Fashionable Form and Tailor-made Message: Transcultural Approaches to Arabic Script on the Royal Norman Mantle and Alb

Abstract

This article applies recent methodological approaches to a case study of two Mediterranean objects from Norman Sicily—Roger II’s mantle and William II’s alb. Approaching the Arabic inscriptions on the royal garments through the methodological frames of ‘transfer’ and ‘shared court culture’ allows for an observation of formal relations and continuities across the Mediterranean, although these do not account entirely for the idiosyncrasies of the Norman objects. The comparative approach, on the other hand, and particularly the differences which it reveals between the Norman and other Mediterranean uses of Arabic textile inscriptions, highlights the choices underlying the adaptation of these ornamental motifs to twelfth-century Sicily. I shall argue, therefore, that an assessment of the receptions in medieval Europe of ‘transcultural’ ornamental motifs, such as Arabic textile inscriptions, greatly benefits from an approach combining methodologies.