Real
Palermo
Palermo is mentioned by Dante in the Paradiso as the city where, on 30 March 1282, the uprising of the Vespers broke out against Angevin rule, with the cry «Mora, mora!» directed at the French.
Description
In Canto VIII of the Paradiso, within the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, Charles Martel rebukes the wicked Angevin government and cites as an example the insurrection of the Sicilians, which broke out in Palermo on 30 March 1282, at the hour of Vespers. Dante captures the dramatic cry of the crowd — «Mora, mora!» — as a sign of the hatred and fury unleashed in peoples oppressed by misgovernment. The notes to the canto recall that Palermo was also the city where Manfred of Swabia, illegitimate son of Frederick II, had himself crowned King of Sicily after the death of his brother Conrad IV, and where, according to a Guelph legend, his mother Constance, the last Norman heir, would have been a nun before being given in marriage to Henry VI.
In the text
Linked verses
1 verses| Cantica | Canto | Verso | Testo | Open verse |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paradise | Canto VIII | 75 | mosso Palermo a gridar: “Mora, mora!”. | Open verse |