Confini istituzionali e frontiera cancelleresca tra regno di Sicilia e Corona d’Aragona (1392-1460)

Following the reincorporation of the Kingdom of Sicily among the dominions of the Crown of Aragon (1409), a number of non-territorial boundaries between the island and the Catalan-Aragonese union emerged. Although Sicily had lost its independence, these various boundaries – institutional, administrative, political, etc. – helped the island to maintain significant autonomy and governmental institutions that were distinct from the central administration of the Crown. This process also resulted in the establishment of a ‘chancery frontier’, which prevented the Aragonese monarchs from directly meddling in Sicilian affairs. By comparing chancery and institutional dynamics during the final years of Sicily’s independence (1392–1409) with the following viceregal era – starting in 1412 – this chapter examines the emergence and development of institutional boundaries between the island and the Crown of Aragon and discusses whether and to what extent political independence helped the island to preserve its own boundaries. In so doing, this chapter analyses the transition from a phase marked by unofficial relationships between these two political entities to another in which those boundaries were fully formalised, also leading to the emergence of the above-mentioned chancery frontier.