Chapter Ipse sui vatis vota libellus agat. Entstehungskontexte des Liber ad honorem Augusti

Abstract

The Liber at honorem Augusti has traditionally been interpreted as a work of court historiography that was supposed to legitimize the still hardly consolidated Hohenstaufen rule in the Kingdom of Sicily. In contrast to this approach, the present article focuses on a completely different background against which the book was probably drawn up: local political conditions on the Southern Italian mainland. An in-depth analysis of hitherto largely neglected focal points of the narrative suggests that the polemical rhetoric was aimed at Archbishop Nicholas of Salerno, who had been led away in captivity at the time the Liber was created. A number of families from Salerno, who had lost in power in the course of Nicholas’ ascent, benefitted from his decline. Following Henry VI’s victory over Tancred of Lecce, these families had been able to elevate their candidate to the position of electee. With their ambitious, richly decorated manuscript, this group of families intended to oblige the imperial donee to make a counter-gift and act according to the role model as the new Solomon that was drafted on him in the Liber: Showing clemency to the givers, but strict justice towards the exiled, whose imminent return would jeopardize everything they had achieved.