Norman Graphics: A Multimedia Manifesto

The apses of the Cathedral of Monreale (XII century) are characterised by extraordinarily rich decorations, to enhance the most sacred part of the sanctuary where the altar is located. The paper describes some circular inlays of the central apse of the Cathedral of Monreale through a geometric analysis communicated via a multimedia language. The geometric motifs can be arranged in a graphic composition according to an imaginative process that collects all the scientific analysis procedure described above such as a sort of Manifesto of the Norman architectural culture geometry in Sicily and in southern Italy. The Manifesto is an audio-visual product, consisting of vector drawings’ animations sequences and conceived as a programmatic document, a form of narration that exposes the rules and principles of the inlays’ geometries. The aim of the Manifesto is to make perceptible and understandable the geometries that generate the motifs and to highlight variations, links and connections between geometries. The Manifesto is the narration of the inlays represented through moving images, an audio-visual product aimed at enhancing and communicating the geometry of the disks of the central apse