Evoking Tales in a Medieval Ceiling: Sulayman’s / Solomon’s Birds in the Capella Palatina of Palermo
A great multitude of birds populate the painted ceilings sheltering the palatine chapel of Palermo, constructed for King Roger of Sicily; these birds appear to shelter and rest in the great ceiling. As ceilings were often made to represent the sky, thee pictorial associations of birds and ceilings is only logical.
Greek in Marriage, Latin in Giving: The Greek Community of Fourteenth-century Palermo and the Deceptive Will of Bonannus de Geronimo
This article discusses the pitfalls that can occur in the study of ethnicity in the me- dieval period in the context of the potential existence of two separate Greek minori- ties—one indigenous and one immigrant—in fourteenth-century Latin-dominated Palermo, Italy.
Saracen Archers in Southern Italy
The Normans, soon after the conquest of Sicily was complete, began using Sicilian Saracen mounted and foot archers as auxiliary troops: in 1076 they were included in the Guiscard army at the seizure of Salerno