Apennine Sibyl

The ancient mystery of Mount Sibyl, the mountain that raises its peak between Umbria and Marche in Italy, is an enigma which is still unsolved. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by visitors coming from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. In this article Michele Sanvico illustrates a topic that has never been thouroughly analysed before: the medieval roots of the legend of the Apennine Sibyl, with the many links to earlier chivalric romances. For the first time ever, full details are provided, together with full reference to manuscripts, about the Apennine Sibyl's illustrious lineage from one of the main characters of the Arthurian cycle: Morgan le Fay. The aim of the paper is to ultimately unveil the true core of the legend by taking out the various, extraneous narrative layers that for centuries have sheltered the original mythical nucleus. This article is Part 2 of the full paper on the above topic, and also part of an extended series of papers on the true origin of the Apennine Sibyl's and Pilatus Lakes' legends.

The ancient mystery of Mount Sibyl, the mountain that raises its peak between Umbria and Marche in Italy, is an enigma which is still unsolved. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by visitors coming from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. In this article Michele Sanvico illustrates a topic that has never been thouroughly analysed before: the medieval roots of the legend of the Apennine Sibyl, with the many links to earlier chivalric romances. For the first time ever, full details are provided, together with full reference to manuscripts, about the Apennine Sibyl's illustrious lineage from one of the main characters of the Arthurian cycle: Morgan le Fay. The aim of the paper is to ultimately unveil the true core of the legend by taking out the various, extraneous narrative layers that for centuries have sheltered the original mythical nucleus. This article is Part 1 of the full paper on the above topic, and also part of an extended series of papers o the true origing of the Apennine Sibyl's and Pilatus Lakes' legends.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. This article summarises part of the information available on the eerie cave, as drawn from a number of different sources. A travel into mystery that still continues in our present days.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. With this article Michele Sanvico carries out a stunning journey into the literary tradition of the Cimmerian Sibyl and her potential link to the Apennine Sibyl, by presenting mentions taken from a vast collection of classical and later authors, and highlighting the close relationship which is retrieved between the Cimmerian and the Cumaean Sibyl. The paper is accompanyied by a large selection of utmostly rare images drawn from the literary sources quoted in the text.

The mysteries of Mount Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy are both ancient enigmas which are still unsolved. As reported in a fifteenth-century account provided by Antoine de la Sale in his "The Paradise of Queen Sibyl", the sinister Lakes of Pilate have been visited for many centuries by necromancers coming from all over Europe, in search of an eerie, magical setting where to consecrate their spellbooks: a cursed place of gloomy waters, in which the body of Pontius Pilate would have been cast in antiquity, according to an ancient legend.

In this paper, following the marks left by the historical character of Pontius Pilate in the ancient literature of the Roman and early-Christian age, Michele Sanvico probes into the many apocryphal texts which enshroud the prefect's legendary figure, subsequently confronting with the amazing medieval sources that built up the myth concerning the final days of Pilate and the curse which fell on his burial places, be it Vienne in France, Lucerne in Switzerland or the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy.

The goal of this research is to uncover the real essence of the myth of the Italian Lakes of Pilate, by highlightig the true origin of this legendary tale which establishes an odd connection between the lakes and the Roman prefect who was mentioned in the Gospels, by fully retracing the literary path that led to this remarkable association. The daring aim of all this is to cast an illuminating light on the mythical core of the legend that inhabits the place which we call today as the Lakes of Pilate, but was once known as the Lake of Norcia or the Lake of the Sibyl.

This article is Part 1 of the full paper on the above topic (including a Part 2 and a Part 3), and also part of an extended series of papers on the true origin of the Apennine Sibyl's and Pilatus Lakes' legends.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. In this article Michele Sanvico carries out a search of ancient references to the Apennine Sibyl in medieval and Roman sources, and proposes a new track for future investigation on the true origin of the legend.

The mysteries of Mount Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy are both ancient enigmas which are still unsolved. As reported in a fifteenth-century account provided by Antoine de la Sale in his "The Paradise of Queen Sibyl", the sinister Lakes of Pilate have been visited for many centuries by necromancers coming from all over Europe, in search of an eerie, magical setting where to consecrate their spellbooks: a cursed place of gloomy waters, in which the body of Pontius Pilate would have been cast in antiquity, according to an ancient legend.

In this paper, following the marks left by the historical character of Pontius Pilate in the ancient literature of the Roman and early-Christian age, Michele Sanvico probes into the many apocryphal texts which enshroud the prefect's legendary figure, subsequently confronting with the amazing medieval sources that built up the myth concerning the final days of Pilate and the curse which fell on his burial places, be it Vienne in France, Lucerne in Switzerland or the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy.

The goal of this research is to uncover the real essence of the myth of the Italian Lakes of Pilate, by highlightig the true origin of this legendary tale which establishes an odd connection between the lakes and the Roman prefect who was mentioned in the Gospels, by fully retracing the literary path that led to this remarkable association. The daring aim of all this is to cast an illuminating light on the mythical core of the legend that inhabits the place which we call today as the Lakes of Pilate, but was once known as the Lake of Norcia or the Lake of the Sibyl.

This article is Part 3 of the full paper on the above topic (also including a Part 1 and a Part 2), and also part of an extended series of papers on the true origin of the Apennine Sibyl's and Pilatus Lakes' legends.

The mysteries of Mount Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy are both ancient enigmas which are still unsolved. As reported in a fifteenth-century account provided by Antoine de la Sale in his "The Paradise of Queen Sibyl", the sinister Lakes of Pilate have been visited for many centuries by necromancers coming from all over Europe, in search of an eerie, magical setting where to consecrate their spellbooks: a cursed place of gloomy waters, in which the body of Pontius Pilate would have been cast in antiquity, according to an ancient legend.

In this paper, following the marks left by the historical character of Pontius Pilate in the ancient literature of the Roman and early-Christian age, Michele Sanvico probes into the many apocryphal texts which enshroud the prefect's legendary figure, subsequently confronting with the amazing medieval sources that built up the myth concerning the final days of Pilate and the curse which fell on his burial places, be it Vienne in France, Lucerne in Switzerland or the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy.

The goal of this research is to uncover the real essence of the myth of the Italian Lakes of Pilate, by highlightig the true origin of this legendary tale which establishes an odd connection between the lakes and the Roman prefect who was mentioned in the Gospels, by fully retracing the literary path that led to this remarkable association. The daring aim of all this is to cast an illuminating light on the mythical core of the legend that inhabits the place which we call today as the Lakes of Pilate, but was once known as the Lake of Norcia or the Lake of the Sibyl.

This article is Part 2 of the full paper on the above topic (including a Part 1 and a Part 3), and also part of an extended series of papers on the true origin of the Apennine Sibyl's and Pilatus Lakes' legends.

The mysteries of Mount Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy, are both ancient enigmas which are still unsolved. In two previous papers, “Birth of a Sibyl: the medieval connection” and “A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate”, we identified the presence of two additional, extraneous legendary layers, which are connected to the figure of Morgan le Fay and to the ancient lore concerning the burial places of Pontius Pilate. With a third paper, “Sibillini Mountain Range: the legend before the legends”, we pinpointed a number of common traits that mark both legends, the Cave's and Lake's, with at least three shared features: a legendary demonic presence; the performance of necromantic rituals; winds, tempests, and devastation which mythically arise from both sites. With a fourth paper, "Sibillini Mountain Range, a cave and lake to the Otherworld", we highlighted the otherwordly character marking the Sibillini Mountain Range, with strong literary links which can be retrieved between the legendary tales of the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate, set in the Sibillini Mountain Range, and two most famous and successful narratives which depict two specific journeys to otherwordly regions: the legend of the Cumaean Sibyl and the legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory.

With this conclusive paper we present our final considerations and innovative conjectural model on the origin of the legendary system which inhabits the Sibillini Mountain Range.

We first propose a comprehensive summary of the conjectures that have been elaborated, across more than one hundred fifty years, by philologists, researchers and even novelists and essaysts on the potential origin of the legendary tales connected to the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate, in a deliberate and unsuccessful effort to unveil the true reason for the peculiar character that these mountains seem to manifest across the centuries.

Subsquently, a new original, unprecedented conjecture on the origin of the legends of the Sibillini Mountain Range is presented, for the first time ever.

The keyword of our conjecture is earthquake. Since time immemorial, most devastating earthquakes have been occurring in the area on a recurrent basis. The very face of the mountain range is affected by the largest events. Smaller earthquakes ceaselessly hit the territory, many of them just above the threshold of human sensitivity. Vibrations and rumbles may be often heard. Contemporary residents know that a catastrophic earthquake might happen anytime, announced by sequences of smaller tremors, or even totally unheralded. They all know that sudden death may ensue, and that within the space of a few seconds their own life and the life of their family members may be subject to a dramatic change or even be terminated altogether under the debris of a collapsing roof, as it actually happened in the year 2016.

After a full review of the seismic character of the Sibillini Mountain Range, we formulate a conjecture concerning a possible antique otherwordly nature of the Lake and Cave. In a remote past, the two geographical features may have been considered as passageways to some sort of demonic presence, an access that was to be unlocked by means of necromantic rituals, a point of contact with a subterranean Otherworld and the chthonian powers beneath.

Before the Roman conquest in the third century B.C., we assume that the local populations of Sabines and Picenes may have developed some sort of legendary narrative, and a possible cult, with relation to the nature and potential worship of earthquakes, considered as a kind of fiendish demons or gods.

In the almost constant presence of earthquakes, due to the presence of an active fault system situated beneath the Sibillini Mountain Range, the local tradition, across the centuries of the Iron Age, may have established highland shrines at the Lake and Cave, where necromantic rituals may have been performed to obtain the cessation of the seismic sequences, and ask for mercy and salvation.

A comprehensive conjectural model is built on this potential scenario, with a full analysis of the reasons that may steer research in this direction. A most interesting link is also established with the tradition associated with the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate as to the legendary, devastating tempests which would arise from the two sites, with a clear connection to the antique beliefs on the origin of earthquakes as stated by Aristotle, Lucretius, Seneca and Pliny the Elder.

This final research article, together with the whole series of papers already released within the project "The Apennine Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilatus: a Journey into the True Origin of Mysterious Legendary Tales", fosters an improved and unprecedented comprehension of the mythical nucleus of the fascinating legendary setting that lives in the Sibillini Mountain Range, in central Italy.

This article is Part 1 of the full paper on the above topic.

The mysteries of Mount Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy, are both ancient enigmas which are still unsolved. In two previous papers, “Birth of a Sibyl: the medieval connection” and “A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate”, we identified the presence of two additional, extraneous legendary layers, which are connected to the figure of Morgan le Fay and to the ancient lore concerning the burial places of Pontius Pilate. With a third paper, “Sibillini Mountain Range: the legend before the legends”, we pinpointed a number of common traits that mark both legends, the Cave's and Lake's, with at least three shared features: a legendary demonic presence; the performance of necromantic rituals; winds, tempests, and devastation which mythically arise from both sites.

With the present paper we address a fourth, most significant feature which seems to mark the two sites, the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate: they both appear to have been considered as some sort of passageways to the Otherworld, owing to the presence of specific narrative elements, such as the test bridge, that are usually found in literary works that depict visionary travels to otherwordly regions.

The Otherworld and its accessibility to living men has always been an illustrious, emotional literary topic in the literary production of the Western tradition, since classical antiquity, through the advent of Christianity and across the centuries of the Middle Ages. From Homer's “Odyssey” to Vergil's “Aeneid”, from Pope St. Gregory the Great to the visionary dreams originated in medieval Ireland, and up to the legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick, men have always been dreaming about the afterlife, its shadows, its demons and its punishments. In the present work we retrace the main literary instances of the visionary narratives on the Otherworld in the Western culture.

In addition to that, we highlight the strong literary links which can be retrieved between the legendary tales of the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range, and two most famous and successful narratives which depict two specific journeys to otherwordly regions: the legend of the Cumaean Sibyl, with the Lake of Avernus and the gloomy cave providing an access to the realm of the dead, and the legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory, featuring another lake, Lough Derg, and another sinister cave.

In the present paper we show the recurrent contaminations of narrative themes that link the three different, and substantially unrelated, legends, in the form of a visible transfer of narrative topics and situations from the illustrious and widely-known Cumaean and Irish tales, to an Italian tale which appear to features some narrative and geographical traits in common, though set in a different setting and despite its total independence from the legendary narratives of Lough Derg and Cumae. A contamination that has travelled across the centuries of the Middle Ages, through the invisible streams of oral tales and storytelling, finally materialised within the fifteenth-century works written by Antoine de la Sale and Andrea da Barberino.

The resulting, far-reaching assumption which arises from the present research work is that a legendary passageway to some sort of Otherworld might have been possibly situated, by an antique tradition that left some faint traces in the known literature, among the peaks of the central Apennines. And the landmarks for this mythical entryway would be associated, just like in Cumae and Lough Derg, to the same kind of landforms, a lake and a cave: they both would mark a sort of legendary 'hot spot' on the surface of Earth, where the mythical passageway would be located.

In this framework, a number of questions are left open in the present paper: why should this Apennine site have been considered as a further entryway to the Otherworld? If our assumption is true, what sort of Otherworld was this? What sort of dreadful dream did men conceive by the Lake and Cave set in the mountains of the Apennines, in central Italy?

What legend did live in this area before the medieval legendary tales about a Sibyl and Pontius Pilate settled themselves here?

The highlighting of the otherwordly character marking the Sibillini Mountain Range, in Italy, may lead to an improved comprehension of the mythical nucleus of the legendary setting that inhabits those imposing mountains of Italy, opening a new path that will be fully addressed in a future, and conclusive, research paper, now under preparation.

This article is Part 1 of the full paper on the above topic, and also part of an extended series of papers on the true origin of the Apennine Sibyl's and Pilatus Lakes' legends, a series that will include further papers that are about to provide additional, previously-unpublished information on the whole fascinating topic.

Tannhäuser was a German knight and minnesänger - a minstrel and a lyric poet - who was born near Salzburg in 1205. According to legend, he had chanced upon a mountain, under which the goddess Venus had settled her hidden abode. A similar narration can be found in an ancient Italian chivalric romance, "Guerrino the Wretch", which recounts the deeds of another knight who crept into Mount Sibyl's cave, meeting with similar finds; other quotes on the same subject appear in Antoine de La Sale's fifteeenth-century work "The Paradise of Queen Sibyl"
Tannhäuser and Guerrino, Germany and Italy, Frau Venus Berg and Mount Sibyl. Did a connection exist between the two legends? In the article, the contributions by various scholars to this literary issue are summarised.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over.

This article is a literary ride through manuscripts and ancient books in search of hidden links: those between a Sibyl, the classical Sibyls, and the Italian Apennines. A fascinating travel from Isidore of Seville to Augustine of Hippo, from Lactantius to Publius Vergilius Maro, from Servius Marius Honoratus to Publis Papinius Statius, Suetonius and the Historia Augusta, from Marcus Terentius Varro to Pliny the Elder, and then Philippe de Thaon, the Mirabilis Liber, Ludovico Ariosto, Andrea da Barberino and Antoine de La Sale.

A travel into mystery that still continues in our present days.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. With this article Michele Sanvico presents, for the first time, the pictures of the letter on Mount Sibyl written by Enea Silvio Piccolomini in the fifteenth century, with a detailed analysis of its content and new findings about the addressee and the date and place in which it was written.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. With this article Michele Sanvico provides an in-depth analysis of a fourteenth-century text written by Petrus Berchorius, a benedictine monk, on the Lakes of Norcia, known today as the Lakes of Pilatus.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. This article provides a full description of the ancient literary lineage of the magical bridge that Antoine de la Sale mentioned in his "The Paradise of Queen Sibyl", an invention he included in the account of his own visit to Mount Sibyl to astound and delight his courtly audience.

In the middle of the Italian Apennines the peaks of the Sibillini Mountain Range raise amid cloudy mists. Ancient legends inhabit the elevated cliffs and the deep valleys which mark this portion of the land of Italy: a Cave set on the top of Mount Sibyl is dedicated to the name of a sibilline oracle, for centuries the destination of adventurous journeys made by visitors from all over Europe; a few miles away, the Lake of Pilate, nested within the glacial cirque of Mount Vettore, awaited its own attendance of magicians and necromancers in search of a suitable place for the consecration of spellbooks. Legends we have fully addressed in the series of papers "The Apennine Sibyl - A Mystery and a Legend" providing detailed information on the whole legendary tradition.
In this paper we want to address a different aspect of the legendary heritage which is linked to the Lake of Pilate: we will investigate the issue of the shape of the Lake across many centuries.
An issue, and a thorny one. Because the fascinating, sinister Lake we see today is not one Lake at all: it is two Lakes in total, and both small indeed. They are so small that, in times of climate change and global warming, they increasingly tend to disappear altogether during the hot, ardent summers that affect the elevated crests of the Sibillini Mountain Range with ever growing frequency: an effect which is worsened by the scarce amount of snow that happens to fall on the same cliffs during the once-frigid winters that mark a land which is now experiencing rising average temperatures all round the year. So as a matter of fact today the Lakes are basically two, while once ordinarily there used to be just one, as portrayed in a gorgeous fifteenth-century manuscripted work written by French courtier Antoine de la Sale.
What happened? And why? Was it a long-term process, possibly induced by climate change? Or, did any specific event happen at some point in time?
Let's start probing deep into this tricky matter. Because the answers are possibly more than one, with a central role to be played by the nineteenth century, a time during which major changes possibly occurred. With the help of ancient sources and cartographies, and using new, previously-unpublished information, we will be able to deal in deeper detail with this hitherto-unaddressed matter.
One Lake, two Lakes, and, finally, in the framework of a dramatically-growing climate change, no Lake at all. An amazing ride through the centuries, in search of the true shape of the Lake of Pilate.

I Monti Sibillini costituiscono uno straordinario scenario che innalza le proprie vette al centro della penisola italiana, tra le regioni delle Marche e dell'Umbria. Parte della catena appenninica, i loro formidabili bastioni, caratterizzati dalla presenza di creste vertiginose e spaventosi precipizi, sono abitati da sinistre leggende un tempo conosciute in tutta Europa, capaci di attirare schiere di visitatori da paesi assai lontani, alla ricerca della caverna nella quale si diceva dimorasse una sensuale profetessa, la Sibilla Appenninica, e del lago nel quale si riteneva che il corpo di un antico prefetto romano, Ponzio Pilato, conoscesse un inquieto riposo. Già dal diciassettesimo secolo, però, la fama di quelle montagne si era andata appannando; e con l'ingresso nell'Età dei Lumi le antiche leggende parevano avere perduto ogni attrattiva e interesse, ricadendo in una sostanziale oscurità e rimanendo vive solamente nel folclore delle popolazioni locali. Tra il 1700 e il 1800, nessuno pareva conoscere più quel remoto massiccio appenninico situato al centro dell'Italia e abitato da genti di montagna e incolti pastori, seppure alquanto pittoreschi.

Nella seconda metà del diciannovesimo secolo, però, qualcosa iniziò a cambiare. Con la fondazione del Club Alpino Italiano ad opera di Quintino Sella, nel 1863 a Torino, le montagne italiane cominciarono a collocarsi al centro di un approfondito interesse, non solamente alpinistico, da parte di aristocratici, grandi possidenti e membri della più elevata borghesia, uniti nella comune passione per la montagna e per il nascente escursionismo. Un interesse che coinvolgerà sin dall'inizio non solo la catena montuosa più elevata e illustre, le Alpi, ma anche la dorsale degli Appennini. E, muovendo lungo l'Appennino, i soci del CAI si sarebbero presto imbattuti nei Monti Sibillini: gemme preziose, in precedenza ignote e ignorate, in procinto di conoscere una nuova fortuna tra coloro che, innamorati delle montagne, sarebbero stati pienamente e profondamente in grado di apprezzarle.

Dall'ascesa al Monte Vettore del Conte Girolamo Orsi nel 1877, alla successiva visita effettuata dagli entusiasti congressisti del CAI adunati in Perugia nel 1879, alle prime esplorazioni compiute dall'industriale della carta Giovanni Battista Miliani a Castelluccio, al Vettore e al Monte della Sibilla nel 1886; e ancora al congresso nazionale del Club Alpino, ad Ascoli Piceno, nel 1889, con un nutrito gruppo di soci che si reca a conquistare la Sibilla; e poi, negli anni successivi, con l'arrivo, nel 1897, dei due grandi filologi, Gaston Paris e Pio Rajna, in cerca di misteriose leggende, e con le numerose, successive ascensioni compiute dai soci del CAI tra i picchi dei Monti Sibillini, sarà proprio il Club Alpino Italiano a raccontare e promuovere, con il volgere del secolo, quelle dimenticate montagne appenniniche, con il loro carico di leggende, presso un pubblico vasto e appassionato, aristocratico ed erudito, sia in Italia che all'estero. E il veicolo di questa promozione sarà il pervasivo apparato editoriale e pubblicistico posto in campo dal Club Alpino, con i propri Bollettini, le proprie Riviste Mensili e gli Annuari delle Sezioni regionali, distribuiti presso tutte le sezioni italiane del CAI e anche all'estero.

Nel presente articolo, racconteremo in dettaglio la straordinaria storia di un'avvincente riscoperta, quella dei Monti Sibillini. Andremo a sfogliare le pagine ingiallite delle vecchie, illustri riviste del Club Alpino Italiano. Andremo a rileggere testi quasi sconosciuti, o solo raramente e parzialmente citati, che narrano di imprese alpinistiche e audaci escursioni, compiute da distinti gentiluomini e aristocratiche signore, queste ultime assai determinate, intenti a esplorare le vette delle più belle montagne d'Italia. Una storia straordinaria, grazie alla quale la luce dei Monti Sibillini tornerà a brillare di un bagliore sfavillante, dopo secoli di oscuro oblìo, in un'Italia che aveva dimenticato sia queste montagne, che le leggende che in esse vivevano. Una luce leggendaria, che continua a brillare, senza più appannamento alcuno, anche ai nostri giorni.

The mysteries of Mount Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy, are both ancient enigmas which are still unsolved. In two previous papers, “Birth of a Sibyl: the medieval connection” and “A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate”, we highlighted two additional legendary layers which conceal the true core of the local myth. A first narrative layer, connected to the Apennine Sibyl, can be retraced back to the Matter of Britain and the necromantic characters of Morgan le Fay and her companion Sebile; a second narrative layer, pertaining to Pontius Pilate, is to be referred to the well-known lore which has been enshrouding the figure of Pilate for twenty centuries, with a number of legendary burial places for the Roman prefect scattered across various site in Europe.

Both narrative layers are to be considered as local adaptations of legends which were born and underwent specific evolutionary paths elsewhere. This approach opens the way to an unprecedented search for the original nucleus of the legend which lives in the two sites set amid the fastnesses of the Sibillini Mountain Range.

This paper is the first step in the direction of this promising goal. In the paper, the legends concerning the Sibyl's Cave and the Lakes of Pilate are not considered as independent, unrelated tales anymore: the two myths are analysed jointly, in search of their common, shared traits, which hint to the original legendary core of both.

Three common aspects are fully investigated: necromantic rituals performed at both sites, legendary demonic presence at the Cave and Lake, and legendary storms and devastation arising from both places. All the listed shared traits are analysed with the support of the available literary evidence, as drawn from manuscripts and printed works spanning from the fourteenth century up to the sixteenth.

The highlighting of the common traits which mark both legends is leading to an improved comprehension of the mythical nucleus of the legendary setting that inhabits the Sibillini Mountain Range, opening a new path that will soon foster exciting scientific results.

This article is part of an extended series of papers on the true origin of the Apennine Sibyl's and Pilatus Lakes' legends, a series that will include further papers that are about to provide additional, previously-unpublished information on the whole fascinating topic.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. With this article Michele Sanvico follows the footsteps of the legend through history, with reference to its fame as a silly fairy tale for simpletons and - on a much darker side - to its sinister renown across Europe among necromancers.

The mysteries of Mount Sibyl and the Lakes of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range in Italy, are both ancient enigmas which are still unsolved. In two previous papers, “Birth of a Sibyl: the medieval connection” and “A legend for a Roman prefect: the Lakes of Pontius Pilate”, we identified the presence of two additional, extraneous legendary layers, which are connected to the figure of Morgan le Fay and to the ancient lore concerning the burial places of Pontius Pilate. With a third paper, “Sibillini Mountain Range: the legend before the legends”, we pinpointed a number of common traits that mark both legends, the Cave's and Lake's, with at least three shared features: a legendary demonic presence; the performance of necromantic rituals; winds, tempests, and devastation which mythically arise from both sites.

With the present paper we address a fourth, most significant feature which seems to mark the two sites, the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate: they both appear to have been considered as some sort of passageways to the Otherworld, owing to the presence of specific narrative elements, such as the test bridge, that are usually found in literary works that depict visionary travels to otherwordly regions.

The Otherworld and its accessibility to living men has always been an illustrious, emotional literary topic in the literary production of the Western tradition, since classical antiquity, through the advent of Christianity and across the centuries of the Middle Ages. From Homer's “Odyssey” to Vergil's “Aeneid”, from Pope St. Gregory the Great to the visionary dreams originated in medieval Ireland, and up to the legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick, men have always been dreaming about the afterlife, its shadows, its demons and its punishments. In the present work we retrace the main literary instances of the visionary narratives on the Otherworld in the Western culture.

In addition to that, we highlight the strong literary links which can be retrieved between the legendary tales of the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate, in the Sibillini Mountain Range, and two most famous and successful narratives which depict two specific journeys to otherwordly regions: the legend of the Cumaean Sibyl, with the Lake of Avernus and the gloomy cave providing an access to the realm of the dead, and the legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory, featuring another lake, Lough Derg, and another sinister cave.

In the present paper we show the recurrent contaminations of narrative themes that link the three different, and substantially unrelated, legends, in the form of a visible transfer of narrative topics and situations from the illustrious and widely-known Cumaean and Irish tales, to an Italian tale which appear to features some narrative and geographical traits in common, though set in a different setting and despite its total independence from the legendary narratives of Lough Derg and Cumae. A contamination that has travelled across the centuries of the Middle Ages, through the invisible streams of oral tales and storytelling, finally materialised within the fifteenth-century works written by Antoine de la Sale and Andrea da Barberino.

The resulting, far-reaching assumption which arises from the present research work is that a legendary passageway to some sort of Otherworld might have been possibly situated, by an antique tradition that left some faint traces in the known literature, among the peaks of the central Apennines. And the landmarks for this mythical entryway would be associated, just like in Cumae and Lough Derg, to the same kind of landforms, a lake and a cave: they both would mark a sort of legendary 'hot spot' on the surface of Earth, where the mythical passageway would be located.

In this framework, a number of questions are left open in the present paper: why should this Apennine site have been considered as a further entryway to the Otherworld? If our assumption is true, what sort of Otherworld was this? What sort of dreadful dream did men conceive by the Lake and Cave set in the mountains of the Apennines, in central Italy?

What legend did live in this area before the medieval legendary tales about a Sibyl and Pontius Pilate settled themselves here?

The highlighting of the otherwordly character marking the Sibillini Mountain Range, in Italy, may lead to an improved comprehension of the mythical nucleus of the legendary setting that inhabits those imposing mountains of Italy, opening a new path that will be fully addressed in a future, and conclusive, research paper, now under preparation.

This article is Part 2 of the full paper on the above topic, and also part of an extended series of papers on the true origin of the Apennine Sibyl's and Pilatus Lakes' legends, a series that will include further papers that are about to provide additional, previously-unpublished information on the whole fascinating topic.

Il mistero del Monte Sibilla, in Italia, è un enigma antico e ancora inspiegato. La montagna innalza il proprio picco tra l'Umbria e le Marche. La grotta sulla cima è stata oggetto di visite, per secoli, da parte di uomini provenienti da ogni parte d'Europa, in cerca del leggendario reame sotterraneo della Sibilla degli Appennini. Una ricerca che non si è ancora conclusa. Con questo articolo Michele Sanvico presenta un'analisi dettagliata di un testo trecentesco scritto da Petrus Berchorius, un monaco benedettino, relativo al Lago di Norcia, conosciuto oggi come Lago di Pilato.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. This article provides the results of a research on the ancient literary lineage of the magical ever-slamming doors that Antoine de la Sale mentioned in his "The Paradise of Queen Sibyl", a supernatural passage whose origin is to be retrieved in the Greek myth of Symplegades.

A major problem in the investigation of the myth of the Apennine Sibyl is the literary origin of such works as “Guerrino the Wretch” by Andrea da Barberino and “The Paradise of Queen Sibyl” by Antoine de La Sale. Where did they get their tales from? Which earlier sources did they draw on? In this paper we investigate a specific chivalric poem which has not been adequately analysed with relation to the Apennine Sibyl and her legend: "Huon of Bordeaux", a thirteenth-century epic poem.

The ancient mystery of Mount Sibyl, the mountain that raises its peak between Umbria and Marche in Italy, is an enigma which is still unsolved. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by visitors coming from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. In this article Michele Sanvico illustrates a topic that has never been thoroughly analysed before: the medieval roots of the legend of the Apennine Sibyl, with the many links to earlier chivalric romances. For the first time ever, full details are provided, together with full reference to manuscripts, about the Apennine Sibyl's illustrious lineage from one of the main characters of the Arthurian cycle: Morgan le Fay. The aim of the paper is to ultimately unveil the true core of the legend by taking out the various, extraneous narrative layers that for centuries have sheltered the original mythical nucleus. This article is Part...

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. This article is a literary ride through manuscripts and ancient books in search of hidden links: those between a Sibyl, the classical Sibyls, and the Italian Apennines. A fascinating travel from Isidore of Seville to Augustine of Hippo, from Lactantius to Publius Vergilius Maro, from Servius Marius Honoratus to Publis Papinius Statius, Suetonius and the Historia Augusta, from Marcus Terentius Varro to Pliny the Elder, and then Philippe de Thaon, the Mirabilis Liber, Ludovico Ariosto, Andrea da Barberino and Antoine de La Sale. A travel into mystery that still continues in our present days.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. This article introduces a preliminaty exploration across selected similarities existing between the Apennine Sibyl legend in Italy and the tradition of the Purgatory of St. Patrick in Ireland.

A major problem in the investigation of the myth of the Apennine Sibyl is the literary origin of such works as “Guerrino the Wretch” by Andrea da Barberino and “The Paradise of Queen Sibyl” by Antoine de La Sale. Where did they get their tales from? Which earlier sources did they draw on? In this paper we investigate a specific chivalric poem which has not been adequately analysed with relation to the Apennine Sibyl and her legend: "Huon d'Auvergne", a fourteenth-century epic poem.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. This article provides a full description of the ancient literary lineage of the magical bridge that Antoine de la Sale mentioned in his "The Paradise of Queen Sibyl", an invention he included in the account of his own visit to Mount Sibyl to astound and delight his courtly audience.

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. With this article Michele Sanvico presents, for the first time, the pictures of the letter on Mount Sibyl written by Enea Silvio Piccolomini in the fifteenth century, with a detailed analysis of its content and new findings about the addressee and the date and place in which it was written.

In the middle of the Italian Apennines the peaks of the Sibillini Mountain Range raise amid cloudy mists. Ancient legends inhabit the elevated cliffs and the deep valleys which mark this portion of the land of Italy: a Cave set on the top of Mount Sibyl is dedicated to the name of a sibilline oracle, for centuries the destination of adventurous journeys made by visitors from all over Europe; a few miles away, the Lake of Pilate, nested within the glacial cirque of Mount Vettore, awaited its own attendance of magicians and necromancers in search of a suitable place for the consecration of spellbooks. Legends we have fully addressed in the series of papers "The Apennine Sibyl - A Mystery and a Legend" providing detailed information on the whole legendary tradition.<br> In this paper we want to address a different aspect of the legendary heritage which is linked to the Lake of Pilate: we will investigate the issue of the shape of the Lake across many centuries.<br&gt...

The mystery of Mount Sibyl in Italy is an ancient one, an enigma which is still unsolved. The mountain raises its peak between Umbria and Marche. The cave on the mountain-top has been visited for centuries by men from all over Europe in search of the legendary subterranean realm of the Sibyl of the Apennines. A quest that definitely is not over. With this article Michele Sanvico carries out a thrilling search across authors spanning three different centuries: from Father Fortunato Ciucci to abbot Francesco Maurolico, from Johann Reger's edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia to Adrien Baillet, down to Jean Germain, a fifteenth-century bishop of Chalon-sur-Saône, following the faint trace of a mention concerning the Sibyl of Norcia.