle completed in 1228 about the Normans and Swabians in Italy. Drawn partly from earlier works, it complements our knowledge of a complex era of Italian history. Its anonymous author was a monk at an abbey near Naples. His informative account breathes life into the figures who forged the Kingdom of Sicily, especially Frederick II, who the chronicler probably knew. This is the last chronicle contemporaneous to Frederick's reign to be translated into English. It takes us to the period immediately prior to his departure to claim the crown of Jerusalem. Discovered during the nineteenth century and conserved as a single known manuscript, it was first published, in the original Latin, in 1888. This volume includes a lengthy introduction, maps, genealogical tables, photographs, over 400 endnotes, a timeline, and features such as a list of personages with capsule biographies, concordance, and a bibliography. Jacqueline Alio, who authored this volume, is one of Sicily's leading medievalists, one of just a few Sicily-based history scholars whose books have been published in English.

Author Biography

Jacqueline Alio is one of Sicily's leading historians, and part of a new wave that is writing the history of Sicily's women. Over the last decade, she has been consulted by The History Channel, The Discovery Channel and other media. An accomplished medievalist, she has published the results of her original research while writing insightful articles for a general readership. Online, her articles have captivated millions, gaining her a special place as one of the Sicilian historians with the most readers around the world. In print, scholarly works like her translation of the Ferraris Chronicle have earned her kudos in academic circles. Margaret Queen of Sicily, the first biography of that regent, is the lengthiest published work of original scholarship written in English by a historian in Sicily. She co-authored the first book in English to outline the emerging field of Sicilian Studies. Her most recent book, the result of years of research, is a compendium of biographies of the queens of Sicily into the middle of the 13th century.