Borsook Eve. Messages in Mosaic: The Royal Programmes of Norman Sicily (1130-1187)

Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1998. — 262 p. — (Clarendon Studies in the History of Art).The analysis of the meaning of the mosaics is masterly - a stimulating book, full of challenging and convincing ideas, very well documented, lavishly illustrated, and beautifully produced. The twelfth-century mosaics made for the Norman kings of Sicily at Cefalù, Palermo and Monreale were unique in scale and magnificence as well as arrangement. This book examines their meaning with over 120 illustrations, including dozens of hitherto unavailable general views plus ground plans, elevations and details especially made for this volume. The text focuses on the significance of the unconventional arrangement of the imagery, and the programmes with their many-layered meanings emerge as comprehensive, beautifully co-ordinated schemes which were original Norman inventions rather than provincial derivatives of Rome and Byzantium as they have sometimes been interpreted.