Bloodstained Books in Renaissance Sicily: The Library of Matteo Barresi, Marquis of Pietraperzia

Abstract

AT ITS COMPLETION IN 1526 , the castle of Pietraperzia—later destroyed by the bombings of 1943—reflected the decade-long work of Matteo II Barresi (d. 1531), marquis of Pietraperzia and Convicino. Less than a week after themarquis’s death, a local notary walked through the building and compiled a postmortem inventory that reveals the care with which Matteo projected his aspirations onto the space he inhabited. The Barresi castle was essentially a fortress, built to impress and steeped