Maio of Bari

Signature of the Chancellor Maio

The Bareser Maio (* unknown in Bari ; † November 10, 1160 in Palermo ) was Skriniar, Vice Chancellor and Chancellor under Roger II of Sicily. Under Wilhelm I he was promoted to ammiratus ammiratorum .

Life

Maio came from an upper class family, probably with connections to the Greek population of the city. His father Leo de Reiza († September 8 before 1155) and his mother Kuraza, also Kyurizza († July 26, 1158) were entered in the necrology of the Santissima Trinità monastery of Venosa , but at a time when Maio had long since died was. Leo was judge and then protoiudex of Bari. The fact that he was an oil trader goes back to Hugo Falcandus , but has been recognized as deliberate misinformation for over 100 years. Maio was brother-in-law of a nephew of Adelasia , the Count of Policastro, Simon Senescalcus, who was magister capitaneus of Apulia from 1155 until his death in 1161 . As ammiratus ammiratorum he was the successor of George of Antioch , after whose death in 1151 Roger II had not appointed a successor, while Wilhelm I decided a few months after taking office to put Maio at the head of his administration. In the immediate vicinity of the church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio founded by his predecessor , Maio San Cataldo continued to exercise control of the Norman royal chancellery through his closest collaborator, the notary and later Vice Chancellor Matheus von Salerno .

It is not known where he obtained his literary education. On the one hand he was a patron of the translators' circle at the Norman court, on the other hand he was active as an author: his commentary on the Our Father ( Expositio orationis Dominicae ) is dedicated to his son Stephanus, who also held the office of ammiratus . The Canon of Capua and later Cardinal Laborans dedicated his work De iustitia e iusto to him .

In 1156 he was head of the Norman negotiating commission, to which only clerical dignitaries belonged, including Romuald of Salerno , who negotiated the Treaty of Benevento , the original Sicilian version of which was written by Matheus of Salerno. Maio was hated by the cities, nobles and also by large parts of the people, because he tried to centralize the administration and so disempowered the cities and nobles. However, the Kingdom of Sicily would not have survived these hard times without his political calculations; through his treaties and through his internal and external political actions, he secured Wilhelm I. his rule. The Maio of Bari, appointed as the “Emir of the Emirs”, came more and more into the line of fire of the Sicilian provincial nobles. In 1160 he was murdered by noble conspirators under the leadership of Matheus Bonellus (Italian: Matteo Bonello or Bonnel). King Wilhelm punished the apostate with death after further murder attempts against him. Apart from renouncing the African coastal cities, he left a solid empire to his heir of the same name. Houses belonging to Maios were sold to Count Silvester von Marsico by King Wilhelm I after his murder.

literature

Theo Kölzer : Maio of Bari . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 145.
Berardo Pio : Maione da Bari. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 67: Macchi – Malaspina. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2006.
Horst Enzensberger , Contributions to the chancellery and documentary system of the Norman rulers of Lower Italy and Sicily , Kallmünz 1971, pp. 75, 99

Web links

Publications about Maione da Bari in the Opac of the Regesta Imperii

Remarks

↑ Hubert Houben , Il "libro del capitolo" del monastero della SS. Trinità di Venosa (Cod. Casin. 334): una testimonianza del Mezzogiorno normanno . Galatina 1984, p. 143
^ Hugo Buchthal : A school of miniature painting in Norman Sicily. In: Kurt Weitzmann (Ed.): Late Classical and Medieval Studies in Honor of Albert Matthias Friend, jr. Princeton 1955, pp. 312-339, identified BNF nouv. acqu. lat. 1772 as the dedication copy of Maione's interpretation of the Lord's Prayer for his son Stephan; Donald Matthew: Maio of Bari's Commentary on the Lord's Prayer. In: Lesley Janette Smith, Benedicta Ward (Eds.): Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Margaret Gibson. London 1991, pp. 119-144.
^ Horst Enzensberger: Cultura giuridica e amministrazione nel regno normanno - svevo. In: Scuole, diritto e società nel mezzogiorno medievale d'Italia Pt. Part 2, Catanai 1987, pp. 169-188, here: p. 173 ( online ).

personal data
SURNAME	Maio of Bari
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Chancellor, Ammiratus Wilhelm I of Sicily
DATE OF BIRTH	12th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bari
DATE OF DEATH	November 10, 1160
Place of death	Palermo

[1] Hubert Houben , Il "libro del capitolo" del monastero della SS. Trinità di Venosa (Cod. Casin. 334): una testimonianza del Mezzogiorno normanno . Galatina 1984, p. 143

[2] Hugo Buchthal : A school of miniature painting in Norman Sicily. In: Kurt Weitzmann (Ed.): Late Classical and Medieval Studies in Honor of Albert Matthias Friend, jr. Princeton 1955, pp. 312-339, identified BNF nouv. acqu. lat. 1772 as the dedication copy of Maione's interpretation of the Lord's Prayer for his son Stephan; Donald Matthew: Maio of Bari's Commentary on the Lord's Prayer. In: Lesley Janette Smith, Benedicta Ward (Eds.): Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Margaret Gibson. London 1991, pp. 119-144.

[3] Horst Enzensberger: Cultura giuridica e amministrazione nel regno normanno - svevo. In: Scuole, diritto e società nel mezzogiorno medievale d'Italia Pt. Part 2, Catanai 1987, pp. 169-188, here: p. 173 ( online ).