**1. Introduction**

Notwithstanding he already ruled as vicar of his brother James II from 1291, only in 11 December 1295 was Frederick III of Aragon elected King of Sicily by the Sicilian Parliament. Afterwards, he was crowned in Palermo on 25 March 1296 and he reigned until his death in 25 June 1337 (about Frederick III of Aragon, King of Sicily, see [1–4], the update [5] and synthetically [6–8]. More recent but not particularly interesting are [9–11]. For a historiographical framework on Frederick III, see [12], [13] (pp. 183–211)). Among the kings of the Aragonese dynasty on the Sicilian throne, Frederick III seems to be the only one who made significant use of his image and, for this reason, he has been selected to represent the iconography of this royal family (we do not know of any images of Peter III of Aragon acting as King of Sicily. The lost wall paintings of the Cappella di Santa Maria Incoronata in Palermo date back to the 16th century [14] and it does not seem that he made a specific seal for the Kingdom of Sicily by only using the seal of king of Aragon [15] (Volume 1, pp. 115–117 and 207–208). With regard to James II of Aragon acting as King of Sicily, we only have the images of the seal [15] (Volume 1, p. 8 and pp. 240–241, no. 187), [16] (p. 82, although the reference should be corrected) and the denaro [17] (p. 10), [18] (p. 264 and pp. 696–697, plate 42, images no. 769–770)). Regarding him, we have four official (namely, commissioned directly by him or his entourage) representations: the royal seal, the billon silver denaro coin, the lost mosaic from the Church of Santa Maria della Valle (known as Badiazza) near Messina, and the mosaic in the Cathedral of Messina (about the identification of Frederick III's official image, see [19]).

## **2. The Royal Seal**

Diplomatic research attests to the use of a seal to corroborate the documents issued by Frederick III's royal chancellery (for example, the catalogue for the exhibition on the Messina documents of the Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli of Seville quotes a document from 12 July 1332 with a hanging seal (however, it was later lost) [20] (p. 183, document no. 77)) and, in a paper from 1997, Maria Grazia Fallico listed some diplomas from this king bearing a seal [21] (pp. 69–70). In particular, they were a parchment from 1320 of the Commenda della Magione section of the Archivio di Stato di Palermo (in reality, in the inventory of the archive there is only one document for 1320 and it is not from Frederick III [22] (p. 315, card no. 596). The diploma in question, instead, is no. 606 from 29 July 1329 [22] (p. 324, card no. 613). The *Repertorio* points out the absence of the seal (this

**Citation:** Vagnoni, M. Frederick III of Aragon (1296–1337). *Encyclopedia* **2021**, *1*, 566–575. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/encyclopedia1030047

Academic Editor: Song-Chong Lee

Received: 26 May 2021 Accepted: 8 July 2021 Published: 14 July 2021

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has also been kindly verified personally by Dr. Serena Falletta, archivist at the branch of the Catena of the Archivio di Stato di Palermo)), two parchments from the city of Messina issued on 1 October 1302 and stored in the Archivio ducale Medinaceli in Toledo, and four parchments from the city of Caltagirone issued in 1299 and stored in the Museo Civico di Caltagirone, in the parchments section of the Universitas di Caltagirone.

To my knowledge, these seals have never been published; however, I was able to examine some items in Caltagirone (thanks to the kind help of archivists Margherita Dizia and Enzo Piluso). All four of the examples from this location are identical. They are red wax hanging seals placed in a wooden box (Figure 1). The legend has the inscription FRIDERICUS TERCIUS DEI GRACIA REX SICILIE DUCATUS APULIE ET PRINCIPATUS CAPUE and the image displays the king on a horse facing left. The sovereign is wearing a helmet with a crown, with a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left. Both the latter and the caparison of the horse bear the coat of arms of the dynasty: quartered with red bars in the field or of Aragon and a black eagle in the field argen<sup>t</sup> of Sicily.

**Figure 1.** Seal of Frederick III of Aragon as King of Sicily, impression on red wax, 15 October 1299. Museo Civico di Caltagirone (ex Carcere Borbonico), section Pergamene della Universitas di Caltagirone, inventory number MC 4910, 10/22 1997. Photo taken by author.

Owing to the various political vicissitudes that characterized the reign of Frederick III, the royal title changed over the years (about the different royal titles of Frederick III, see [13] (pp. 191–192)). The seal probably had to adapt itself to these alterations. Nevertheless, due to the small number of items preserved, it is not possible to verify whether there were changes in the iconography or whether this type with the royal image was used for all 41 years of his reign (even if it is probable). Regardless of this, the iconography of the seal clearly differs from the specimens of the Norman and Swabian predecessors, but it perfectly follows the pattern of the Aragonese predecessor as King of Sicily. Indeed, it is identical to the seal of his brother James II, and it probably goes back to a tradition belonging to the kings of Aragon in the Iberian Peninsula (about the iconography of the Norman-Swabian kings of Sicily, see [23]. About the iconography of the kings of Aragon, see [16]).

Without doubt, this image is an official representation of Frederick III, and it mainly had a juridical function (it was used to corroborate the legal value of diplomas and documents issued by the royal chancellery). Its mobile support would have facilitated its circulation inside the Kingdom and, in this way, it could reach a large number of subjects. However, we should consider that seals were not made to move around but to be stored, with their documents, in the archives of their recipients. Moreover, their dimensions (although they were bigger than the seals of the Norman predecessors and in line with the Swabian and Aragonese tradition) (the diameter of the seals of the Norman kings varies between 25 and 35 mm. Instead, the Swabian and Aragonese seals can be as big as

95–110 mm [23] (passim), [15] (Volume 1, pp. 207–209). An example of James II of Aragon, identical to that of Frederick III from an iconographic point of view, has a diameter of 70 mm [15] (Volume 1, p. 209, n. 38)) were somewhat reduced and certainly of scarce visual impact. Finally, their use was not particularly common either. Despite the reorganization of the administration and the improvement to the royal chancellery done by Frederick III (about these aspects, see [24] (pp. VII-CCXV)), we should note that the average number of issues did not seem to be very high during his reign (about this aspect, see [25], [26] (in particular, for the recapitulatory table, p. 5)). If we also consider that the same recipients could receive several documents, we can suppose that the number of subjects involved was not particularly grea<sup>t</sup> and was limited at the aristocratic and ruling class of Sicilian society (moreover, note that the number of preserved diplomas is greater for the lay archives than for the ecclesiastical archives [21]. Can we argue that there were more documents for the first than for the second?). Therefore, in line with these data, it was not very frequent to be able to see the royal image of the seal and only a limited number of people would have had this opportunity.
