The Uncrowned Kings Of Sicily

The Lions of Sicily

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The Lions of Sicily is the first of the two novels written by Stefania Auci narrating Florio family's history: entrepreneurs, aficionados and visionaries, adventurers and art lovers that pushed Sicily into modernity.
Their story starts in 1799, when Paolo Florio, after the catastrophic heartquake that ruined their homeland, decided to move with his family from Bagnara Calabra to Palermo.
Paolo and Ignazio Florio from the moment they arrived with their schifazzo in Palermo, started looking forward, ambitious and restless, struggling for reaching the top. And they did that: soon their grocery store in Via dei Materassai became the best in Palermo, then the two brothers began sulphur business, bought properties and lands from fallen aristocrats, created their own shipping company...
However it has been Paolo's son, Vincenzo Florio Senior, who succeeded in achieving fame and prestige among the European elite. A man with great business acumen, in 1830 he acquired shares in the Palermo Arenella tuna fishery and finally obtained them in 1838. In the meantime he took over other tuna fisheries located along the coasts of Palermo and Trapani.
He has been the inventor of a revolutionary method for the tuna conservation, that is still used today, in oil and can; in his winery a poor wine, the Marsala, became so prestigious to be worthy of a king.

Palermo has been the theatre of the Florios' business growth, the city observed with admiration the family, but the pride was mitigated by the envy: those successful men would always have been immigrated, facchini, portarobbe. But Palermo didn't know that the Florios, in their actions, were exactly moved by a strong will of social redemption.
Tu puoi arrivare dove io non sono arrivato
Through generations, new ties with increasingly important people, investments and clever intuitions, the Florios became the uncrowned rulers of Sicily.
The Stefania Auci's novel intertwines the Florios' business and social rise with their private lives, on the background of the most troubled years of Italian history, from the 1818 movements to the Garibaldi's landing in Sicily.

My project consists in a network analysis of the Stefania Auci's novel. In particular, I created two networks, one till the death of Ignazio Florio (1776-1828), so with the two brothers, Paolo and Ignazio, as the main nodes of the network, and another one till the end of the book, that is, till the death of Vincenzo Florio (1799-1868).
The main research questions are the following:
HOW THE SOCIAL CONNECTIONS, THE HOLDINGS AND THE BUSINESS ACTIVITY OF THE FAMILY “FLORIO” CHANGE ACROSS THE GENERATIONS?
ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS REALLY THE "MAIN CHARACTERS"? WHO DOES STEFANIA AUCI GIVE MORE IMPORTANCE IN THE NOVEL AND WHY?

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