Ambizioni individuali e desiderio del potere: i Normanni nel Mediterraneo (sec. XI-XII)

The essay discusses the elaboration, in the chronicles of the Norman conquest of southern Italy, of the Augustinian concept of libido dominandi as mos insitus of the Norman knights. In particular, attention is paid to the description of the deeds of Robert Guiscard and Roger I and a different evaluation is hypothesised of the evolution of the will for glory and power in one and the other: excessive and misdirected in the former; elevated by the struggle for Christianity in Sicily, the libido of the latter. Augustinian, biblical and classical references are found in the Latin and Greek sources, constructing a reflection on the nature of the new power rising in the heart of the Mediterranean.