A journey through the Norman Mileto, Calabria and the historical-institutional evolutions that from the Melitana province led to the birth of the Regnum Siciliae
MILETO (VIBO VALENTIA) – “Norman Calabria, from the Melitana province to the Regnum”. This is the theme of the conference organized by the Milesia Academy in collaboration with the municipality of Mileto and the diocesan historical archive at the house of culture of the Norman city. The historical-cultural symposium foresees, starting from 5 pm today Saturday 15 June 2024, the presence of eminent scholars who will delve into some specific aspects of a crucial historical moment for the fate of Southern Italy.
That embryonic phase in which the South was the first to begin to break away from the typical early medieval mentality to open a new era. That late Middle Ages which will record the birth of the Regnum Siciliae archetype of the modern state. The conference aims to delve deeper into what came immediately before and which offered the basis on which the new institutional concept was based. In this context, it is precisely from Miletus that the discussion must start because it was in Miletus that Roger I and the Normans in general made the leap to the military, religious and political-institutional conquest of the South.
THE REPORTS ON MILETO AND THE NORMAN PROJECTION IN CALABRIA
After the introduction of the president of the Milesia Academy and director of the diocesan historical archive, Don Filippo Ramondinowill speak Ermanno Arslan, academic of the Linceans and expert scholar of monetization, who will address the topic of money: “Between Byzantines and Normans: the Mint of Miletus”. The archaeologist Francesco Cuteri, instead, will address two topics in two distinct moments of the meeting. First he will paint a picture of the “Norman County of Catanzaro, origins, borders, architecture of power”, and then he will illustrate “Around Miletus the system of castles protecting the city of Ruggero”.
Vincenzo Naymoassociate professor of Modern History and expert knowledge of the kingdom of Naples, instead, presents the “Altavilla in Medieval Calabria: location, ownership and fortune of a feudal structure of Norman institution”. Antonio Preiti, priest and architect, delves into the religious aspects applied to architecture and not only through “The theological and aesthetic thought of the Benedictine order in the construction of the abbey factories in Calabria and Sicily between the 11th and 12th centuries”. The military aspects, however, will be reconstructed by the archaeologist Luigi Corrado which will shed light on the “Normans in Italy and the war, armaments, tactics of conquest and management of the territories”. A glance at the city chosen by Ruggero as his residence throws him Concetta Di Bellaarchivist and librarian of the diocese of Miletusspecifying the role of the “Diocese of Miletus and Norman cathedral in the Middle Ages”.
Before the conclusions, once again entrusted to Don Filippo Ramondino, Elena Di Fede of the Academy of Fine Arts of Catanzaro will lead those present to discover “In stone and brick” the “decorative elements and models in the Byzantine-Norman churches of Calabria”. The meeting, which will not lack the institutional greetings of the mayor of Mileto, Salvatore Fortunato Giordano, will develop through the coordination and moderation of the journalist of the Quotidiano del Sud Francesco Ridolfi.
