A history of sharing: Frederick II

3 Alessandro Barbero

A history of sharing: Frederick II

€ 3.00
Friday 23 May 2014 9.15 p.m.
piazza del Duomo 1
One of Italy’s most brilliant historians tells the fascinating story of long-ago yet highly topical events. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II elicited both admiration and dismay for his unbridled intellectual curiosity, so much so that contemporaries gave him the nickname stupor mundi (the marvel of the world); he even conducted philosophical correspondences with Moroccan scholars. The King of Sicily in the 13th century, at a time when the Arab presence was very strong, Frederick II issued laws in defence of his Muslim and Jewish subjects, banning discrimination against them by Christians. Forced by the pope to take part in the Crusades, he struck an agreement with the sultan to divide Jerusalem, which sparked an enormous scandal among fundamentalists on both sides. He deported the Sicilian Muslims who rebelled, but built them an Islamic city in Lucera, Apulia, with numerous mosques. It wasn’t easy to enforce sharing in a world dominated by hatred, even for an emperor, but it cannot be said that Frederick did not try. 

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Alessandro Barbero has obtained a B.A. in Humanities, then a Masters Degree from the Scuola Normale Superiore at Pisa. He is Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Piedmont at Vercelli. He contributes to La Stampa and to TV shows Superquark, aC/dC and Il tempo e la storia. Barbero has written novels and a number of essays in medieval history. In 1995 he published his first historical novel, Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle gentiluomo (Mondadori, 1995) that won him the Premio Strega in 1996. Among his publications are: Storia del Piemonte (Einaudi, 2008), 9 agosto 378. Il giorno dei barbari (2005), La battaglia. Storia di Waterloo (2007), Barbari. Immigrati, profughi, deportati nell’impero romano (2006), Benedette guerre. Crociate e jihad («i Libri del Festival della Mente», 2009), Lepanto. La battaglia dei tre imperi (2010), I prigionieri dei Savoia. La vera storia della congiura di Fenestrelle (2012) all published by Laterza; Gli occhi di Venezia (Mondadori, 2011); Il divano di Istanbul (Sellerio, 2011); Dietro le quinte della Storia. La vita quotidiana attraverso il tempo (with P. Angela, Rizzoli, 2012). For the series «i Libri del Festival della Mente» has published: Donne, madonne, mercanti e cavalieri. Sei storie medievali (Laterza, 2013).

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