medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Wednesday, June 30, 2010, at 5:27 pm, I wrote:
> 1) A few dedications to St. Peter:
Very belatedly, another (an old favorite not shown in some years): the fortified monastery church of the former Basilian monastery of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, at Casalvecchio (ME) near Taormina in northeastern Sicily.
The monastery dates from shortly before 1116, the year in which Roger II gave to the monk Gerasimos, who seems to have already begun construction at the site, the nearby village of Vicus Agryllae (today's Forza d'Agrò). In the early 1130s the monastery was one of a number that were placed under the supervision of the archimandrite of the monastery of the Most Holy Saviour at Messina but allowed the privilege of electing their own abbots. In 1171-72 the abbot Theosteriktos rebuilt the church out of his own funds: an inscription recording this benefaction survives over the church's main entrance. The monastery remained occupied until 1794, when its last inhabitants removed to Messina. The other buildings are now ruinous, but the church was restored in the last century.
Two illustrated, Italian-language accounts (images expandable):
http://tinyurl.com/2gxoofm
http://tinyurl.com/3xgwhfk
A more expandable view of the apses:
http://tinyurl.com/2v7z8qb
Theosteriktos' inscription is not without interest:
http://tinyurl.com/2dde7bb
The three lines facing outward identify and date the benefaction. They use non-standard suspensions and require some puzzling (or a good trot) to make out. But the line underneath (facing downward) is quite plainly read: _Ho protomaistor Girardos ho Phrankos_ ('The master builder [was] Girard the Frank'). Not only is this part made legible for any visitor with a only a little Greek but it also contains two spelling errors that a Greek-literate person could spot right away (the first and last 'o's in _protomaistor_ should be omegas, but they're not). Was this the work crew's (and the abbot's) way of getting back at a Latin Westerner who had made himself unloved?
The inscription is edited by André Guillou in his _Recueil des
inscriptions grecques médiévales d'Italie_ (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1996; Collection de l'École Française de Rome, no. 222), where it is no. 205 at pp. 227-28 and pl. 187. Another dedication to Peter and Paul in the same collection is no. 195 at pp. 210-11 and pl. 181, recording the building in 1080-81, 'in the days of the illustrious duke Robert and of his consort Sikelgaita', of a now vanished church at Palermo.
Best again,
John Dillon
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