The Medieval Mediterranean City

The Medieval Mediterranean City
Author: Felicity Ratté
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2021-08-17
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1476678111

This book is a study of architecture and urban design across the Mediterranean Sea from the 12th to the 14th Century, a time when there was no single, hegemonic power dominating the area. The focus of the study--four cities on the Italian peninsula, and four in Syria and Egypt--is the interconnectedness of the design and use of urban structures, streets and open space. Each chapter offers an historical analysis of the buildings and spaces used for trade, education, political display and public action. The work includes historical and social analyses of the mercantile, social, political and educational cultures of the eight cities, highlighting similarities and differences between Christian and Islamic practices. Sixteen new maps drawn specifically for this book are based on the writings of medieval travelers.

Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean

Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean
Author: Thomas J. MacMaster
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351609033

Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean addresses the understudied topic of the Italian peninsula’s relationship to the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East, across the early and central Middle Ages. The East Roman world, commonly known by the ahistorical term "Byzantium", is generally imagined as an Eastern Mediterranean empire, with Italy part of the medieval "West". Across 18 individually authored chapters, an introduction and conclusion, this volume makes a different case: for an East Roman world of which Italy forms a crucial part, and an Italian peninsula which is inextricably connected to—and, indeed, includes—regions ruled from Constantinople. Celebrating a scholar whose work has led this field over several decades, Thomas S. Brown, the chapters focus on the general themes of empire, cities and elites, and explore these from the angles of sources and historiography, archaeology, social, political and economic history, and more besides. With contributions from established and early career scholars, elucidating particular issues of scholarship as well as general historical developments, the volume provides both immediate contributions and opens space for a new generation of readers and scholars to a growing field.

Medieval Cities

Medieval Cities
Author: Henri Pirenne
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1925
Genre: Cities and towns, Medieval
ISBN:

"This little volume contains the substance of lectures ... delivered from October to December 1922 in several American universities."--Pref. Bibliography: p. [245]-249.

The City Lament

The City Lament
Author: Tamar M. Boyadjian
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2018-12-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 150173086X

Poetic elegies for lost or fallen cities are seemingly as old as cities themselves. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, this genre finds its purest expression in the book of Lamentations, which mourns the destruction of Jerusalem; in Arabic, this genre is known as the ritha al-mudun. In The City Lament, Tamar M. Boyadjian traces the trajectory of the genre across the Mediterranean world during the period commonly referred to as the early Crusades (1095–1191), focusing on elegies and other expressions of loss that address the spiritual and strategic objective of those wars: Jerusalem. Through readings of city laments in English, French, Latin, Arabic, and Armenian literary traditions, Boyadjian challenges hegemonic and entrenched approaches to the study of medieval literature and the Crusades. The City Lament exposes significant literary intersections between Latin Christendom, the Islamic caliphates of the Middle East, and the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, arguing for shared poetic and rhetorical modes. Reframing our understanding of literary sources produced across the medieval Mediterranean from an antagonistic, orientalist model to an analogous one, Boyadjian demonstrates how lamentations about the loss of Jerusalem, whether to Muslim or Christian forces, reveal fascinating parallels and rich, cross-cultural exchanges.

Windows into the Medieval Mediterranean

Windows into the Medieval Mediterranean
Author: Jeanette M. Fregulia
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2025-01-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429820216

This book reveals the medieval Mediterranean region as a richly nuanced space of places and peoples connected by a body of water, but far from unified—and seeks to challenge what we think we know about the medieval Mediterranean and the world it influenced. Reflective of the diversity of the Mediterranean region, the contributors are an international body of scholars that bring together topics that are seemingly disparate but are in fact in a vibrant conversation with one another. The volume seeks to shed new light and perspectives on familiar topics. Each chapter begins with secondary commentary for context, and is followed by primary sources comprised of images and texts that invite careful reading, lively discussion, and possibilities for deeper research. Topics that are discussed include: Archaeology and Architecture, Stories of Travel and Encounter, Literature and Poetry, Matters of Faith, Crusades, Monarchies and Conflict, Ties that Bind, and Around the Mediterranean World. Windows into the Medieval Mediterranean is simultaneously a scholarly and reader-friendly book intended to engage undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and anyone interested in the Mediterranean of the Middles Ages.

Mendicants and Merchants in the Medieval Mediterranean

Mendicants and Merchants in the Medieval Mediterranean
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004250336

Mendicants and Merchants in the Medieval Mediterranean, edited by Chubb and Kelley, offers an interdisciplinary study of the mutually beneficial relationships that developed between merchants and the mendicant orders during the late Middle Ages.

Studies in the Archaeology of the Medieval Mediterranean

Studies in the Archaeology of the Medieval Mediterranean
Author: James Schryver
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2010-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 900418175X

This volume draws examples of work from around the Mediterranean basin to demonstrate the variety of archaeological studies being carried out, and the benefits each of these studies has enjoyed through the use of an interdisciplinary approach.

A Companion to Medieval Palermo

A Companion to Medieval Palermo
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2013-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004252533

The Companion to Medieval Palermo offers a panorama of the history of Medieval Palermo from the sixth to the fifteenth century. Often described by contrast with the communal reality of Medieval Italy as submitted to a royal (external) authority, the city is here given back its density and creativity. Important themes such as artistic and literary productions, religious changes or political autonomy are thus explored anew. Some fields recently investigated are the object of particular scrutiny: the history of the Jews, Byzantine or Islamic Palermo are among them. Contributors are Annliese Nef, Vivien Prigent, Alessandra Bagnera, Mirella Cassarino, Rosi Di Liberto, Elena Pezzini, Henri Bresc, Igor Mineo, Laura Sciascia, Gian Luca Borghese, Sulamith Brodbeck, Benoît Grévin, Giuseppe Mandalà, and Fabrizio Titone.

Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean

Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean
Author: Jessica L. Goldberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2012-08-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1139560468

The Geniza merchants of the eleventh-century Mediterranean - sometimes called the 'Maghribi traders' - are central to controversies about the origins of long-term economic growth and the institutional bases of trade. In this book, Jessica Goldberg reconstructs the business world of the Geniza merchants, maps the shifting geographic relationships of the medieval Islamic economy and sheds new light on debates about the institutional framework for later European dominance. Commercial letters, business accounts and courtroom testimony bring to life how these medieval traders used personal gossip and legal mechanisms to manage far-flung agents, switched business strategies to manage political risks and asserted different parts of their fluid identities to gain advantage in the multicultural medieval trading world. This book paints a vivid picture of the everyday life of Jewish merchants in Islamic societies and adds new depth to debates about medieval trading institutions with unique quantitative analyses and innovative approaches.