Can Anyone Survive Sicily’s Landscape? A 12th-Century Political Experiment

Join online or in Oxford for this lecture from Dr Philippa Byrne.

Join Dr Philippa Byrne for a talk in the Oxford Lifelong Learning seminar series on 'Medieval Society and Landscape', convened by Professor David Griffiths and Dr Stephen Mileson.

Event details:

You can choose to join us in Oxford or watch the session online. If you are joining us in person, this talk will take place in Stopforth Metcalfe Room in Rewley House.

About the talk:

In the eleventh century, Sicily, a former Islamic emirate, was conquered by bands of Norman fighters. The new Norman rulers imported administrators trained in northern Europe, in a Latin tradition. These Latin-speakers then set about trying to make sense of the local landscape. Northern European scholars knew Sicily from their reading of classical texts: they knew what Seneca had said about Etna and its earth tremors; they had read Virgil's description of Scylla and Charybdis, the terrors lurking in the Straits of Messina. They understood that in the ancient world, Sicily had been - perhaps by reason of its distinctive geography - an 'island of tyrants'. To what they knew from classical authors, these twelfth-century scholars also added what they learned through observation and engagement with natural science. This knowledge, in turn, informed political debate: how could a place with such unruly, even violent, geography be governed? This paper considers how twelfth-century ideas of geography, landscape, and ecology played a meaningful role in shaping medieval political thought.

About the seminar series:

This series will be a fascinating showcase of the history and archaeology of the medieval period, with a focus on societies, economies and landscapes. It brings together current research and fresh perspectives to explore how people shaped their lives and environments across the Middle Ages.

The programme offers a friendly, collaborative space for discussion, featuring research in progress, approaches to sources and methodologies, and an interface between academic research and local and community history and archaeology. Drawing on a rich heritage of documents, material culture and landscape evidence, the series highlights the breadth and continued relevance of medieval studies.

Open to staff, students and anyone with an interest in medieval history and archaeology, locally and globally, the series includes contributions from established scholars and practitioners.

Each session lasts 1 hour, and drinks will be available for purchase in the common room afterwards.

To view the full series of talks, please visit our website.