ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationships between Greek and Latin literature and art in the polyglot society of Norman Sicily, taking as a test case the episode of Christ’s appearance to the disciples at Emmaus. The earliest of the three manuscripts is no. 288 in the National Library, a troper. This manuscript was assigned to Syracuse by Heinrich Husmann on account of the compatibility between its post-Pentecost alleluia series and that of a gradual from Syracuse Cathedral. The last, and the finest, of the Sicilian manuscripts containing the Pilgrim play is a troper and gradual numbered Vitrina 20-4 in the National Library in Madrid. In the next scene of the play, according to the rubric, the two disciples place themselves on either side of the Pilgrim and escort him toward a table bearing bread and wine.
