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Eugenio Da Palermo
Eugenius of Palermo (also Eugene) ( or ,Gigante. , ; 1130 – 1202) was an '' amiratus'' (admiral) of the Kingdom of Sicily in the late twelfth century. He was of Greek origin, but born in Palermo, and had an educated background, for he was "most learned in Greek and Arabic, and not unskilled in Latin."Houben, 99, quoting an anonymous Latin translator of Ptolemy's ''Almagest''. By the time of his admiralcy, the educated, multilingual Greek or Arab administrator was becoming rare in Sicily. Eugenius' family had been important in the Hauteville administration for generations before him. He was a son of Admiral John and grandson of another Admiral Eugenius. He served under William II before being raised to the rank of admiral in 1190.Norwich, 406. His first duties were as an officer of the '' diwan'' (Latinised ''duana'' or ''dohana''). He bore the title ''magister duane baronum'' in September 1174, when he was sent by the king to Salerno to check the accounts of the bailiffs and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, or fleet admiral. Etymology The word in Middle English comes from Anglo-French , "commander", from Medieval Latin , . These evolved from the Arabic () – () (), "king, prince, chief, leader, nobleman, lord, a governor, commander, or person who rules over a number of people" and (), the Arabic definite article meaning "the." In Arabic, admiral is also represented as (), where al-Baḥr (البحر) means the sea. The 1818 edition of Samuel Johnson's '' A Dictionary of the English Language'', edited and revised by the Rev. Henry John Todd, states that the term "has been traced to the Arab. emir or amir, lord or commander, and the Gr. , the sea, q. d. ''prince of the sea''. The word is written both with and without ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amalfi
Amalfi (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 metres, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramatic cliffs and coastal scenery. The town of Amalfi was the capital of the maritime republic known as the Duchy of Amalfi, an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 839 and around 1200. It has 4,611 inhabitants. The town became a popular seaside resort beginning in the Edwardian era, with members of the British upper class spending their winters in Amalfi. Amalfi is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. History Amalfi began as a maritime power, trading grain from its neighbours, salt from Sardinia and slaves from the interior, and even timber, in exchange for the gold dinars minted in Egypt and Syria, in order to buy the Byzantine silks that it resold in the West. Grain-bearing Amalfi traders enjoyed privileged positions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erythraean Sibyl
The Erythraean Sibyl was the prophetess of classical antiquity presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios, which was built by Neleus, the son of Codrus. The word ''Sibyl'' comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word ''sibylla'', meaning prophetess. Sibyls would give answers whose value depended upon good questions — unlike prophets, who typically answered with responses indirectly related to questions asked. Presumably there was more than one sibyl at Erythrae. One is recorded as having been named Herophile. At least one is said to have been from Chaldea, a nation in the southern portion of Babylonia, being the daughter of Berossus (who wrote the Chaldean history) and Erymanthe. Apollodorus of Erythrae, however, says that one who was his own countrywoman predicted the Trojan War and prophesied to the Greeks both that Troy would be destroyed and that Homer would write falsehoods. The term acrostic has been applied to the propheci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optics (Ptolemy)
Ptolemy's ''Optics'' is a 2nd-century book on geometrical optics, dealing with reflection, refraction, and colour. The book was most likely written late in Ptolemy's life, after the '' Almagest'', during the 160s. The work is of great importance in the early history of optics. The Greek text has been lost completely. Fragments of the work survive only in the form of a Latin translation, prepared around 1154 by Eugene of Palermo, based on an Arabic translation which was presumably based on the Greek original. Both the Arabic and the Greek texts are lost entirely, and the Latin text is "badly mangled". The Latin text was edited by Albert Lejeune in 1956. The 1996 English translation by Mark Smith is based on Lejeune's Latin text. Textual history The work is known to have been received by Arabic scholars working on optics in the 10th and 11th century, specifically Ibn Sahl ( 984) and Ibn Al-Haytham (Alhazen), author of the influential '' Book of Optics'' ( 1020). There are o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzantine, Islamic science, Islamic, and Science in the Renaissance, Western European science. The first was his astronomical treatise now known as the ''Almagest'', originally entitled ' (, ', ). The second is the ''Geography (Ptolemy), Geography'', which is a thorough discussion on maps and the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian physics, Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the ' (, 'On the Effects') but more commonly known as the ' (from the Koine Greek meaning 'four books'; ). The Catholic Church promoted his work, which included the only mathematically sound geocentric model of the Sola ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugo Falcandus
Hugo Falcandus was a historian who chronicled the reigns of William I of Sicily and the minority of his son William II in a highly critical work entitled ''The History of the Tyrants of Sicily'' (or ''Liber de Regno Sicilie''). The Latin of the work is polished. There is some doubt as to whether "Hugo Falcandus" is a real name or a pseudonym. Evelyn Jamison argued that he was Eugenius, '' amiratus'' from 1190. The Frenchman Hugues Foucaud (''Hugo Fulcaudus''), abbot of Saint-Denis, has been proposed as an author. His name, ''Falcandus'', is apparently a cacography for ''Falcaudus'', Latin for " Foucaud", a French surname. According to Graham Loud, "Hugo Falcandus", was a native of the Kingdom of Sicily rather than someone from northern Europe.Graham Loud:The problem of Pseudo-Hugo: Who wrote the History of Hugo Falcandus?, University of Leeds, 2015. The ''History'' covers the period from the death of Roger II in 1154 to the majority of William II, in 1169. Hugo concentrates on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pen Name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise the author's gender, to distance the author from their other works, to protect the author from retribution for their writings, to merge multiple persons into a single identifiable author, or for any of several reasons related to the marketing or aesthetic presentation of the work. The author's real identity may be known only to the publisher or may become common knowledge. In some cases, such as those of Elena Ferrante and Torsten Krol, a pen name may preserve an author's long-term anonymity. Etymology ''Pen name'' is formed by joining pen with name. Its earliest use in English is in the 1860s, in the writings of Bayard Taylor. The French-language phrase is used as a synonym for "pen name" ( means 'pen') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Germany
The Kingdom of Germany or German Kingdom ( 'kingdom of the Germans', 'German kingdom', "kingdom of Germany", ) was the mostly Germanic language-speaking East Frankish kingdom, which was formed by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. The king was elected, initially by the rulers of the stem duchies, who generally chose one of their own. After 962, when Otto I was crowned emperor, East Francia formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire, which also included the Kingdom of Italy and, after 1032, the Kingdom of Burgundy. Like medieval England and medieval France, medieval Germany consolidated from a conglomerate of smaller tribes, nations or polities by the High Middle Ages. The term ('king of the Germans') first came into use in Italy around the year 1000. It was popularized by the chancery of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy (late 11th century), perhaps as a polemical tool against Emperor Henry IV. In the 12th century, in order to stress the imperial and transna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VI (German language, German: ''Heinrich VI.''; November 1165 – 28 September 1197), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily as the husband and co-ruler of Queen Constance I. Henry was the second son of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy. Well educated in the Latin language, as well as Roman law, Roman and canon law, Henry was also a patron of poets and a skilled poet himself. In 1186 he married Constance of Sicily. Henry, stuck in the Hohenstaufen conflict with the House of Welf until 1194, had to enforce the inheritance claims by his wife against her nephew Count Tancred of Lecce. Henry's attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Sicily failed at the Siege of Naples (1191), siege of Naples in 1191 due to an epidemic, with Empress Constance captured. Based on an enormous ransom for the release and submission of King R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constance I Of Sicily
Constance I (; 2 November 1154 – 27 November 1198) was the queen of Sicily from 1194 until her death and Holy Roman empress from 1191 to 1197 as the wife of Emperor Henry VI. As queen regnant of Sicily, she reigned jointly with her spouse and later with her infant son, the future Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. She is particularly notable for her actions against her own family, the Norman kings of Sicily; she played an important role in the end of the Hauteville presence in Sicily. Despite being the sole heir to the throne of Sicily, she did not marry until she was 30 due to an ominous prophecy. Shortly after becoming empress, she was involved in the succession war against her illegitimate nephew King Tancred for the Sicilian throne, during which she was captured, though she was later released unharmed. In the history of Holy Roman Empire only two empresses were captured, with the other being her mother-in-law Empress Beatrice. Shortly before ascending the Sicilian thron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hohenstaufen
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty's most prominent rulers – Frederick I (1155), Henry VI (1191) and Frederick II (1220) – ascended the imperial throne and also reigned over Italy and Burgundy. The non-contemporary name of 'Hohenstaufen' is derived from the family's Hohenstaufen Castle on Hohenstaufen mountain at the northern fringes of the Swabian Jura, near the town of Göppingen. Under Hohenstaufen rule, the Holy Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent from 1155 to 1268. Name The name Hohenstaufen was first used in the 14th century to distinguish the 'high' (''hohen'') conical hill named Staufen in the Swabian Jura (in the district of Göppingen) from the village of the same name in the valley below. The new name was applied to the hill c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tancred Of Sicily
Tancred or Tankred is a masculine given name of Germanic origin that comes from ''thank-'' (thought) and ''-rath'' (counsel), meaning "well-thought advice". It was used in the High Middle Ages mainly by the Normans (see French Tancrède) and especially associated with the House of Hauteville after the Norman conquest of southern Italy.Alfonso Burgio, ''Dizionario dei nomi propri di persona'' (Rome: Hermes Edizioni, 1992), p. 327. It is rare today as a first name, but still common as a Norman surname: ''Tanqueray'', ''Tanquerey'', ''Tanqueret''. Its Italian form is Tancredi and in Latin it is Tancredus. Its Italian patronymic is also Tancredi. People with the given name In chronological order: * Tancred, Torthred, and Tova (died 869 or 870), Anglo-Saxon siblings who were saints, hermits, and martyrs * Tancred of Hauteville (c. 980–1041), minor Norman lord, founder of the Hauteville family * Tancred, Prince of Galilee (1075–1112), a leader of the First Crusade * Tancred, C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
