A Knight’s Tale; Two Sicilian Puppets in McGill’s Collections

When most people think of puppets today, they imagine something small, colourful, and most likely muppet-like. The two Sicilian knight puppets in McGill’s Rare Books and Special Collections are none of those things — or rather, they embody some of those things and considerably more! Standing 108 and 122 cm tall, clad in solid metal armour, and built for sword-wielding stage combat, they are remarkable objects with gravitas and heft (literally! they are truly heavy and require a strong arm to manipulate). They are also, as research into their origins reveals, a genuinely fascinating puzzle. 

Meet the Pupi

These puppets belong to the tradition known as the opera dei pupi — the traditional Sicilian marionette theatre recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Emerging in Sicily in the early nineteenth century, the opera dei pupi staged epic chivalric stories drawn from the Carolingian cycle: the legends of Charlemagne, Roland, and the paladins of France in heroic combat against Moorish armies. Jo Ann Cavallo, Italian studies professor and Sicilian literary expert, notes that the scripts acted out by Sicilian puppeteers were based on Giusto Lodico’s Storia dei paladini di Francia.¹ The performances were originally working-class entertainment, running in serial episodes over weeks or even months, and they remained a living theatrical tradition well into the twentieth century.

The McGill puppets are clearly built for this tradition. Both feature solid, decorated metal armor, a control rod attached to the right hand, a separate string for the shield arm, a rotating head, and separate string mechanism allowing the sword to be drawn and gripped mid-performance. Their articulated knees bend forward for emphatic stepping, kneeling, and combat postures characteristic of the combat-rich knightly (and nightly!) epics.² These are not decorative objects — they are theatrical machines! While neither of these two knights has this feature, another common function was a mechanism to allow the losers of a given battle to be decapitated on stage. The head is attached to the body by a hook at the end of the main support rod and the unfortunate pupo who lost the battle could have lost his head along with it!

“The battles were to the opera dei pupi what the ballet interludes were to other marionette theaters. Carefully choreographed with an emphasis on rhythm…” 

John McCormick³

Palermitan, Catanian, or Both?

One of the most interesting questions this pair raises is one of regional identity. The opera dei pupi tradition developed two distinct schools from opposite sides of the small island — Palermo and Catania — that differ in the size and weight of their puppets, their operating techniques, and their scenic organization. Catania puppets are generally larger and heavier, often reaching one metre or more in height; Palermo puppets tend to be smaller and lighter, with articulated knees and a secondary string to ease walking movements.⁴

At roughly 108 cm and 122 cm the McGill pair fall solidly in the Catanian size range. Yet certain features of their control apparatus align more closely with the Palermo style, mainly the addition of a secondary control string to one leg to aid in initiating walking movements. This ambiguity could suggest that the two schools were not immune to each others influence. Determining regional attribution with confidence will require more expertise, close comparative study of facial carving, armour style, hardware, and control mechanisms against documented examples from both traditions. We invite all who are interested to reach out and work with us on tracing the lineage of these two knights more precisely.

The Clue

While lounging about in our digitisation lab during a recent photoshoot, one puppet let slip a small label from inside his poleyn (knee armour). It read “Daneu.” This single word let me start to tug on a rich thread of Sicilian cultural history. The Daneu name belongs to a prominent Palermo antiquarian family. Vincenzo Daneu, born in Trieste in 1860, relocated to Palermo in his twenties and established a business dealing in Sicilian craft and antique objects.³ The family’s collecting activity continued for generations; the Daneu-Tschinke Collection, recently acquired by a Sicilian civic museum, attests to their long association with the material culture of the island.⁵

Crucially, a “Daneu” tag on these puppets most likely indicates the dealer and hints at provenance rather than the maker. A 2023 auction listing for a pair of marionettes labelled “Daneu Palermo” confirms that the name circulated on puppets in the art and antiques market as a trade or collection mark. In other words, the label tells us something important about how and where these puppets travelled — through the hands of a significant Palermo antiquarian firm — rather than who carved and assembled them in the first place.

The other side of the tag was equally exciting – it listed a character name! We now know that the heretofore named “Green Knight” is actually the character Ottone, the king of England and father of the famous paladin Astolfo. Thanks go to Prof. Cavallo for identifying this character; you can read more on the Sicilian literary traditions in her recent book, The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947): The Paladins of France in America (London: Anthem Press, 2023).⁷

The Tell-Tale Stitches

A note on the textiles: the puppets’ skirts show evidence of machine sewing. This does not disqualify them from theatrical use or from considerable age — machine stitching became routine in workshops handling both performance puppets and collectible examples for sale from the later nineteenth century onward. The sewing machine is old! But a machine was definitely used along with hand-sewing techniques in the construction of these knights’ velvet skirts with brocade appliqué. Further expertise on the construction techniques of the metal armour is still needed. All interested armourers, please inquire!

Where the Research Goes Next

Next steps for this project included a systematic photography session in our digitization lab. Thanks to Greg Houston, the head of our lab, these two knights got their moment in the spotlight and we now have high-quality photos of their full figures, faces, helmets, control mechanisms, and armour decorations. In Italy, notably at the Museum of Puppet Theater – Puppetry of The Napoli Brothers in Sicily, the pupi are stored and displayed hanging by their main control rods. As yet we do not have a support system or custom mounts in place to display our knights as their brethren are displayed back in Sicily; however, ours are moving into new archival quality custom resting places (ahem… cardboard coffins) after their recent photo shoot.

These two armoured figures — built to duel, to kneel, to draw swords on a Sicilian stage — have traveled a long way from their origins! They are now a part of the Rosalynde Stearn Puppet Collection at McGill, which includes marionettes, puppets, dolls, and literature on puppets from around the world. Tracing that journey is exactly the kind of detective work that makes special collections research so rewarding.

Thanks go to Amar Khan for continued work with this collection, and to Jo Ann Cavallo for sharing expertise on the character of Ottone.

References

1. Cavallo, Jo Ann. “Giusto Lodico”. The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 January 2012. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13068, accessed 18 August 2026.]
2. “Pupi.” Show. World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts, May 6, 2016. https://wepa.unima.org/en/pupi/.
3. McCormick, John, Alfonso Cipolla, and Alessandro Napoli. The Italian Puppet Theater: A History. McFarland & Company, 2010.
4. “The Opera Dei Pupi.” Visit Sicily | Scopri La Sicilia, n.d. Accessed August 18, 2026. https://www.visitsicily.co/en/listing/the-opera-dei-pupi/.
5. la Repubblica. “Da Trieste alla Sicilia, un tesoro di ceramiche racconta una famiglia.” March 19, 2021. https://palermo.repubblica.it/societa/2021/03/19/news/da_trieste_alla_sicilia_un_tesoro_di_ceramiche_racconta_una_famiglia-292929150/.
6. inItaly | Ambasciatori del Territorio. “Gangi: the Tschinke‑Daneu collection joins the Civic Museum at Palazzo | inItaly | Ambasciatori del Territorio – inItaly.” Accessed August 18, 2026. https://www.initaly.it/en/articolo/gangi-la-collezione-tschinke-daneu-acquisita-dal-museo-civico-di-26873.
7. Cavallo, Jo Ann. The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947): The Paladins of France in America. Anthem World Epic and Romance, v. 1. Anthem Press, 2023.