SICILY. 



247 



meat. The f^iviil abuses in the judicial administra- 

 tion and in the condition of the prisons (particularly 

 in Sicily) have been gradually remedied. In con- 

 sequence of the new constitution of the courts of 

 29th May, 1818, all the proprietary and local juris- 

 dictions have been done away, and the royal courts 

 of justice put on much the same footing as those 

 of France. This system was extended to the 

 island of Sicily, by the decree of 22d December, 

 1818, and a supreme court of justice established 

 there. A new civil code was drawn up for this 

 island in 1819. The revenue, in 1820, amounted 

 to about twelve and a half million dollars. The 

 new land force amounts to 30,000 men; the naval 

 force comprises three ships of the line, five fiigates, 

 four corvettes, and a number of gun-boats. The 

 standing army in Sicily is said not to exceed 8000 

 men. The orders of knights are, that of St 

 Jummrius; the order of Constantine; the order of 

 St Ferdinand, and of merit ; and the order /S. 

 Giorgio della riunione. 



Among the latest publications respecting this 

 country are to be noticed the work of the Russian 

 senator, count Orloff, Memoires historiques, poli- 

 tiques et literaires sur le Royaume de Naples avec des 

 Notes par Amaury Duval (5 vols., Paris, 1819), 

 and the Costituzione del Regno di Sicilia, stabilita 

 dal Parlamento dell' Anno 1812 (Palermo, 1813, 2 

 vols.); History of the Kingdom of Naples, from 

 1800 to 1820 (Darmstadt, 1828), taken from the 

 memoirs of prince Pignatelli Strangoli, and other 

 original sources. Count Forbin's Souvenirs de la 

 Sidle (Paris, 1823) present a faithful picture of 

 the beauties of nature, and the degeneracy of society 

 in Sicily. Captain William H. Smith's Memoir 

 Descriptive of the Resources, Inhabitants, and 

 Hydrography of Sicily and its Islands, &c. (London, 

 1824, 4to.), accompanied by an accurate atlas of 

 charts, is a work of much observation. Rich in 

 interesting research is the work of Blunt Vestiges 

 of Ancient Manners and Customs, discoverable in 

 Modern Italy and Sicily (London, 1822). Re- 

 specting the noble remains of antiquity in the 

 churches of Messina, Catania, Palermo, and parti- 

 cularly in the cathedral of Montereale, see Archi- 

 tecture Moderne de la Sidle, ou Recueil des plus 

 beaux Monumens, mesures et dessincs par J. Hittorff 

 ct L. Zanth (Paris, 1827, 1st livr., fol.) 



SICILY (anciently Trinacria and Sicilia); the 

 largest, most fruitful, and most populous island of 

 the Mediterranean, lies to the south of Italy, from 

 which it is separated by the strait or faro of Mes- 

 sina, which, in the narrowest part, is only two 

 miles wide. The surface is greatly diversified by 

 mountains and valleys. A chain of mountains ex- 

 tends through the island from east to west; but 

 the most elevated summit is the famous volcano, 

 mount JEtna. The climate is warm, but pleasant, 

 the winters mild, and the heat of summer tem- 

 pered by sea breezes. Sicily has always been 

 celebrated for its fertility, and is well watered 

 by a great number of streams and rivulets; but 

 the state of cultivation is very backward. The 

 principal products are maize, wheat, other kinds 

 of grain, flax, hemp, vines, saffron, cotton, silk, 

 olives, and various fruits. The exports con- 

 sist chiefly of silk, corn, salt, olive oil, sumac, 

 wine and fruits. The manufactures, consisting of 

 silk, cotton, linen, and some woollens, are confined 

 to the three large towns of Palermo, Messina, and 

 Catania. According to the last census, Sicily con- 

 tains 1.787,771 inhabitants, of whom 300,000 arc 



ecclesiastics, or persons living on ecclesiastical re- 

 venues. There arc in the island 1117 convents, 

 containing 30,000 monks and 30,000 nuns. The 

 nobility of this small population consists of six 

 dukes, 217 princes, 217 marquisses, 2000 barons, 

 and the same number of an order called gentlemen. 

 In 1817, the island was divided into seven inten- 

 dancies, which takes the names of their chief towns 

 Palermo, Catania, Messina, Girgenti, Siragosa 

 (Syracuse), Trapani, and Calatanisetta. To Sicily 

 belong the groups of the Lipari (JEolian) islands 

 on the north, and jEgades on the west, Pantellaria 

 on the south, &c. Between the latter island 

 (which is twenty-one leagues from the coast) and 

 Sciacca, in Sicily, a volcanic island, about one mile 

 in circumference and 150 160 feet high, rose from 

 the sea, in the summer of 1831, but disappeared 

 after a few months, and again appeared in the spring 

 of 1832. Notwithstanding the natural wealth of 

 the island, the inhabitants are kept in a state of 

 poverty by the great numbers of the religious and 

 nobles (who possess almost all the land), the heavy 

 duties upon commerce, and the want of secure 

 communication. 



Sicily has been, from ancient times, a prize of 

 war. The original inhabitants appear to have been 

 Iberians (Niebuhr, Roman History, ch. On the 

 Three Islands) ; but the conquests and colonies 

 of the Greeks rendered the Greek language preva- 

 lent, and, in reality, converted Sicily into a Greek 

 island a character which it retained till the middle 

 ages. The Carthaginians also founded colonies 

 here. The island was divided between different 

 republics, among which Syracuse was the wealthi- 

 est and most powerful, and most celebrated, in an- 

 cient history, for its princes (Gelo, Agathocles, 

 Hiero), its wars, and the high degree of cultivation 

 to which it carried the arts and sciences. See 

 Gartner's Views of the Greek Monuments in Sicily 

 (Munich, 1819). Next to Syracuse, Messana, 

 now Messina, and Agrigentum (Girgenti), were 

 most famous in history. In the middle of the 

 third century B. C., the Romans became masters 

 of Sicily, and remained in possession of it until 

 Genseric, king of the Vandals, conquered it, in the 

 middle of the fifth century A.D. Belisarius, Jus- 

 tinian's general, drove out the Vandals (535) ; and 

 it remained in the hands of the Greek emperors 

 nearly three centuries, when it was taken by the 

 Saracens (827). The Normans, who ruled in 

 Naples, conquered Sicily in 1072, and received it 

 from the pope as a papal fief. Roger, a powerful 

 Norman prince, took the title of king of Sicily 

 (1102), and united the island with the kingdom of 

 Naples, under the name of the kingdom of the 

 Two Sicilies. (See Sicilies, The Two.) But a 

 dislike always prevailed between the Sicilians and 

 the Neapolitans; whence frequent attempts on the 

 part of the former to obtain their independence. 

 This idea was encouraged by the constitution given 

 them by the British, and their old right to a sepa- 

 rate parliament. This was the root of the furious 

 outbreak of July 1620, 1820, in Palermo. (See 

 Naples and Sicily, Revolution of.) The pastoral 

 muse has never abandoned this island; and the 

 first notes of Italian poetry were heard in Sicily. 

 (See Italy, di vision Italian Poetry.) The idyls oi 

 the Sicilian poet Giovanni Meli, published by the 

 abbate Scopa, at Paris, 1820, unite depth of feel- 

 ing and simplicity with uncommon grace and sweet- 

 ness; for the recent works on Sicily, see those 

 mentioned :it the cli -c of the article Sicilies, The 



