HERALDICA CIVICA
ET MILITARA
Lion de Geules
The Sicilian Coronation Mantle
from a heraldic point of view
Hubert de Vries
A
heraldic analysis of the program of the famous Sicilian Coronation mantle in
the Weltliche Schatzkammer in Vienna may reveal to whom the mantle originally
belonged.
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THE MANTLE
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The famous socalled “Sicilian
Coronation mantle” consists of a semicircle of red silk with a diameter of
345 cm. The mantle is decorated with gold an silver embroidery and adorned
with precious and semiprecious stones. According to the text written on the
hem it was made in the royal workshops of Palermo in the year 528 of the
Hegira (1133-'34 A.D.). [1] The main figures on the mantle
consist of two large lions and a palmtree in between them. They are depicted
in the act of killing two camels or dromedars. The legend on the hem is in kufic
script and reads: “This was made in the Royal Workshops and has flowered
through the happiness and honour, the diligence and perfection, by power and
merit, with his agreement and by his well-being, magnanimity and sublimity,
by his fame and beauty as well as by the fullfillment of the desire and hope
for persisting and invariable happy
days and nights, for honour and precaution, for maintenance and protection,
for success and security, for victory and capability in the city of Sicily in
the year 528.”[2] Taking the lions on the mantle
into account, the mantle certainly cannot have been a royal garment because
in that case we would have expected, instead of the lions, an eagle like the
eagles on the mantles of Brixen and Metz. [3] Roger II (1130-1154), king of
Sicily in the time the mantle was made, indeed was dressed in Byzantine
costume. We can see this on a mosaic in the S. Maria dell Ammiraglio
(Martorana) built in 1143. The royal dress consisted of a colobium and
a chiton with a wide embroidered hem. The chiton is blue,
strewn with little golden crosses. The king is wearing a loros and is
crowned with a Byzantine royal crown consisting of a broad circlet, with a
plate in the middle, set with precious stones. On the rim are three big
pearls and from the lower rim are hanging two pendoulia. In fact he
wears no mantle (chlamys) at all. From other sources indeed, it is
known that the symbol of the king of Sicily was an (golden) eagle, later
fixed in the Hohenstaufen coat of arms for Sicily: Argent, an eagle
sable. If the mantle is not a royal
mantle to whom can it be ascribed really? The key to the answer of this
question is in the two lions so conspiciously placed on the mantle. |
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THE LIONS |
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The stencil of the two lions adossed
is very old, like so many other martial symbols. The stencil has not
devoloped very much through the ages and the lions on the mantle are thus of an
extraordinary originality. A very old example, but certainly not the oldest
one, can be seen on a bronze disc or mirror from the time of Darius the
Great (521-486). On this disc are two
lions rampant reguardant adossed within a bordure of the little suns
in the shape of marguerites which we can see everywhere in Persepolis. [4]) Other examples date from many
centuries later. They are on cloth made from the ninth until the fourteenth
century, in particular in Byzantium that had the monopoly on silk for a long
time. On these silken clothes the lions adossed sometimes are placed in a
medallion in a fashion strikingly resembling the lions on the Persian disc. |
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Taking the many lions adossed on cloth into
account but also noticing that lions are very old and traditional martial
symbols, we have to conclude that the lions-in-medallions have to be martial
symbols also. In the miltary hierarchy the lion comes after the two-headed
eagle, the eagle, the griffin and the bull and we normally do not find the
lions adossed in this short list. We may assume that the
meaning of the lions adossed certainly has to be different
from the meaning of the classical single lion. What that meaning actually can
be, may be deduced from the portrait of Alexius Apocaucos, alternately called
“grand-admiral” and “grand-duke”. [5] On this portrait he is sitting on
a kind of throne. He is all dressed in purple strewn with medallions in which
are two lions rampant adossed. This is one of the very few examples in
which there can be made a direct link between the title of grand-admiral and
the corresponding symbol of the two lions adossed [6].
Thus we may be sure that the two lions adossed are the symbol of a grand-admiral
or a grand prince, that is to say a megas dux in the Byzantine
hiearchy. This conclusion is not
contradicted by older examples of lions-adossed-in-medallions.[7] Grand
duke Alexius Apocaucos. On his
dalmatica medalions with white lions rampant adossed |
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Lions
adossed and eagle on the ceiling of the chapel of the Royal Palace in
Palermo. The construction of this chapel started in 1130 and it was
inaugurated in 1140. |
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When we
accept that a pair of lions adossed is the symbol of a megas dux,
the coronation mantle should have belonged to an officer with a similar
position or rank in Sicily (very influenced by Byzantium) in the time of
Roger II. What
remains is to establish who actually held that office in the time of Roger
II? After
the conquest of Palermo in 1072, Robert Guiscard installed a greek from his
suit as his emir, in the latinzed form ammiratus. In this he
continued a tradition set by the Moors who also let govern the island of
Sicily by an emir. At the time the word ammiratus had a wider
sense then the word “admiral”, derived from the arab amir al-bahr: (supreme)
commander at sea, has now. The office was comparable then with that of a
prime minister, like that of a megas dux. At the end of the reign of
Roger II many of the administrative powers of the admiral were transferred to
the chancellor, but in the time of William II this was undone. From the
beginning however the care for the seapower was one of the main tasks of the
admiral of Sicily. [8] The
admiral and prime minister of Sicily in the time of Roger II and the year of
the manufacturing of the mantle was, without any doubt, George of Antiochia
(†1151). |
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GRAND-ADMIRAL GEORGE OF ANTIOCHIA
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George of
Antiochia started his career in the service of the prince of Al Mahdia (on the East-coast of Tunisia)
but changed sides to Roger of Sicily after he had lost his patron there. At
first he was a strategos (general) in his service. In 1123 he had the
command of a sea-campaign and from that time the history of his life is also
the history of the Sicilian fleet. That fleet was initially under the command
of admiral Christodulos who died about 1131. In the same year, on a campaign
to Amalfi, George was already called maximus ammiratus an so we have
to accept that he succeeded Christodulos not long before or not long after
his death. [9] It is a
remarkable fact that Christodulus is never called “grand-admiral” and that
this title was used for George immediately after Roger II had received the
royal title from Pope Anacletus on the 27th of september 1130.
This suggests that George was in fact the first grand-admiral, a style only
adopted for the commander of the fleet after Roger had been made king. [10] George
shaped and executed in a very clever way the politics of the Norman kings who
could take their chances in the unfavourable political circumstances the
Byzantine Empire and the North-african coast states were in. The isle of
Djerba was conquered in 1135 and served as an important base for the next campaigns to Africa.
Tripoli was attacked in 1142 and fell in 1146. After that followed Al Mahdia,
Susa, Sfax and Gabes. In 1148 the Sicilian territory in Africa reached from
Tripoli to Bona and in the interior from the desert to Kairouan. Not less
prosperous was the campaign against Byzantium that was engaged with the
crusade of Conrad III and the Venetians. Corfu was conquered in 1147 and
further Roger penetrated the Gulf of Corinth. Because the reconquest of the
Byzantine southern Italian territories was thus made impossible, the young
king of Siciliy matched in that sense the pressing forward of Islam in the Byzantine empire.[11] So
George of Antiochia was a very important man who not only bore the title of grand-admiral
but also of grand-archont (administrator). He formally belonged to the royal
family and was the first person in the kingdom. [12] May
1143 he started the construction of the S. Maria dell’ Ammiraglio (Martorana)
in Palermo, an that can serve as a proof of his great wealth. He died in
1151, in the age of almost 70. The
situation in the time of the making of the coronation mantle was as follows. After
count Roger had received the royal title from the hands of Pope Anacletus, he
invested much effort in th following years to establish his authority in his
kingdom. In this ambition an important part was played by the fleet. At the
end of 1133 a great loss was suffered because 23 ships charged with gold and
silver shipwrecked [13]. In the
spring of 1134 (however) king Robert sailed with almost sixty armed galleys
for Salerno. He directed them from there to Naples where they could penetrate
into the harbour but were repulsed by the Napolitans. On their way back they
destroyed some Napolitan strongholds and retruned to their king. It is
possible that some others joined the raid but these were of minor importance.
The same year the fleet was sent to Africa. After
1123 Roger had not interfered in African politics. Now, in 1134, he had the
opportunity to set in an even stronger fleet (as before). Al Hasan, the Zirid
prince quarreled with his African sheiks because he had favoured one of them.
He was besieged in (Al) Mahdia by Mutarrif ibn Ali who was authorized to fight him at sea and on land
by (sultan) Jahya. Al Hasan turned to Roger for help who sent twenty ships.
They arrived at the moment Al Hasan attacked with his galleys. Both fleets
surrounded the ships of the prince of Bugia but they were released by the
grace of Al Hasan. In the spring or summer of 1135 a big fleet appeared
before Djerba that was besieged and taken. On the fleet were some famous
Frankish knights among whom, as Caspar thinks, George of Antiochia could have
been the commander. [14] It is
possible that George of Antiochia took the command of the fleet that sailed
for Africa in the summer of 1134 and that the mantle was made for him for
that occasion, that is to say at the occasion of the first campaign of the
Sicilian fleet in African waters. Also it is possible that he received the
mantle as a kind of reward for his victory in the Al Mahdia campaign. |
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THE ADMIRAL’S UNIFORM |
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Alas, no
portraits of George of Antiochia have been preserved and for that reason we
do not know how he looked like from primary sources.
[15] However
we may reconstruct his uniform or his robes of office with the help of some
other clothes preserved in the Weltliche Schatzkammer in Vienna. The style of
these is very much alike the style of the mantle. Also some other pieces have
been preserved elsewhere that could have been part of the same garment.
Putting these pieces together would make it possible to reconstruct a more or
less correct uniform of George of Antiochia as a grand-admiral of the
Sicilian kingdom in the 12th century [16] The
pieces known are the crown, the dalmatica, the gloves, the belt, the sword,
the stockings and the shoes. [17] |
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The
Crown
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Three Sicilian Crowns Left: The crown of King William II. Centre: The Crown
of Palermo. Right: Smaller crown of Empress Constance.
By putting the socalled “Crown of
Empress Constance” along with the other pieces, the enigma to whom this crown
actually belonged can be solved. At the opening of the royal tombs in
the cathedral of Palermo in 1781, a crown was found in the tomb of Constance
of Aragon (*1182 ca-† 1222), the first wife of Frederick II Hohenstaufen.
This crown was considered at first to have been the crown she had worn as an
empress. Afterwards it was concluded that the crown belonged to Frederick II
himself and should have been worn at his imperial coronation in 1220. [18] This conclusion has not been
contradicted by later authors. [19] At his imperial coronation in
1220 however, he certainly wore the Ottonian alias the Salian crown, as can
be seen on his
seal. Portraits of the first three
Sicilian kings show that they were crowned with a crown of Byzantine shape,
used by Byzantine emperors until the beginning of the 12th century. Further,
the crown is not a crown of a queen or empress because the crowns that can be
ascribed to empress Constance, be it Constance Hauteville or Constance of
Aragon, were of a different model, the first being a high tiara, the upper
rim set with pearls, the other a broad circlet, set with onion-shaped
ornaments. [20] The crown from the tomb of the
empress however is in the from of a semisphere and closed like the model of
the crowns of the Comnenian Dynasty. On these crowns however were plates with
a greek cross that is lacking in the crown from Palermo. |
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The Crown of Tancred of Lecce Left: Tancred sitting on his throne when Constance Hauteville returned
to Palermo. Ms of Petrus de Ebulo, Carta 27 (120), detail. Right: Crown of
Tancred on his tomb, alias the tomb of Frederick II, in the Cathedral of
Palermo. There is an eagle on the other side of the tomb. |
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The crown of Palermo is worn by king
Tancred on Carta 27 (120) of the Liber ad Honorem August of Petrus de Ebulo [21] The crown is also on his tomb in
Palermo Cathedral and on a capital in the cloister of the Cathedral of
Monreale.[22] In any case the crown of Palemo is
not an imperial crown, nor in the Byzantine tradition nor in the western
tradition. Also it is not a royal crown because it differs greatly from the
crowns worn by the Sicilian kings and also a great deal from the circlets set
with leaves or lilies of the western kings. If the crown is not all this, what
can the crown of Palermo possibly be? Most likely the crown is the crown
or helmet of a duke. Such crowns consisted of a diadem with semisphere over
which spanned one (visible) arch from the front to the backside. Sometimes the
crowns have pendilia. Such crowns can be seen on different portraits of
elected but not yet crowned Roman kings of the 11th, 12th and 13th century.
For example such a crown is worn by Rudolf of Swabia on his tombstone in
Merseburg but also by Frederick Barbarossa on his seal of 1154 and by Duke
Frederick of Swabia († 1191). Last but not least also William II
of Holland wore such a crown before his coronation. In
later times the cap of the crown more and more bulged to both sides but
always there is an arch spanning over the cap. We may conclude from these
examples that this kind of crown has been reserved for high-ranking warriors
almost equal to a king but only invested with military power. For this reason
maybe this crown differs from the 12th and 13th century
ducal hat which resembled a phrygian cap and had the model of the
famous hat of the Venetian doges.
In fact the ducal crown may match the position of an archduke, albeit
this rank did not exist in the Western empire until the fourteenth century. [23]
Ducal Crowns |
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From left to righ& top to bottomt: Helmet of Chamoson (10th-12th
C.), Rudolf of Swabia, Conrad III, Frederick I Barbarossa, Fridericus Dux,
William II of
Holland Even when it is not entirely clear
for what rank or function the ducal crown actually was reserved, the examples
demonstrate that it should have been a very high rank and for that reason the
Sicilian crown can, without much ado, be ascribed to George of Antiochia who
occupied, as we have seen, such an exalted position. [24] The crown has been made, in that
case, in about 1133. As the crown can successfully be
ascribed to George of Antiochia, we can conclude that Tancred of Lecce
adopted the style of an admiral or wezir more than the style of his
royal predecessors. As he also used the eagle as a royal symbol, we only can
suppose that he acted as his own prime minister and that may be the reason
why his tomb rests on two pairs of lions adossed. |
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Socalled
Blue Dalmatica going with the “Coronation Mantle”. Manufactured in the royal workshops
of Sicily, 1st half of the 12th century .. (Weltliche u. Geistliche
Schatzkammer, Wien. n° 145) |
Dalmatica [25] Palermo, 1st half of
the 12th century. Length
141, 5 cm. Blue silk with broad hems around the
lower sleeves and at the foot. Style and weavingtechnique are so similar to
those of the mantle that they must have been made at the same time. Gloves Silken gloves with a broad
embroidered hem. Also found in the tomb of Hendry VI. These have been lost. [26] Belt
Part of the garment was also a cingulum
serving to tuck up the dalmatica. This can be the 12th century cingulum
from the treasury [27] The garment can have been
completed by a sword-belt for the so-called Ceremonial Sword. |
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The Ceremonial Sword. It seems to be accepted that the
so-called Ceremonial Sword also belongs to the other pieces in the Weltliche
Schatzkammer in Vienna. Like these pieces, they certainly were not made for
the occasion of the imperial coronation of Frederick II (*1194-†1250) as was
still accepted by Schramm en
Mütherich. On the contrary, if we take the likeliness of style with the other
pieces as conclusive proof, they have to be made in the first half of the
12th century. [28]) If we accept this, it is not
likely that the eagle on the scabbard belongs to the original program because
this form of eagle is characteristic for the 13th century and certainly not for the 12th ,
let alone for 12th century Sicily.
Besides, a black eagle on gold is the symbol of a Roman King of the 13th
century. The eagle, for that reason,
probably has been added by Frederick II for his coronation as a Roman King in
1216 or even much later by king Conrad IV in 1246, anticipating his coronation
that never took place. Also we know that the knob of the hilt was changed by
Charles IV (1349-’78) by engraving the arms with the eagle and the arms with
the lion of Bohemia. These facts clear the road for accepting that the sword
and the scabbard were made for George of Antiochia. [29] This is as much as to say that nor
the crown of Palermo, nor the Ceremonial Sword have anything to do with
Germany or the Holy Empire of the 12th and 13th centuries, but everything
with the 12th century kingdom of Sicily. The sword-and-scabbard certainly
have been robbed by Henry VI after his victory over king William III in 1194. It is known that he transported the Sicilian
treasures by cart
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Ceremonial sword and scabbard. Reconstruction of the original 12th
century form. (After:
Vienna, Weltliche Schatzkammer, inv. nr. XIII 16. ) |
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-loads to Germany and this may be
the reason why so much high-quality pieces came to belong to the Imperial
Treasury. Appliquéof the coronation mantle with square cross and cosmogram of simililar design. |
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Stockings belonging to the coronation robes in the Weltliche
Schatzkammer in Vienna. Inv. Nr. XIII 12. |
Stockings [30] Palermo, 2nd half of the 12th
century. Red silk embroidered with goldthread. Length 60 cm. Probaly from the
same time as the mantle and the dalmatica. The collars, which mention the name of
William I (1154-’66) have been added later. Shoes. These were also found in the tomb
of Henri VI in 1781. [31] There is a fragment of light
twilled silk and golden decoration, with an ivory button in the British
Museum, London. |
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THE
RECONSTRUCTION
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Garments of 10th -12th century princes Left:
Byzantine prince in chiton and chlamys from the 10th century
Paris Psalterium from Constantinopel. Right:. Presentation of the Cathedral
of Monreale in the cloister next to the cathedral. Ca. 1190 The donator may
be duke Tancred, the future king (*1149-†1194). |
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King Tancred on horseback in the
ms. of Petrus de Ebulo, fol. 102. An eagle sejant on his crown (!) on the head
of his horse and on his standard. His sword is carried before him. |
For the reconstruction of Admiral George of Antiochia in
uniform we may refer to the presentation of the Cathedral of Monreale in the
cloister next to the cathedral. The construction of the cathedral started in
1172 by order of king William II. (1166-´89). He died before the cathedral
could be consecrated. Therefore the figure presenting the cathedral is most
certainly king Tancred (r. 1190-´94), during whose reign the consecration
took place in 1190. In any case, the resemblance of the man in the cloister
and the man on fol. 102 in the manuscript of Petrus de Ebulo is quite
striking. [32] The man in the cloister wears a quite long
dalmatica upheld with a cingulum, shoes and stockings and a long
mantle fixed with a buckle on his right shoulder thus leaving free his right
arm.
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Worn like this there would have
been one lion visible. In the case the mantle was closed and the buckle fixed
on the breast, the lions could be seen best. This way of wearing the mantle
can be seen on the picture of king Tancred on horseback. We can see that the mantle of the
man of the cloister has an embroidered hem like the mantle of George of
Antiochia. Also we see that the garment could be completed with a crown of
the shape of the Palermitan crown. A more vivid picture of how George of Antiochia might
have been dressed is the Byzantine prince depicted in the Paris Psalterium
(10th century). Here we can see that the length of the chiton or
dalmatica could variate considerably but that the cut was almost the same for
centuries. The embroidered hem in fact was the only part of the chiton
open for changes in fashion, and the
decoration of the sleeves and hem in this example were characteristic for
ninth and tenth century Byzantium.
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CONCLUSION
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By analysing the heraldic
decoration of a tunic we can identify the person to whom it belongs. This is
a quite obvious and generally accepted view so long as it concerns those
tunics that are made and worn between about the end of the 12th century until about the middle of the
15th century when the wearing of
tunics decorated with one’s personal blazon was abandoned. It is generally supposed that the
heraldic decoration on the tunic should be an individual symbol and not a
classificatory symbol. When we abandon this point of view and accept that
most of the heraldic symbols are no individual symbols at all, but can also
be classificatory symbols, a wide heraldic perspective opens up. As was demonstrated in this essay,
heraldry can be of great help then to resolve a lot of interesting historical
problems. |
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This essay was
published earlier as: De Siciliaanse Kroningsmantel uit Heraldisch
Oogpunt. In: HERALDICUM DISPUTATIONES, Jrg. 10, N° 3,
juli-aug-sept 2005 pp. 67-79. Translation
and update 5th of October 2006.
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© Hubert de
Vries, 2005, Updated 2006-10-05;
[1] Weltliche Schatzkammer Wien, inv. nr. xiii 14. That is to say between 16th of July 1133 and 16th of July 1134 A.D..
[2]
Translation from the German: (Das ist) von dem, was in der königlichen
Kammer (Hofwerkstatt) angefertigt wurde, (welche) gediehen ist mit Glück und
Ehre, mit Eifer und Vollkommenheit, mit Macht und Verdienst, mit (Seiner)
Zustimmung und (Seinem) Wohlergehen, mit Großmut und Erhabenheit, mit Ruhm und
Schönheit sowie der Erfülllung der Wünsche und Hoffnungen und mit glücklichen
Tagen und Nächten ohne Unterlaß und ohne Änderung, mit Ehre und Fürsorge, mit
Wahrung und Schutz, mit Erfolg und Sicherheit, mit Triumph und Tüchtigkeit. In
der (Haupt)stadt Siziliens im Jahre 528. (=1133-'34). In: Weltliche u.
Geistliche Schatzkammer. Bildführer.
Wien, 1987. pp. 136-137. In the introduction to „Raum 10” where the mantle is
exposed, an externsive bibliography.
[3]
The socalled Chasuble of St.
Albuin. Ca. 1000.
Museo Diocezano, Bressanone. Purple silk with green eagles. This mantle can without any problems be
ascribed to Otto III. The socalled Chasuble of Charlemagne can be ascribed to
the Roman King Philip.
[4] Bronze mirror from the collection of N. Schimmel (N.Y., U.S.A.)
[5]
Alexios Apocaucos was a confident of emperor Andronicus III of Byzantium (1328-’41). When fighths broke out after the death of the
emperor about the regency of his son and successor Johnhe took the side of the
patriarch Calecas against the megas
domesticus John Cantacuzenos. In
1341 Calecas undertook, with his help, a successful coupd’état.
Afterwards he disappears from history. See : Marty, Didier: Alexis
Apocauque, un parvenu dénué de scrupules. In: Moyen Age n° 35, juillet/août 2003. pp.
6-9 (with bibliography).
[6]
Hippocrates, Works: Grandduke Apocaucos. Paint on paper., 42 Î 31 cm., Constantinopel. ca. 1338. Paris, Bibliothèque
Nationale, Ms. gr. 2144, fol. 11r°. In
the head of the page: MEΓAC Δγξ O AΠOKAVKOς. (= Megas dux o Apocaucos)
[7] An important piece of silk
strewn with medallions with lions adossed is in the Musée des Tissus in Lyon
(Fr.) and has the name of sultan Ala
al-din Kaikobad I of Ikonion (1219-1237) on it. (Tissu au nom du sultan Allah al-Dîn Kaykobad. Samit façonné 2 lats. Soie et filé d’or. H. 1,12; l. 0,74. Achat à
Masqulier, 1881. Musée des Tissus, Lyon, Inv. 23475). It could have belonged to
an atabeg (governor) of the sultan who had a like
position in Ikonion as did Apocaucos later in Salonika. There can be a relation
with the seapower because Ikonion in the 12th and 13th had conquered some
harbours of the Mediterranian and the Black Sea and had become, under the reign
of Ala al-din Kaikobad, a seafaring nation.
[8]
Cohn, Willy: Die Geschichte der
sizilische Flotte unter der Regierung Roger I u. Roger II. p. 65
[9] Ibid. p. 27.
[10]
Ibid. pp 98-99.
[11] Ibid. 1 Hauptabschnitt.
[12]
Ibid. p. 72
[13] This passage in ibid. p. 29
[14] Caspar, Erich: Roger II. und die Gründung der
normannisch-sizilischen Monarchie. Innsbruck, 1904. P. 165.
[15]
It is sometimes thought that he is depicted on a mosaic in the S. Maria
dell´Ammiraglio in Palermo but the portrait is certainly of the elder Roger II.
[16]
The likeliness of style of the mantle and the dalmatica was observed in
the Bildführer of the Weltliche
Schatzkammer but no effort was made tot reconstruct the complete garment.
[17]
A modern publication about the pieces in the Weltliche Schatzkammer is:
Seipel, Wilfried ed.: Nobiles Officinae. Die königlichen Hofwerkstätten
zu Palermo zur Zeit der Normannen und Staufer im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert. Kunsthistorische Museum, Wien,
2004. For excellent articles and illustrations the reader is remitted to this
work.
[18]
F. Daniele, I regali sepolchri del Duomo di Palermo. Napoli 1784 pp. 48,
80. J. Deér, Der Kaiserornat Friedrichs II., passim, i.h.b. p. 19 ff., 64 ff. (with an older bibliography). P.E.
Schramm, Friedrichs II. Herrschaftszeichen, S. 11. ff., 134f. Id.,
Herrschaftszeichen III, p. 884 ff. & passim. It is for sure that the crown
was not worn by Frederick II because on
his seal dd. 1199 (Die Zeit der Staufer,
Kat Nr. 43, Abb. 14) he wears a western crown consisting of a circlet with
three leaves.
[19] Schramm, Percy Ernst & Florentine
Mütherich: Denkmale der deutsche Könige und Kaiser. München,
1962. n° 198
[20]
Schramm cs, op.cit. 1962. N° 188:
Frauenkronen. The empresses Constance were: Constance Hauteville, the
wife of Henry VI and Constance of
Aragon, the wife of Frederick II. The
crowns can be ascribed to both of them. The crowns were preserved in Bamberg
before their disappearance.
[21] Ebulo, Petrus de: Liber ad
Honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis. Codex 120 II der Burgerbibliothek Bern. Eine
Bilderchronik der Stauferzeit. Herausgegeben von Theo Kölzer und Marlis Stähli.
Sigmaringen, 1994. The wearing of the crown of Palermo
by Tancred on this illustration cannot be free from doubt. The drawing is
heavily damaged by scratching the right half of face of the king to make him uglier and “look like an
ape”. In the process of scratching the original crown in the shape of the
crowns of his predecessors may have succumbed and replaced by a simple helmet with, certainly,
the royal crest. Of this underlying crown the prependoulia still can be
seen.
[22]
The tomb of Frederick II now. After his entry in Palermo in 1194 and the
killing of many of the Palermitan aristocracy, Henry VI opened the tombs of Tancred
and his son Roger. The corpses were decapitated and their crowns destroyed. In
the now empty tomb of Tancred, Frederick
II was buried in 1250.
[23]
The titles of grand duke, grand prince or megas dux did not exist
in the Western Empire. Like positions were filled by clerical princes. These
had the pallium, mitre and
crozier as the symbols of their rank. Sometimes a griffin is associated with
those princes (like for example. Suidger of Bamberg (the future pope Clemens
II) and Rainald von Dassel, imperial chancellor of Frederick Barbarossa and
archbishop of Cologne). The rank of
Archduke was created in 14th century Austria.
[24]
Also the father of Tancred, Roger, Duke of Apulia (†1148) can be
considered but he did no fill such an important role as George of Antiochia.
[25] Inv. nr. xiii 6.
[26]
According to Daniele Il guanto
poi di seta è assai gentilmente lavorato. (The silken gloves further, are
very nicely manufactured).
[27]
Inv. nr. xiii 10.
[28] Schramm cs, op.cit. 1962. N° 197.
[29] It it
unlikely that the mantle, dalmatica an other garments were altered at this
occasion because he was (like his father) quite short. As a king of Sicily he
wore his coronation robes in Byzantine style.
[30]
Inv. nr. xiii 12. Also
Nobiles Officinæ n° 69 (p. 272)
[31] Daniele (F. Daniele: I regali
sepolchri del Duomo di Palermo. Napoli 1784) writes about this: ...scarpa, il
cui tomajo di drappo ad oro, è ricamato di piccole perle e 'l suolo ha di
sughero, coverto dello stesso drappo..
[32]
Ebulo, Petrus de op.cit. fol. 102.
The man of the
donation scene is not William II who had, contrary to Tancred, a short but not
curly red beard. Two portraits of him are on mosaics in the Cathedral of
Monreale.