Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/442

 VESPERS

384

VESPUCCI

eight psalm tones in notation; P.i^RARD. Psautier-vesv^ral. semeio- graphie nouvdle (Rome, 1908); BoNviN, On Recitation in Church Music (March, 1906, 145-56).

H. T. Henry.

Vespers, Sicilian, the traditional name given to the insurrection which broke out at Palermo on Easter Tuesday, 31 March, 1282, against the domination of Charles of Anjou. It was only in the fifteenth cen- tury, during the excitement aroused by the passing of Charles VIII (Nov., 1494), that the expression "Sicil- ian Vespers" and the legend of the Easter bells calling the insurgents to arms seem to have originated. Charles of .^njou. Count of Provence and brother of St. Louis, had received from Urban IV the crown of the Two SiciUes which had been taken from the Hohenstaufens. Having defeated Manfred in 1256, he estabUshed his authority by force, and cruelly re- pressed the Ghibelline revolt led by Conradin in 12(58, in consequence of which 130 barons were condemned to death. As undisputed master of the Two Sicihes, he resumed the ambitious designs of his predecessors, the Norman and Hohenstaufen kings, and sought to estabhsh his dominion in the Mediterranean. In 1281 he was on the point of attaining his object; in 1277 he had purchased the rights of Mary of Antioch to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, he was the protector of the Kingdom of Armenia, the Emir of Tunis was pay- ing him tribute, and his soldiers occupied a portion of the Morea. Finally, at his instance Pope Martin IV had excommunicated the Emperor Palseologus. Then, concluding a treaty which assured him the assistance of the Venetian fleet (3 July, 1281), Charles was or- ganizing a formidable crusade for the conquest of Constantinople, when the revolt of 31 March, 1282, obliged him to direct his arms against Sicily and save the Byzantine Empire.

It was long held on the authority of Giovanni Vil- lani (d. 1348) that this revolt was the result of a plot between Michael Palicologus, Pedro III, and the Sicilian barons, whose active agent was a gentleman of Salerno, Giovanni da Procida. In a famous book, " La Guerra del Vespero Siciliano", the first edition of which api)eared at Palermo in 1842, the Sicilian patriot Amari endeavoured to show that the insurrec- tion of 1282 was a wholly spontaneous popular move- ment due to the oppressive administration and fiscal tyranny of Charles of Anjou. The legend of Gio- vanni de Procida did not appear until the fourteenth century, in works such as the "Ribellamentu di Sicilia" (Bibhoth. Script. Aragon., I, 241-74), or in a letter of King Robert of Naples (1314). Contempo- rary historians [Saba Malaspina, Dean of Malta ("Rerum sicularuin historia", ed. Muratori, "SS. Rer. Ital.", VIII, 785-874), who wrote about 1285; Bartolommeo de Neocastro, author of an "Historia Sicula" (ed. Muratori, "SS. Rer. Ital.", XIII, 1013- 1196)] speak only of a popular outbreak of fury conse- quent upon injuries and annoyances of all kinds in- flicted on the people by French barons and the officers of Charles of Anjou. A search of the State archives of Naples and Barcelona has led to the same conclu- sion.

What is certain is that on 31 March the insurrection broke out, amid cries of "Death to the French", after vexatious searches had been carried on by the com- mand of the Giivernor of Palermo, who wished to de- prive the inhal)ilaiils of the riglit of bearing arms. Within a few weeks the revolt spn'ad over the entire island and more than 8000 French were massacred. The towns of Sicily formed a sort of federal republic and placed Iheinselves under the proleelion of the Holy .See. It was only when Charles of Anjou ap- peared before Messina with all his troops that the Sicilian nobles called to their aid King Pedro III of Aragon, and the other towns only approved this ac- tion when it seemed to them impossible to resist Charles of Anjou.

Amari's theory, though fundamentally correct, is too sweeping. The popular and spontaneous nature of the uprising of 1282 is an indisputable fact, but on the other hand the negotiations between Michael Pala>ologus and Pedro of Aragon unquestionablj' took place. In these Giovanni da Procida played a part which it is impossible to define precisely, and possibly certain of the Sicilian nobles were aware of this in- trigue. There was at least a coincidence between the coalition against Cliail. - of .\njou and the popular insurrection of I lie Sicilian Vespers. The results of this revolt were considerable, as it proved the death blow to all the projects for the domination of the East formed by Charles of Anjou. The crusade against Constantinople did not take place, and Charles of .\njou began the long and fruitless warfare against the House of Aragon, which exhausted his resources with- out obtaining Sicily. A compromise between the rival dynasties was only effected in 1302.

.\mari. La guerra del Vespero Siciliano (9th ed., 3 vols., Milan, 1SS6); C.\D]ER, Essai sur V administration du royaume de Naples sous Charles let Charles 11 (Paris. 1891); Durriel', Les Archives angetnnes de Naples (Paris, 1886-87); Cartelueri, Peter von Aragon und die Siziliajier (Heidelberg, 1904); Cipolla, Les Vi- pres Sicitiennes in Revue Historique, XXI, 135.

Louis Br^hier.

Vespucci, Amerigo, a famous Italian navigator, b. .at Florence, 9 March, 1451; d. at Seville, 22 Feb., 1512; he was the third son of Ser Nastagio, a notary of Florence, son of .4merigo Vespucci. His mother was Lisabetta, daughter of Ser Giovanni, son of Ser Andi'ea Mini; her mother was Maria, daughter of Simone, son of Francesco cU FiUcaia. The date of Vespucci's birth, formerlj' much discussed, is now definitively established by the books of the Ufficio delle Tratte, preserved in the Reale Archivio di Stato of Florence, where the following passage is found: "Amerigo, son of Ser Nastagio, son of Ser Amerigo Vespucci, on the IX day of March MCCCCLI" (14.52, common style). The mother of Amerigo's father was Nanna, daughter of Mestro Michele, of the Onesti of Pescia, and sister of Mestro Michele, the father of Nicolo and of Francesco, who resided in the magistrato supremo of the Priors in the Re])ublic Florence.

Vespucci received his first instruction from his uncle Giorgio .4ntonio, a Platonic philosopher who was a teacher of the greater part of the Florentine nobility. Amerigo cultivated the study of literature, including that of the Latin language, as is shown by a small autograph codex in the Biblioteca Ricardiana of Florence, entitled "Dettati da mettere in latino", at the end of which there is wTitten the following: "This booklet was written by Amerigo Ser Anastagio Ves- pucci." He also wTote a letter in Latin to his father, dated 19 October, 1476, in which he gives an account of his studies. Possibly Vespucci had relations with Toscanelli, who, as is known, died in 1482, two years after .Amerigo left for Spain. Thereafter, Amerigo devoted himself to the study of physics, geometry, astronomy, and cosmography, in which sciences he made rapid progress.

After the death of his father, which occurred about the year 1483, Amerigo, perhaps on account of the un- fortunate circumstances of his family, became sf ewai'd in the house of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, with various charges that were multiplied in propor- tion its he acquired the confidence and the affection of the sons of Pierfrancesco, of whose niral and com- mercial interests he became superintendent, as ap- pears from nunienms lettei-s written to him, which h;ive recently been (mblished. Fnmi 1478 to 1480 he was attached to the eniljassy at Paris, under his relative Giiido Antonio Vespucci, ambassador of Florence to Louis XI of France, .\ccordingly, he wrote many rejjorts to the Signoria, which are i)re- served in the Archivio di Stato at Florence. The sojourn of Vespucci at Paris, and that of Duke Ren6 of Lorraine at Florence, earlier, exjjlain why Vespucci