This analytical study takes seriously the proposition that the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily, the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, preserves virtually intact - and uniquely so - an ensemble of architecture and arts from the twelfth century.

It systematically investigates every major component of the decoration and furnishing of the chapel, and in so doing propounds a new chronology for the edifice, in phases, which fixes a new frame of reference for understanding how the chapel functioned under the Norman kings.