Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century

SOFTBACK * Edition: 1st. Thus* Date of Publication: 1982* Publisher: Cambridge University Press* Binding and cover condition: Soft card covers, some light shelf wear, very slight rubbing to corners, No creases to spine or hinges. Slight fading to spine, VG* Contents condition: PRIVATE COPY NOT EX-LIBRARY no inscription, Clean tight and bright. Light tanning to eps but contents unaffected, VG * Pages: 287 pp. text. 60 pp. Notes, Appendices, Bibliography and Index.* 16pp b/w photographic plates. B/w plate to frontis.* ?On 30 March 1282, as the bells of Palermo were ringing for Vespers, the Sicilian townsfolk, crying 'Death to the French', slaughtered the garrison and administration of their Angevin King. Seen in historical perspective it was not an especially big massacre: the revolt of the long-subjugated Sicilians might seem just another resistance movement. But the events of 1282 came at a crucial moment. Steven Runciman takes the Vespers as the climax of a great narrative sweep covering the whole of the Mediterranean in the thirteenth century. His sustained narrative power is displayed here with concentrated brilliance in the rise and fall of this fascinating episode. Originally published in 1958, this is a nice clean copy of the 1st paperback edition 1982. Not common in this condition.