Editing Manfred, King of Sicily (section)

==Legacy and reception==
[[File:Sokolik.jpg|thumb|200px|Manfred holding a falcon from the 13th-century ''[[De arte venandi cum avibus]]'']]
{{See also|History of Swabian Sicily}}

=== Medieval reception ===
Contemporaries praised the noble and magnanimous character of Manfred, who was renowned for his physical beauty and intellectual attainments.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|page=568}}

In the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', [[Dante Alighieri]] meets Manfred outside the gates of [[Purgatory]], where the spirit explains that, although he repented of his sins ''[[wikt:in articulo mortis|in articulo mortis]]'', he must [[Atonement in Christianity|atone]] for his contumacy by waiting 30 years for each year he lived as an excommunicate, before being admitted to Purgatory proper. He then asks Dante to tell Constance about him being in Purgatory. With this statement, Manfred reveals that one's time in Purgatory can lessen if someone still alive can pray on their behalf, anticipating one of the recurring themes in ''[[Purgatorio]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alighieri|first=Dante|title=Purgatorio|publisher=Anchor|year=2004|isbn=978-0385497008|page=64}}</ref> Family connections, whether by blood or by marriage, are heavily referenced throughout this section of the ''Divine Comedy''. Dante uses these relationships to demonstrate that earthly connections impede souls in Purgatory from reaching Paradise.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Parker|first=Deborah|date=12 August 2020|title=Regeneration and Degeneration|url=https://www.dantesociety.org/publicationsdante-notes/regeneration-and-degeneration-dante’s-purgatorio|website=Dante Society}}</ref>

Dante's placing of Manfred in Purgatory is surprising given Manfred's excommunication by multiple popes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/193827830|title=Lectura Dantis : Purgatorio|publisher=University of California Press|others=Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn, Charles Ross|year=2008|isbn=978-0-520-94052-9|location=Berkeley|pages=22|language=English|oclc=193827830}}</ref> Manfred's placement in Purgatory is indicative of Dante's dislike of popes' use of excommunication as a political and policy tool.<ref name=":0" /> According to Dante, Manfred's excommunication does not make it impossible for him to make it through Purgatory and, eventually, into Paradise. Dante adds to this characterization of Manfred and the Church by describing how the Church ordered Manfred's bones unearthed after his death and thrown into a river outside the kingdom in fear that his gravesite would inspire the development of a cult around it.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Manfred|url=http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/pur0301.html|access-date=8 November 2021|website=danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu}}</ref>

Manfred's presence in ''Purgatorio'' also holds a more general symbolic value. Robert Hollander argues that Manfred's time in Purgatory should be seen as a symbol of hope, given that Manfred's final statement in ''Purgatorio'', Canto III is that "hope maintains a thread of green" (''speranza ha fior del verde'') (''Purgatorio'' III.135), which is paraphrased as death not eliminating hope so long as even a bit of hope is there.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alighieri|first=Dante|title=Purgatorio|publisher=Anchor|year=2004|isbn=0385497008|pages=63}}</ref>

=== Modern reception ===
Manfred formed the subject of dramas by [[Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach|E.B.S. Raupach]], O. Marbach and F.W. Roggee. Three letters written by Manfred were published by J. B. Carusius in ''Bibliotheca historica regni Siciliae'' ([[Palermo, Sicily|Palermo]], 1732).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|page=568}}

Manfred's name was borrowed by the English author [[Horace Walpole]] for the main character of his short novel ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' (1764). [[Montague Summers]], in his 1924 edition of this work, showed that some details of Manfred of Sicily's real history inspired the novelist.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1086/670066 |title=Bloody Records: Manuscripts and Politics in ''The Castle of Otranto'' |first=Crystal B. |last=Lake |journal=Modern Philology |date=May 2013 |volume=110 |issue=4 |jstor=10.1086/670066 |pages=489–512 |publisher=University of Chicago Press|s2cid=153695496 }}</ref> The name was re-borrowed by [[Lord Byron]] for his dramatic poem ''[[Manfred]]'' (1817).<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/42194957 |title=In the Shadow of Manfred: Byron, Schumann, Tchaikovsky |first=Ecaterina |last=Banciu |journal=StudiaMusica |volume=60 |issue=1 |year=2015 |issn=1844-4369}}</ref>

Inspired by Byron's poem, ''Manfred'' was adapted musically by [[Robert Schumann]] in 1852, in a composition entitled ''[[Manfred (Schumann)|Manfred: Dramatic Poem with Music in Three Parts]]'', and later by [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]] in his [[Manfred Symphony]] (1885).<ref>{{cite journal| authorlink=Laura Tunbridge |last=Tunbridge |first=Laura |date=July 2003 |title=Schumann's ''Manfred'' in the mental theatre |journal=Cambridge Opera Journal |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=153–183 | doi=10.1017/S0954586703001678|s2cid=194043894 }}</ref>

''King Manfred'' ([[König Manfred]]), Op. 93 is a grand romantic opera in 5 acts by [[Carl Reinecke]] to libretto by [[Friedrich Roeber]]. It was composed in 1866 and staged in 1867.<ref>[https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/wp-content/uploads/vorworte_prefaces/61.html Preface by Christoph Schlüren, 2003 – Final paragraph by Bradford Robinson, 2007]</ref><ref>''Klaus Tischendorf''. [https://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.555397&catNum=555397&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English# Booklet notes to Marco Polo 8.223117 / Naxos 8.555397] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422195718/https://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.555397&catNum=555397&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English |date=22 April 2022 }}</ref>