Editing Reggio Calabria (section)

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Reggio Calabria Incisione Regno di Napoli.jpg|thumb|left|Reggio in a medieval engraving.]]
Numerous occupying armies came to Reggio during the early Middle Ages due to the city's strategic importance.

Invasions by the [[Vandals]], the [[Lombards]] and the [[Goths]] occurred in the 5th–6th centuries.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} Then, under [[Byzantine]] rule, it became a metropolis of the Byzantine possessions in Italy and was also the capital of the [[List of Counts and Dukes of Apulia and Calabria|Duchy of Calabria]] several times between 536 and 1060 AD.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} Following wars between the Lombards and Byzantines in the 6th century, Bruttium was renamed Calabria.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

As a Byzantine centre of culture, certain monks there undertook scribal work, carrying out the transcription of ancient classical works. Until the 15th century, Reggio was one of the most important Greek-rite Bishoprics in Italy—even today Greek words are used and are recognisable in local speech and Byzantine terms can be found in local liturgy, in religious icons and even in local recipes. During this period, constant migrations of Greeks fleeing the Slavic invasion of Peloponnese, further strengthened the Hellenic element of the city.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Slavs and nomadic populations in Greece|url=https://www2.rgzm.de/foreigners/cfm/themen/309/309_uk.cfm?Language=uk|access-date=2021-06-19|website=www2.rgzm.de|archive-date=2021-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624201538/https://www2.rgzm.de/foreigners/cfm/themen/309/309_uk.cfm?Language=uk|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Arabs occupied Reggio in 918 and held some of its inhabitants to ransom or kept them prisoners as slaves.<ref>''Western Europe on the Eve of the Crusades'', Sidney Painter, ''A History of the Crusades'', Vol. I, ed. Kenneth M. Setton and Marshall W. Baldwin, (University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), p. 50.<!-- ISBN needed --></ref> For brief periods in the 10th–11th centuries the city was ruled by the [[Arabs]] and, renamed {{Lang|ar-latn|Rivàh}} (or sometimes {{Lang|ar-latn|Rŷu}}), became part of the [[Emirate of Sicily]]. During the period of Arab rule various beneficial ideas were introduced into Calabria, such as citrus fruit trees, mulberry trees (used in [[silk]] production) and several ways of cooking local vegetables such as aubergines. The Arabs introduced water ices and ice cream and also greatly improved agricultural and hydraulic techniques for irrigation.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

In 1005, a Christian fleet coming from [[Republic of Pisa|Pisa]] sacked the city and massacred all the Saracens to the great jubilation of the local population.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Campagnano |first=Gabriele |date=2017-06-01 |title=Pisa e gli Arabi: il Mito di Kinzica (1005) |url=https://zweilawyer.com/2017/06/01/pisa-e-gli-arabi-il-mito-di-kinzica-1005/ |access-date=2022-10-28 |website=Zhistorica |language=it-IT}}</ref> In 1060 the [[Italo-Normans|Normans]], under [[Robert Guiscard]] and [[Roger I of Sicily]], captured Reggio but Greek cultural and religious elements persisted until the 17th century. In 1194 Reggio and the whole of southern Italy went to the [[House of Hohenstaufen|Hohenstaufen]], who held it until 1266. In 1234 the town fair was established by decree of King [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]].<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

From 1266 it was ruled by the [[Capetian House of Anjou|Angevins]], under whom life in Calabria deteriorated because of their tendency to accumulate wealth in their capital, Naples, leaving Calabria in the power of local barons.<ref name="ReferenceB">Mario Caligiuri, ''Breve Storia della Calabria''. Newton & Compton, Rome, 1996</ref> In 1282, during the [[Sicilian Vespers]], Reggio rallied in support of [[Messina]] and the other oriental Sicily cities because of the shared history, commercial and cultural interests. From 1147 to 1443 and again from 1465 to 1582, Reggio was the capital of the Calabrian ''Giustizierato''. It supported the [[Crown of Aragon|Aragonese]] forces against the House of Anjou. In the 14th century it obtained new administrative powers.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> In 1459, the Aragonese enlarged its medieval castle.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Reggio, throughout the Middle Ages, was first an important centre of [[calligraphy]] and then of [[printing]] after its invention. It boasts the first dated, printed edition of a [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] text, a [[Rashi]] commentary on the [[Pentateuch]], printed in 1475 in [[La Giudecca]] of Reggio,<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/guide/hs-books.html "The Books of the People of the Book – Hebraic Collections"], Library of Congress, Washington, DC; accessed 26 March 2015.</ref> even though scholars consider Rome as the city where Hebrew printing began.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}} The Jewish community of Reggio was also considered to be among the foremost internationally, for the dyeing and the trading of [[silk]]: silk woven in Reggio was esteemed and bought by the Spaniards, the Genoese, the Dutch, the English and the Venetians, as it was recognised as the best silk in the Kingdom of Naples.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>