DE
ITBetween history and legend
The name of the group is inspired by the love story between Bianca Lancia D’Agliano and Emperor Frederick II. It is a story that deals about passion, beauty, a sense of belonging and care.
Historical events and legends are linked. Bianca Lancia and Frederick II (of the Hohenstaufen) met between 1225 and 1230.
Bianca had noble lineages. It is assumed that she was the daughter of Bonifacio I of Agliano, count of Agliano, and of Bianca Lancia, daughter of the Piedmontese Marquis Manfred I Lancia. She was the only who succeded in seducing the heart of Frederick II, the “Puer Apuliae”, becoming his last wife at the age of fifteen.
The figure of Bianca Lancia is closely linked to Monte Sant’Angelo, the white pearl of the Gargano, and to its castle. This suggestive fortress is full of mysteries and legends. It is said that the countess, saddened by the physical and sentimental distance from her beloved, threw herself from the tower and continued, after her death,to inhabit the castle in the form of a ghost. Since then it has been said that a lady in a white dress appears among the rocks of the Frederick fortress on winter nights and if you listen carefully through the gusts of cold wind, you can still hear her crying.
Frederick II, known by the name of Stupor Mundi (wonder of the world), is described as a character with an ardent soul, quick ingenuity and strong character, which led him to give life to a new Holy Roman Empire. A patron devoted to beauty, good taste in dressing and poetry. He was the first sovereign to found a state university, the University of Naples, with the aim of providing his subjects with the opportunity to study “in conspectu parentum suorum”, that means, under the gaze of their family, and surround themselves with capable people to perform the legal functions of the state.
Three children were born from the relationship between Frederick II and Bianca Lancia: Constance, Manfred, who later succeeded his father in the government of the Kingdom of Sicily, and Violante.
In the novel Gli occhi dell’imperatore (The Emperor’s Eyes) by Laura Mancinelli it is told that Frederick II, by now an old and sick man, dies at Castel del Monte leaving Bianca free to love and marry Tannhauser, his servant. His last request, however, is to never forget him so that he can continue to live in them and in their memories.