Utopia and History of a Mediterranean Atoll, Ideogram of Messina and Calabrian Territory.

Abstract

Two different representations of a medieval icon dating back to the early 16^th century or to the late15^th century – a senatorial seal and a miniature on a membranous base –, perhaps from the 14^th century -  are attributable to the Byzantine workshop of the monastery of the Holy Salvatore of Messina.

The examination of the two images, in confirming the origin from the same source, is a guide to the identification of a probable 15^th century manuscript. The territorial synthesis represented – a “Mediterranean atoll” – appears strongly ideologized by the hand of an unknown miniaturist, an expression of the Byzantine school of Messina. The city, embraced in a full diadem of tightly packed buildings, expands on one side towards Capo Peloro. On the other side, it closes the embrace in the deserted peninsula of Saint Raineri, whose summit, facing the city, contains the monastery of the Santissimo Salvatore. The “atoll” of Messina has no contact with other lands, but clearly intends to dialogue with the nearby Calabria, from where from the coenobium was founded (from Rossano).  The archimandrite who governed the monastery extended its power over dozens of Byzantine Calabrian monasteries.

It was not be chance, then, that after the earthquake of 1908, when the subordination of the University of Messina to the administration of the University of Catania was feared, the Chancellor relaunched the medieval icon to demonstrate both the autonomy of Messina from Sicily, and the expansion of the urban territory towards the Calabrian coast.