‎Eleni Tounta, Nikolaos Chrissis (eds)‎
‎Travelling in the Eastern Mediterranean, c. 1300-1500. Politics, Agency, and the Production of Space‎

‎, Brepols, 2026 Hardback, Pages: x + 398, Size:156 x 234 mm, Illustrations:2 b/w, 10 col., Language: English. ISBN 9782503619651.‎

Reference : 70454

‎Summary Travel and mobility for political, military, economic, religious, and intellectual purposes were crucial in shaping the medieval eastern Mediterranean through the interaction of travellers with the diverse cultures of the region (Latin, Muslim, Byzantine, etc.). This volume aims to shed light on the agency of travellers to create politics, space, and cultural memory in the period c. 1300 to c. 1500, an era in which transcultural contact in the eastern Mediterranean world was reshaped through developments such as the Ottoman expansion, while new conceptual tools of the Renaissance period allowed both individuals and communities to be perceived and described in different ways. Bringing together case-studies of travel accounts and other relevant texts by authors with differing backgrounds and wide-ranging life experiences, this volume aims to shed light on this aspect of cultural history through the exploration of four key themes: individuality and the shaping of the self as traveller and author; the production of space, in particular via critical engagement with the modern analytical tools of orientalism and colonialism in medieval studies; the intersections of these themes with the activities of pilgrims and merchants; and the way in which travellers and their narratives interacted with both their own and foreign communities. This approach offers fresh insights in our understanding of mobility, identity, and cultural interaction in the late medieval eastern Mediterranean. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations Travelling in the Eastern Mediterranean, c. 1300-1500: An Introduction Eleni Tounta and Nikolaos G. Chrissis Part I. The Traveller and the Invention of the Authorial Self 1. Niccol da Poggibonsi and Felix Fabri in Jerusalem: Positionings of the Self in the Sacred Space, and through the Religious Other Karl Lys n 2. Pero Tafur in the Eastern Mediterrrean, 1437-1438 Jacques Paviot 3. Jean de Tournai, Pilgrim, Traveller, Writer Marie-Ad la de Nielen Part II. Space, 'Orientalism', and Early Colonialism 4. Ethnographic Discourse and Colonial Politics: Crete's Cultural Space in Cristoforo Buondelmonti's Descriptio Insulae Cretae Eleni Tounta 5. Propagating the East: Defining and Delimiting the Orient in the Works of Marino Sanudo Torsello and Philippe de M zi res ?ikolaos G. Chrissis 6. French Crusading and the Shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean Lo c Chollet 7. Cyprus from Inside and Out: Recounting Cyprus during the Late Medieval Period Malika Dekkiche Part III. The Experience of Travel in Pilgrim Accounts 8. Seascapes of Medieval Pilgrimages (Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries) Nicola Carotenuto 9. From Mantua and Ferrara to the Holy Land: Mediterranean Itineraries of Princely Pilgrimage in the Late Fourteenth and First Half of the Fifteenth Century Sebastian Kolditz 10. Remembering the Crusades on the Late Medieval Jerusalem Pilgrimage Nickiphoros I. Tsougarakis 11. Terra Christianorum Ultima: Pilgrims, Shrines, and Maritime Routes in Cyprus during the Late Middle Ages Ourania Perdiki Part IV. Narrativity and Local Identities 12. Physical and Spiritual Dangers of Travelling the Mediterranean: Felix Fabri's Evagatorium (1486) and Die Sionpilgerin (1492) Lilli H lzlhammer 13. Island-Hopping Hospitallers in the South-Eastern Aegean, 1309-1522: A Contribution to the Making of a Dodecanese Identity? Simon Phillips 14. Travelling through 'Velachia-Bassa' in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century Alessandro Flavio Dumitra?cu 15. A Humanistic Discourse on Interacting with the Urban Space: Manuel Chrysoloras on Rome Yannis Smarnakis Index‎