Indicadores de calidad: This volume is the outcome of an international conference on Urban Dynamics and Transcultural Communication in Medieval Sicily that was held in Heidelberg on the 26th and 27th of November 2015. The meeting was a joint-venture financed by the Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context’ and the Junior Research Group ‘Protection’ of the Transcultural Studies Research Area. The Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg kindly supported our conference by providing their facilities for the meeting.