The following scenes can be seen among the stories of Jacob’s cycle: Isaac blesses Jacob in Rebecca's presence; Jacob's dream; Jacob's struggle with the angel by the Jacob stream; the ladder in Jacob's dream; the destruction of Sodom; the Altar at Bethel....

The figure of Isaac appears in several scenes of the Abraham and Jacob cycle. In the stories of Abraham: Isaac protects the angels from the Sodomites' attack; Isaac's sacrifice; an angel stops Abraham's hand. In Jacob's cycle: Isaac blesses Jacob in the presence of Rebecca....

The following scenes can be seen among the stories of Abraham’s cycle: Abraham worships the three angels at the oak tree of Mamre; Abraham gives shelter to three angels in a hospice; the destruction of Sodom because of the sin of the Sodomites; Lot with two angels; Isaac protects the angels from t...

The multi-layered Genesis stories include the Creation cycle, the Earthly Paradise cycle, the Progenitor cycle and the Noah cycle. In the Creation cycle we find the following scenes: the creation of the heavens on the first day; the creation of the earth; the creation of light and the creation of th...

The worship of Saints Peter and Paul, considered to be the champions of the Christian Church, spread to Sicily with the advent of the Normans, during the process of Latinisation and Christianisation of the island. The medieval chronicler Goffredo Malaterra notes that the Norman victory against the S...

Originally, according to tradition, depicted in the dome was the image of St Peter, symmetrical to St Paul, depicted in the right apse of the Diaconic. Some studies put forward the hypothesis that the image of St Andrew is the result of changes made as early as the 12th century. The Saint was, in fa...

The orb and cross, typical of the iconography of medieval art, is a Christian symbol already used by Emperor Theodosius on coins. From the Latin, globus cruciger, it is a sphere, symbolising the cosmos, with a cross at the top. Present in royal insignia, impressed on coins or in the hands of archang...

The Ciantro is the highest ranking dignity of the Palatine Chapter. The latter was established by King Roger II in 1132 and is a college of priests who perform the solemn liturgical functions of the church. It was the Ciantro of each period who promoted the necessary restoration work and in part the...

The first restorations date back to around the 14th century, during the Aragonese period. Two inscriptions, located under the windows of the north aisle, have been preserved. The first inscription bears the date 1344/45 and mentions Peter II's wife, Queen Elizabeth, as the financier of the work. The...

Biblia Pauperum, Latin for “Paupers’ Bible”, refers to the decorative and iconographic equipment of a church. In particular, all the paintings, frescoes, mosaics and other decorative cycles illustrating stories from the Old and New Testaments. The term Biblia Pauperum came into use in the Midd...