FOOTNOTES
[6] Borgo is the communication between Trastevere and the Vatican.
[7] [In 1111, the Milanese totally destroyed the city of Lodi, and forbade its rebuilding. Nevertheless a prosperous commune again came into existence, and in 1158 the Milanese came again, repeating their work of destruction in a more thorough manner.]
[8] [“Not to you but to St. Peter (I kneel),” said the prince. “Both to me and to Peter,” returned the priest.]
CHAPTER III. THE NORMANS IN SICILY
A people forsooth most astute, vengeful of injuries; in the hope of profit elsewhere despising their paternal territories, imitative in every way, keeping some mean betwixt prodigality and avarice. Their leaders indeed are most prodigal from their delight in reputation. They are a people apt in flattery, so studious of eloquence that even the very boys you’ll find are orators. Unless kept under the yoke of law, the race is most exceedingly unrestrained (effrenatissima) yet long suffering in toil, in famine, in cold, when fortune demands; industrious in falcon hunting. They rejoice in horses and the other affairs of war, and in luxurious garb. From their name indeed comes the name of their land. North in English means the region of the north wind (aquilo) and because they themselves came thence they call the land Normannia [Normandy].—Malaterra.[b]
[787-1204 A.D.]
Normans is the softened form of the word “Northman,” applied first to the people of Scandinavia in general, and afterwards specially to the people of Norway. In the form of “Norman” (Northmannus, Normannus, Normand) it is the name of those colonists from Scandinavia who settled themselves in Gaul, who founded the Norman duchy, who adopted the French tongue and French manners, and who from their new home set forth on new errands of conquest, chiefly in the British Islands and in southern Italy and Sicily. From one point of view the expeditions of the Normans may be looked on as continuations of the expeditions of the Northmen. As the name is etymologically the same, so the people are by descent the same, and they are still led by the old spirit of war and adventure.