Good books on Norman Sicily/Southern Italy?

Zioneer

Banned
I'd like to do a TL on Norman Sicily, so I'd like some in-depth books on all of them, from William Iron-Arm to Constance of Sicily. What are the best books on the Italo-Normans, specifically their fusion of Byzantine-Arab-Lombard and Norman cultures, and their interactions with those cultures?
 
Norwich is excellent. It was originally published in two books, The Normans in the South (originally titled The Other Norman Conquest) and The Kingdom in the Sun.

It's worth visiting Wikipedia. Start with the name of a ruler (Drogo is an unambiguous one) and follow the links around the site. There's a lot of information on there.
 
I don't know. Now that I've read other, more recent books on Byzantium, a lot of Norwich is meh. He focuses very much on personalities, and not on the sinews of the state.
 

Zioneer

Banned
Hmm... Are there any good non-Norwich Italo-Norman books out there? I can't find Norwich on the Barnes and Noble website. I have to use Barnes and Noble because I have several gift cards I want to use up.

But I'll keep in mind the Norwich suggestion. I do want to focus on the personalities of the Norman rulers at first; after all, the personalities of Guiscard and his kin were what pushed the invasion to it's absolute height.
 

Vitruvius

Donor
I still think Norwich is pretty good for Norman Sicily, though I agree with some of the criticisms of his Byzantine works. His was the book that introduced Norman Sicily to me many years ago. As for cultures William Tronzo has a great book about the Capella Palatina in Palermo. Its definitely a very specialized academic text and fairly pricey but it offers a great take on the influences of the Latin, Greek and Arabic communities by using the Capella as a kind of case study. Its called the Cultures of his Kingdom which is what made me think of it. Maybe take a look for it in a local University library.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
While I have no titles off the top of my head (my brain is dead right now) - I'd say most good books on the crusades also usually include some discussion of Norman Sicily because of how important it was to the whole thing, from being one of the causes to its position as leading many crusades, dominating the greek crusader states, and of course the Hohenstaufen drama.
 
Norwich is fun, but he very much belongs to an older generation of history writing, which people read fore literary enjoyment as muichas education. Not that he'swrong, hejust focvuses way too much on the grand narrative.

I like Donald Matthew: The Norman Kingdom of Sicily for a nuts-and-bolts-vierw of how the place was governed. It's a little older already, but the bibliography is good until the 90s. David Abulafia's biography of Frederick II was also quite good, but it only touches on the late Norman state. I don't know if the exhibition catalogues from Vienna (nobiles officinae) and Oldenburg (/Friedrich II) ever were translated. They are good, too. I'm prettysure the current staufer exhibit in Mannheim will have even newer material, but Ihaven'tz gotten round to reading the catalogue yet. it focuses very much on the comparative economic and social history of Sicily, Northern Italy and West Central Germany in the 12th and 13th century.
 
Top