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Material culture played a crucial role in developing the cultural narrative of Norman Sicily. The essays in this book consider how images, designs, artifacts, structures and objects were used to help create the story of the medieval kingdom, and what they reveal about the complex political and social dynamics that underpinned the so-called "multicultural" state. Arguing that a visual language developed in medieval Sicily and southern Italy in this period,the contributions journey through both familiar and unexplored aspects of Siculo-Norman art, in particular those areas which have only been made possible with recent advances in technology and international academic collaboration.Topics addressed include manuscripts and mosaics, textile diplomacy, the drama of coins and trade, new readings of old buildings, and the insights of archaeological excavations into everyday life. All of the ideas presented in this volume converge on the central theme of how material culture helped to develop story and society in the medieval kingdom of Sicily. EMILY A. WINKLER is a Fellow of St Edmund Hall and member of the History Faculty atthe University Oxford; LIAM FITZGERALD is a PhD student at King's College London; ANDREW SMALL is a DPhil student at Exeter College, University of Oxford. Contributors: Martin Carver, Emma Edwards, Liam Fitzgerald, Katherine Jacka, Alessandra Molinari, Lisa Reilly, Fabio Scirea, Margherita Tabanelli, William Tronzo, Sarah Whitten, Emily A. Winkler.
List of contents
Introduction: The Story of Designing Norman Sicily - Emily A. Winkler and Liam Fitzgerald
Roger II and Mediterranean Visual Culture - Lisa Reilly
The interplay of media: textile, sculpture and mosaic - William Tronzo
'The True Nature of His Lands': Strategic Information on Sicily in the
Book of Roger - Katherine Jacka
Patronage and Tradition in Textile Exchange and Use in the Early Norman South - Emma Edwards
Imperial iconography on the silver ducalis: Cultural appropriation in the construction and consolidation of Norman royal power - Liam Fitzgerald
Sicily and England: Norman transitions compared - Martin Carver and Alessandra Molinari
Beyond 'Plan bénédictin': Reconsidering Sicilian and Calabrian Cathedrals in the Age of the Norman County - Margherita Tabanelli
Designing a Visual Language in Norman Sicily: The Creation Sequence in the Mosaics of Palermo and Monreale - Fabio Scirea
Remembering, Illustrating, and Forgetting in the Register of Peter the Deacon - Sarah Whitten
Summary
Essays showing how the stuff of Norman Sicily, its mosaics, frescoes, art and architecture, was used to construct its history.
