THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN KINGDOMS 1200-policies could be adopted; and, again, they filtered down to
affect large numbers of the subjects of the kings who are the
focus of this book, many of them Christians, but also, as will
be seen, a good many Jews and Muslims with their own
special preoccupations.
A feature of this book is the space devoted in the last sec-
tion of each chapter to a review of what has been surveyed
in greater detail in the chapter as a whole. This has been
done with the intention of providing essential background
to readers who have a particular interest in one or another
period, theme or region, but who also need to be able to
understand the wider setting. Thus someone with a special
interest in (say) Robert the Wise and fourteenth-century
Naples is invited to read the final section of each preceding
chapter if time or patience precludes fuller attention to the
earlier chapters.
The footnotes are intended to offer a sensible guide to the
very variable literature which exists dealing with late medi-
eval Sicily, southern Italy and the Catalan world. In some
cases the items cited are simply a small selection of a much
larger literature, for example on the trade of Barcelona; in
other cases, such as the important reign of Robert ofNaples,
the literature seems hardly to have expanded during the
twentieth century, with a few notable exceptions. I have
attempted to be fairly generous in references to literature
in English, but there are areas where deeper penetration is
possible only with the help of the literature in Italian, French,
Spanish and, increasingly, Catalan, which in recent years
has recovered its honourable place among the languages
of Europe. In the circumstances, it would not make sense
to document each and every edition of the key primary
sources, and, once again, I have borne in mind what is easily
accessible, such as the Catalan chronicles, which do exist in
English translation.
I am grateful to David Bates for his encouragement, his
helpful criticism and his belief that the topic of this volume
makes sense; to Andrew MacLennan for his patience and
interest in the gradual unfolding of this project; to count-
less friends and colleagues in Sicily, Sardinia, southern Italy,
Catalonia and other lands who have been so generous in
providing me with copies of their own books and articles,
to many of which I refer in the footnotes. Michael Jones
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