The Palazzo Chiaramente complex in Palermo houses the remnants of the Inquisition prison, whose large cells are profusely decorated with astonishing graffiti, drawings, quotations, and poems; I personally admired them in 2016. Giuseppe Pitrè uncovered much and in 1906 published a short book on the subject. Now Giovanna Fiume has done justice to this impressive material. The book is replete with names and complex life stories, and contemporary quotations in Sicilian, Spanish, and English as well as old recondite Italian. Building on the crucial research of the late Maria Sofia Messana, to whom I have been heavily indebted, Fiume's first chapters on the Inquisition's history in Sicily are excellent.
Chapter 1 stresses the stumbling development of the Sicilian tribunal and the complex relations between kings, viceroys, and local nobles, documenting variations in the Concordie from 1552 that tried to settle jurisdictional disputes. Viceroys resisted the Holy Office's attempts to create a theocratic state. As with all Inquisitions, privileged familiars, supposedly assisting the Inquisitors, provoked many disputes, including with secular officials. Fiume has some important comments on the work and writings of the famous Inquisitor Luis de Páramo.
Chapter 2 shows how the tribunal worked toward judgments, utilizing several manuals; again Páramo features. Fiume discusses the use of torture (including water torture), more prevalent and harsher than in mainland Italy. The well-illustrated and documented pages on the auto-da-fé are noteworthy, particularly the 1724 one, which interestingly exemplifies those condemned to death. Between 1487 and 1782, 201 condemned were burned to death or otherwise executed, with 279 “relaxed in effigy” (92). A section discusses attempts to ensure secrecy in proceedings and imprisonment, but also how this could break down, and how prisoners communicated between cells. By the eighteenth century, criticisms of the tribunal were widely publicized. Note the anonymous Il Calumniatore's writings (105–07).
Chapter 3 exemplifies how the different heresies and alleged crimes were treated: impeding the Holy Office, bigamy, concubinage, sodomy (Adam's original sin according to several), solicitation in the confessional, magic and stregoneria, necromancy, blasphemy, the moriscos and Judaizers, “cristiani di Allah” or renegades coming back from Muslim captivity (with many absolved), and young persons pressed to convert to Islam. Fiume shows how Inquisitors differed in harshness and leniency. After commenting on Lutherans and perfetti, or Molinist conventicles, she has some fascinating examples of individuals dabbling in the three religions.
Chapter 4, on the prison complex and cells, starts with the shifting location of a Palermo prison, documenting the slow development and expansion of the Chiaramonte complex (also known as the Steri) and its floors of cells, secret prisons (carcere segrete), and its separate women's prison. It was part of a “prison archipelago,” especially with the Holy Office needing to use public prisons (220–26). Twenty-seven in-text figures and twenty-two black-and-white and color plates support subsequent analyses of the prisoners, their origins, and their alleged offenses, as well as how they lived, ate, suffered, entertained, fought, argued, and defended their views. One Inquisitor was killed by an intriguing prisoner, Diego La Matina (315).
Pictures and comments express their miseries, frustrations, and hopes; how they coped with the Alcayde official running the cells and got complaints to Inquisition visitors periodically sent to check on the prisons; and even how they removed Inquisitors. They depicted their background lives, illustrating their experiences in naval battles (especially Lepanto), their memories, and the natural environments outside. Walls spoke: prisoners communicated with each other via graffiti as they moved between cells (255). A prison city was visually created, a grafosfera (264–68). They expressed ranges of religious and political views: Catholic and non-Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and deeply skeptical. Saints are shown to be very important, adding to the sacralization of space (268–73).
Many prisoners contributed to the graffiti and designs, interlocking their activities in a palimpsest and creating a complex scene. Medics, writers, learned clergy, and teachers contributed to a broad cultural scene; Fiume highlights the contributions of poets (some members of the Accademia dei Riaccesi) in creating a canzoniere, a second Sicilian poetic school, with poems in Latin, Tuscan, and Sicilian (295–302). The multilingual, multinational community even included some notable English graffiti-writing prisoners!
