The Norman Sicily Project: An Ongoing, Web-Based Effort to Promote the Island’s Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Past

The cultural heritage of medieval Sicily is extraordinary. Yet, although rich and diverse, it confronts numerous challenges that make it vulnerable and often inaccessible. In response to these challenges, we are developing The Norman Sicily Project (http://normansicily.org ) to document the cultural heritage of medieval Sicily during its Norman period (c. 1061–1194) so that a wider audience can learn about what was once there and what still remains. This chapter discusses Sicily’s cultural challenges, the resources we have been developing to address them and, more specifically, the completion of the first phase of the project, which focused on the society’s monasteries.