Trade and travel in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean Research Papers (original) (raw)

The period 550 to 750 was one in which monastic culture became more firmly entrenched in Western Europe. The role of monasteries and their relationship to the social world around them was transformed during this period as monastic... more

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- Religion, History, Cultural Studies, European Studies

This chapter focuses on acts of speaking, writing, and hearing verbalized accounts of Icelandic place, and their role in establishing a distinct Icelandic identity in Íslendingabók and Landnámabók. The chapter opens by considering how the landscape of Iceland is verbally mapped, and argues that this is a textual priority for the Icelanders. While many of the places featured in Íslendingabók and Landnámabók were historically real, verbalized topographies, which can collapse time, animate foundational events and actors, accomplish something more. Like pilgrimage and travel accounts, verbal topographies enable moving, affective experiences and provide admission to an aspirational Icelandic national space fusing real and imagined elements. This chapter demonstrates that through the combination of writing, oral performance of placelore episodes (on site and otherwise), and the resultant experience of living within a re-imagined, storied landscape of Iceland, important lessons about Icelandic identity are transmitted.

- by Amy Mulligan
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- Celtic Studies, Place and Identity, Old Norse Literature, Irish Diaspora
- by William Kynan-Wilson
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- History, European History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies
- by Daniele Ognibene
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- Food History, History Of Food Consumption, Medieval trade, Medieval Food
- by Rachel Ward
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- Mamluk Studies, Islamic Art, Mamluk History, Medieval trade

The pa per offers an ove rview of ava ilable in for mation on travel of medieval Serbian embassies in the Nemanjić dynasty period. This content is contextualized into the wider picture of regional embassy travel, presented by the far better documented embassies of Dubrovnik, Venice and the Byzantine Empire. The information is sorted by the key determining factors of an embassy' s journey -diplomatic and auxiliary personnel, representational accessories such as gifts and adornments, transport over land and sea, sustenance, lodging, expenses and obstacles presented by nature and men.

Des documents variés issus de plusieurs fonds d’archives de Barcelone offrent une vision active du port d’Alexandrie qui contraste avec l’état de dégradation que soulignent en revanche les pèlerins ou autres voyageurs pourtant bien renseignés eux aussi sur cette cité. Le présent article liste donc cette documentation barcelonaise en détaillant ses différents apports. Si les principales sources sont de nature commerciale - séries de contrats notariés, livres de comptes, sources fiscales -, des chroniques, ainsi que des documents de chancellerie éclairent aussi les rapports diplomatiques entre la couronne d’Aragon et le sultanat mamlûk. Mais l’apport le plus original réside dans des sources « religieuses » destinées à sanctionner ou contrôler les marchands qui se livraient au négoce avec le sultanat, théoriquement prohibé par la papauté en raison de la préparation d’une nouvelle croisade. L’ensemble permet de brosser un vivant tableau des activités marchandes du port et révèle in fine les raisons du hiatus avec les témoignages des voyageurs.

During the Renaissance, readers of accounts about the Far East faced the problem of assessing sources from a range of periods, often produced by writers who were not eyewitnesses. This article considers the responses of mapmakers and geographers to claims about the East by analyzing expressions of belief, surprise, doubt and incredulity onmaps and in geographical works. By considering examples from the late medieval period to the seventeenth century, it reveals important continuities to the ways in which the East, and Marco Polo, were perceived before and after sustained European contact with the Far East began. Particular attention is paid to Fra Mauro, maker of the most extensively annotated map before the age of oceanic travel to Asia; and to Giovanni Battista Ramusio, editor of the first multi-volume travel compendium.

- by Surekha Davies
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- Travel Writing, Medieval History, Ethnography, Renaissance Studies

The Patria is a fascinating four-book collection of short historical notes, stories, and legends about the buildings and monuments of Constantinople, compiled in the late tenth century by an anonymous author who made ample use of older sources. It also describes the foundation and early (pre-Byzantine) history of the city, and includes the Narrative on the Construction of Hagia Sophia, a semi-legendary account of Emperor Justinian I’s patronage of this extraordinary church (built between 532 and 537). The Patria constitutes a unique record of popular traditions about the city, especially its pagan statues, held by its medieval inhabitants. At the same time it is the only Medieval Greek text to present a panorama of the city as it existed in the middle Byzantine period. Despite its problems of historical reliability, the Patria is still one of our main guides for the urban history of medieval Constantinople. This translation makes the entire text of the Patria accessible in English for the first time.

Que Christophe Colomb soit parti chercher le grand-khan en Amérique est un thème bien connu, presque une évidence. Le sujet semble facile: le marin génois avait trouvé l’idée dans la lecture du Devisement du monde de Marco Polo, qui raconte comment le petit-fils de Gengis Khan, Qubilai, devenu le grand khan mongol régnant sur la Chine, montrait ses faveurs au christianisme porté par le voyageur vénitien. Idée erronée, mais transmise à presque deux siècles de distance d’un voyageur à un autre, et qui eut pour effet inattendu la découverte du continent américain. Certes, en 1492, cela faisait tout de même plus d’un siècle que les Mongols avaient été chassés de Chine, laissant la place en 1368 à une dynastie, les Ming, bien moins ouverte aux contacts avec l’étranger. De plus, si l’on n’y regarde de plus près, il n’est même pas vraiment sûr que Christophe Colomb ait bien lu le Devisement du monde avant de s’embarquer. La question de la transmission de la figure historique et littéraire d’un grand-khan du Cathay favorable au christianisme reste donc plus compliquée qu’elle n’en a l’air. Elle relève d’une représentation générale du monde, diffusée à travers l’ensemble des élites occidentales de l’époque, capable de mobiliser au service de la découverte et de l’expansion. Et c’est en ce sens que l’histoire de la transmission de cette figure de Marco Polo à Christophe Colomb mérite que l’on s’y arrête: la réécriture permanente à travers la littérature latine de ce thème, deux siècles encore après la mort de Qubilai qui l’avait inspiré, est un révélateur des ressorts profonds de la conception du monde de l’Occident médiéval finissant.

- by Thomas Tanase
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- Silk Road, Silk Road Studies, History of the Mongol Empire, Medieval Geography

Features Itinerario, first published in 1596 by Dutchman Jan Huygen van Linschoten. The publication is valued for revealing directions into the trade routes of the East, besides its beautiful engravings and early modern maps which... more

- by Bonny Tan
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- History, Cultural Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Maritime History
- by Rachel Ward and +1
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- Metallurgy, Mamluk Studies, Islamic Art, Islamic art and architecture

Este libro analiza los viajes comerciales de Marco Polo y las representaciones culturales e imaginarias que se construyen sobre Oriente durante la Edad Media. De forma particular, se estudian los objetos materiales, especias y maravillas, como también las representaciones e imágenes que forja la sociedad occidental, las que impulsan la expansión comercial y desarrollan una visión exótica y maravillosa de las tierras, objetos y recursos de Oriente.

- by Arturo Sanchez Sanz
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- Modern Languages, Religion, History, Ancient History

The article tries to shed light on possible causes for the fact that 15 of 21 commanderies and parish churches of the Teutonic Order in its province Thuringia founded during the 13th and 14th centuries were situated close to important medieval traffic routes. The author suggests that well connectedness could have been one among a bunch of considerations made by members of the order when establishing a local centre of order property. He can also distinguish between two phases of property-aquisation. The first phase lasted until the late 13th century when the formerly united provinces of Saxony-Thuringia were seperated. During this phase it seems to have been important to have a (more or less) even distribution of property centres all over the spacious province.The second phase (late 13th and 14th centuries) is characterised by a concentration of property in the centre of the province of Thuringia and the erection of commanderies close to junctions of traffic routes.

- by Kirill Tschernyschow/Кирилл Чернышов and +1
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- Russian Studies, Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Numismatics

From the 13th century on, some ports of the Crown of Aragon established close commercial relations with Egypt, Syrie and 'Romania', links that underwent different phases of development as well as experiencing difficulties. Nevertheless, the oriental trade played an increasing role in the economy of the Crown of Aragon. It especially promoted the development of cloth making and exports. This enable the traditional historiographic thesis of an economic decline of the Crown of Aragon, and especially Catalonia, at the end of the Middle Ages, to be criticised. In the opposite direction, its merchants imported large volumes of spices, which generated huge profits.
After a long period of competition between the main ports of the Crown of Aragon, a repartition of the areas of commercialisation was progressivly organised. The kings encouraged this change while also maintaining good diplomatic relations with the eastern monarchs, to promote trade. However, in some phases, one can also observe that the monarchs' goals were very distinct from those of their merchants.

A new interpretation on Rabban Bar Sauma’s probable Black Sea Route.

Bernard the Monk's Itinerarium is a ten-page guidebook for pilgrims traveling from Rome and Bari to Babylon and Jerusalem. It has not been studied as a source for Mediterranean history. Bernard shows how the late ninth-century Mediterranean economy was characterized by religious ideology. Islam and Christianity acted differently in establishing the "ethos" of an economy of exchange. While Muslim law and authority channeled the exchange, Christian apocalypticism wished for its end. Bernard's apocalypticism was in particular a response to the Muslim occupation of southern Italy. Such a response has been regarded as typical of the "age of ignorance" about Islam. But Bernard was surprisingly knowledgeable, and his account illustrates a largely unknown chapter in the history of the Christian encounter with Islam.

- by Leor Halevi
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- Pilgrimage, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Slave Trade, History of the Mediterranean
- by Kocaeli Tarihi
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- Travel Writing, Ottoman History, Ottoman Studies, Ottoman Empire
- by Zdenka Janeković Römer
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- History, Economic History, Late Middle Ages, Medieval History

The emergence of the Safavid Empire in the early sixteenth century marked a significant change in the geopolitics of the Middle East. This momentous change coincided with the widening of Ottoman expansion eastward and the exploration by European powers, especially by Venice, of the possibilities of forming alliances against the Ottomans with the involvement of the Safavids. Thus, Ottoman threat and commercial interests contributed to the emergence and development of diplomatic, cultural, and trade relations between the Republic of Venice and the Safavid Empire, which lasted until the end of the seventeenth century. Drawing on the documents from the Venetian State Archives and other contemporary sources, this book focuses mainly on some aspects of Safavid diplomacy, including the language of the Safavid polity, the role of European subjects as interpreters for the shahs, material and visual characteristics of Safavid diplomatic letters to Venice, the attitude of the Safavids towards resident diplomacy, the reception of the European envoys in the Safavid court and Europeans’ perception of Safavid diplomatic practices, as well as the characteristics of the Safavid embassies to Venice. We have tried to explain the role of Turkish as a language of diplomacy and communication in Safavid-Venetian encounters. We have also attempted to explore briefly how the Venetians distinguished Safavid subjects according to their ethno-linguistic affiliations. Finally, we examine the Ottoman factor in Safavid-Venetian relations in order to establish to what extent, if any, the Ottomans had an impact on the overall character of Safavid-Venetian relations.

- by Ahmad Guliyev
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- Diplomatic History, Ottoman History, Early Modern History, Gift Exchange
- by Aleksandar Uzelac
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- Crusades, History of Crusades, Medieval Balkans, Crusades and the Latin East

This study analyzes what fifteenth century pilgrims from Northern Europe wrote about the art and architecture they encountered while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Although these pilgrims did not have the discipline of art history, they nonetheless had a strong art historical imagination that conditioned their reception of old art and architecture. Their attempts at dating objects demonstrate a pre-modern periodization in which important rulers or dynasties matter most, and the terms medieval and Renaissance are unknown. They expected striking objects to have significant histories, studied those objects appearance for clues to those histories, and read a city’s buildings as a trustworthy barometer of its vitality. Lacking our hierarchy of fine and applied arts, they were open to appreciate a wide range of objects, which they frequently praise in terms of their workmanship.

- by Erik Inglis
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- Pilgrimage, Ekphrasis, Medieval Sicily, Medieval Art

The dowry and the issue of marital property are components characterizing the
culture of medieval everyday life and marital law, which are expressed in various
ways in both medieval European (Roman law, Magna Carta, the Assizes of Antioch
and Jerusalem in the Crusader States) and Oriental legal systems.
In this case, we are talking about the circumstances conditioned by feudal
relations of the High Middle Ages, where the role of private property, including
marital property, had become more important over time in both legal documents and
codes, and in everyday life. Marriage, as a legal institution, had also played an
important role in the culture of Cilician Armenia.
This is evidenced by the state codes applied in Cilicia, the Codes of Mkhitar
Gosh and Smbat Sparapet, in which numerous articles on marriage law are included.
The marital regulations contain issues which had particular emphasis on the dowry
and marital property, especially when even the divorce existed as an institute and
was regulated by them.
What was the dowry of women from different classes in Cilician Armenia, what
legal formulation and significance did it receive in codes, notarial acts, and other
legal documents? What was the significance of the property in the marital legal
arrangements, and in the case of divorce, how was it divided depending on the
circumstances of the divorce? Since there are numerous evidences in the sources
about cases of marriage between Armenian women and foreigners in Cilician
Armenia, especially those of “Italian” descent, we also considered it important to
study what legal arrangements were used in such cases. Were they regulated by the
aforementioned Codes which became State Codes in Cilicia at different times, or,
depending on the origin of a foreigner, by the internal community laws governing
the Venetian, Genoese, and other communities established in the Cilician cities? The
study of those issues related to the legal regulation of the dowry and marital property
will make it possible to make the history of everyday and marital life in Cilician
Armenia more vivid. In this context, it is also possible to have some general insights
into the social perceptions of private property and its legal formulations in Armenian
Cilicia.

- by Zohrab Gevorgyan
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- Medieval History, Armenian Studies, Women's History, Armenian History

Recent excavations at Yenikapı in Istanbul, Turkey related to the Marmaray Project have unearthed the remains of Constantinople’s Theodosian Harbour, including 37 Byzantine shipwrecks of 5th- to 11th-century date. Eight of these shipwrecks, six round ships and two of the first long ships, or galleys, to be excavated from the Byzantine period, were studied by archaeologists from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. These well-preserved shipwrecks are an important new source of information on the maritime commerce of Constantinople and the gradual shift from shell-based to skeleton-based shipbuilding in the Mediterranean during the second half of the first millennium AD.

- by Michael Jones and +1
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- Maritime Archaeology, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Medieval History, Early Medieval Archaeology

In this paper, the writings related to four seventh century individuals will be examined with a hope of better understanding what happened in that time period and how news of events in the eastern Mediterranean reached western Europe. While two of the four, Isidore of Seville and the Frankish ‘Fredegar’, repeated information they’d gathered at second hand, the other two, Bishop Arculf and Theodore of Tarsus, themselves traveled from the Levant to the British Isles. As witnesses to the world changing events of their century, all four are certainly important sources. This study, though, will not focus on reconstructing the truth of events but, instead, will attempt to discover what these four thought they knew, how they knew what they did, and how such information might have been carried from one end of the former Roman Empire to the other. The purpose will be to seek a better understanding of communications and connections in one of the murkiest and most important eras in history.

A native of Bruges (now part of Belgium), Jacques de Coutre was a gem trader who spent nearly a decade in Southeast Asia in the early 17th century. In addition to a substantial autobiography written in Spanish and preserved in the National Library of Spain in Madrid, he wrote a series of memorials to the united crown of Spain and Portugal that contain recommendations designed to reverse the decline in the fortunes of the Iberian powers in Southeast Asia, particularly against the backdrop of early Dutch political and commercial penetration into the region. Translated into English for the first time, these materials provide a valuable first-hand account of the bigger issues confronting the early colonial powers in Southeast Asia, and deep insights into the societies De Coutre encountered in the territory that today makes up Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

- by Peter Borschberg
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- Business, Military History, Cultural History, Economic History
- by Giancarlo Casale
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- Military History, Maritime History, History of Technology, Indian Ocean History

Recent scholarship has explored port cities of the medieval and early modern Mediterranean-from the Iberian peninsula, to Italy and North Africa, to the Levant-as complex sites of artistic encounter, exchange, and mobility. In dialogue with current research on the movement of artworks, materials, and people across the Mediterranean world, we invite art and architectural historians, archeologists, and historians to consider the forms and cultural dynamics of port cities themselves. These natural and built environments both configure relationships between land, sea, and the world beyond, and create unique spatial, cultural, social, and economic conditions for artistic production and transformation.

- by Ivan Foletti
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- History, Medieval History, Cultural Heritage, Medieval Studies

While scholars may know that the 'sultan of Babylon' sent Frederick II a 'white parrot', few are aware of the existence of four sketches, indicating it was a Sulphur or Yellow-crested Cockatoo. As these were made two and a half centuries before what was thought to be the earliest European image of the Australasian cockatoo - in Andrea Mantegna's 1496 Madonna della Vittoria - the authors consider the events and shared interests that led the sultan to give this bird to Frederick and how it would have arrived on the Apennine Peninsula in the first half of the thirteenth century.
Published with Jukka Salo, Pekka Niemelä and Simo Örmä.

- by Heather Dalton
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- Diplomatic History, Medieval History, Indonesian History, Medieval Studies