The monograph offers a comprehensive reconstruction of the main phenomena of the cultural life of Southern Italy in the first half of the 13th century on the material of both published texts (treatises, chronicles, letters, poetry) and archival materials: illustrated manuscripts on astrology, medicine and other natural sciences. The scientific and artistic life of the court of Frederick II Staufen is shown against a wide pan-European background of the development of knowledge about the world and art in close connection with the political ups and downs of the 13th century. The book also raises a number of methodological issues of a general historical nature.