The Lute player Nicola
Palermo 1224
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Written by students from Paolo Borsellino School Mazara Class 2nd D Paolo Agrusa Wasim Alaya Giorgia Arone Giulia Castiglione Aya Chatti Antonio Davoli Marco Diliberti Laura Fanella Antonio Giacalone Gabriele Gianformaggio Sara Indelicato Giovanni La Paola Valentina Lamia Virna Molinari Alice Mondonuovo Salvatore Orofino Giada Parrinello Miriam Russo Ivan Sinacori The story is Illustated and created by Rocco Spanò
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CONTENTS
Pag. 5
Nicola
Pag. 6
Nicola’s family
Pag. 7
Nicola meets Jacopo Da Lentini
Pag. 8
Jacopo Da Lentini and Cielo D’Alcamo
Pag. 9
Nicola at the music school
Pag.10
Nicola at the Norman Palace
Pag. 11
Adele and Bianca go to the market
Pag. 12
Nicola at the Norman Palace
Pag. 13
Frederick II
Pag. 15
James I of Aragon
Pag. 16
Nicola and James I
Pag. 17
Medieval University in Lleida
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The Lute player
Palermo 1224
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Nicola
Nicola lives in Palermo, not far from the Norman Palace. Their house is not big but it is comfortable. They stay on the first floor. He is 16 years old and he is friendly, calm, sincere, gentle, honest, creative and determined. He has blue eyes and brown hair. He is tall and thin. He works with his father in their joinery and it is downstairs. He likes this job because he can draw and create something people use at home. They make chairs, tables, doors and beds. He likes playing chess and playing the lute with his friend Francesco. When his father is out of the joinery, Nicola plays the lute. Everyday Nicola and his father get up early, they have bread and honey for breakfast and later, they go to their joinery. At 12:00, Nicola and his father go upstairs and have lunch, they usually have pasta and bread. After lunch, Nicola helps his mother, Adele. She is a good mother. She has blond hair and green eyes. She likescooking and she is calm, sensible and thin. 5
Nicola’s family
Later Nicola goes again to the joinery with his father, Fernando. He is a big man, but he is gentle and generous like Adele. He has brown beard and blue eyes. At 16: 00 Nicola’s sister, Bianca, goes to the joinery and brings a snack to Federico and her father. She has blond hair and green eyes, she his calm and gentle. She is 20 years old and she loves her father. She likes decorating cloths by sewing patterns on them with thread and she likes sewing new cloths with her mother. She helps her mother in the kitchen, too. Bianca and her mother sew clothes for reach people and sometimes they listen to them speaking about Jacopo Da Lentini. He is looking for a Lute player.
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Nicola meets Jacopo Da Lentini
One day Nicola plays the Lute in the street with his friend Francesco. He has brown hair and green eyes and he is very good at playing the lute, too. Jacopo Da Lentini and Cielo D’Alcamo aren’t far from Nicola. They like the music, they stop and listen to the music. Jacopo asks Nicola if he would like to go to a music school to improve his technique. Nicola accepts and every day he becomes a very good player. He and Jacopo become friends, in the meantime, his father does not know about his son. Nicola is a phenomena, he wishes to play in the Norman Palace. Jacopo agrees and invites Nicola for his first public concert. Nicola every afternoon goes to the school to improve his technique.
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Jacopo Da Lentini and Cielo D’Alcamo
Jacopo da Lentini, also known as Giacomo da Lentini is one of the master of the Sicilian School. He is the inventor of the sonnet. Jacopo is probably the greatest literary exponent of the court of Frederick II. Cielo D'Alcamo, also known as Ciullo D'Alcamo, is an Italian poet and playwright, too. He is one of the most significant representatives of popular giullaresca poetry of the Sicilian school.
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Nicola at the music school
One day his father follows him and discovers his secret. He listens to his son playing the Lute and he is surprised because he did not know his son is a good Lute player. The problem is they donot have enough money and he does not know how to pay the school. When Nicola arrives home he says his father the school is free because an important man pays for him. His father does not believe him and he wishes to speak to Jacopo Da Lentini.
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Nicola at the Norman Palace
One day Nicola and Jacopo go the Norman Palace. Nicola wears elegant clothes and he is now a bit shy. Nicola starts playing and all people are glade for his magic music. He plays in an orchestra and everyone is surprised listening to his music. He plays really well the Lute and the music really makes them dream. Frederick II congratulates and invites him for his daughter’s Margherita di Sicilia birthday party. Nicola is astonished. He spends a lot of time playing the lute because the event can change his life. His family now is very proud of him.His sister and his mother wish to sew a beautiful dress for the important event.His father does not say a word but he is happy and he wishes the best for his son. He thinks about his joinery because he needs someone to help him. 11
Adele and Bianca go to the market
Bianca and her mother go to Ballarò market and look for a nice cloth material. They are happy and everyone asks them why. They buy the cloth material and go home. His mother soon cuts the cloth material and Bianca sewes a beatifull dress for her brother. They wish the best for Nicola because he can be the Lute player in Fredrerick II.
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Nicola at the Norman Palace
The big day arrives and Nicola goes to the Palace with Jacopo Da Lentini. His family is there, too. The party starts and King
Frederick II after his speech presents Nicola to his guests. Nicola starts playing the lute; he plays the lute really well. There are a lot of Princes and Princesses. He has a great success and all people in the Palace like his music and how he sings. They invite him to their castles.
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Frederick II king of Sicily�
“
Frederick II plays a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, sees the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The Sicilian poetry influences on literature and on what is to become the modern Italian language. Frederick II loves music. The music comes from troubadour poetry from Provence that expands not only in the North of France but also in Italy and in the Kingdom of Sicily. The music is widespread by jesters and minstrels. Also in this period the ballad spreads. There are two different models of performance and dance: a more popular, performed outdoors (welter) and one of the most aristocratic of use in feudal castles. Frederick II gives many parties and shows with music and dance that lasted late into the night.
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Listen to “Io m'aggio posto in core a Dio servire” - Giacomo da Lentini
Listen to “Misura providenzia e meritanza - Federico II
Listen to “Tarantela” Medieval music
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James I of Aragon
James I the Conqueror was King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; and Valencia from 1238 to 1276. His long reign saw the expansion of the House of Aragon in three directions: Languedoc to the north, the Balearic Islands to the south, and Valencia to the southwest. As a legislator and organizer, he occupies a high place among the Spanish kings. James compiled the Llibre del Consulat de Mar, which governed maritime trade and helped establish Catalan supremacy in the western Mediterranean. He was an important figure in the development of the Catalan language, sponsoring Catalan literature and writing an autobiographical chronicle of his reign: the Llibre dels fets. He liked also Alfons II tenso “Be•m plairia, Seingner Reisâ€? because he would like to write a tenso.
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Nicola and James I
James I invited Nicola to play for him in the Castle of the Templars in Lleida. Nicola left by ship from Palermo and went to Lleida.James I was in Palermo when Nicola played for Frederick II. First he read his “Llibre dels fets.� The language of the works is popular and colloquial, representing the spoken tongue and the style is direct. After Nicola played Reis glorios in two editions.
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Medieval University in Lleida
The emergent bourgeoisie was recognised as a municipality before the end of the century and the city grew to be the third largest in medieval Catalonia, after Barcelona and Perpignan. This dynamic was consolidated in the 13th century: Barcelona was the coastal capital and Lleida that of the Terra Ferma (hard land), as the chronicler Ramon Muntaner described it. Even the Templars centred their Catalan-Aragonese dominions in the command of Gardeny, close to the city. Later,In 1297, the University of Lleida was founded, becoming the third oldest in the whole of Spain. In 1300, the Estudi General was set up in Lleida and turned the city into an educational and cultural capital, as the first university centre in the Crown of Aragon, overtaking the dominant position held until then by Montpellier. All this is reflected in the city’s wide-ranging architectural heritage.
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