Seminars & Blog
Tuesday February 1st 2022
The Mediterranean Diet: New Perspectives on the Foodways of the Medieval Mediterranean
Speakers: Dr Michelle Alexander (University of York), Dr Tarek Oueslati (Université de Lille), Dr Daniel Fuks (University of Cambridge)
Chair: Dr Caroline Goodson (University of Cambridge)
[Image: Ibn Butlan, Taqwim al-Sihhah (Tacuinum Sanitatis) (copy of late 14th century, N. Italy); ONB, Cod. Ser. n. 2644, fol. 54r, ‘Estas’.]
The next webinar in the SMM’s webinar series on Tuesday 18 January 2022 at 5pm UTC will feature:
Dr Jenny Benham (Cardiff University)
Dr Alessandro Silvestri (IMF-CSIC, Barcelona)
Dr Fabrizio Ansani (Università degli Studi di Padova)
speaking on the topic: The two sides of war economy. Mobilization and allocation of resources in the Medieval Mediterranean (1100-1500)
Register here to receive the Zoom link: https://theofed-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3O3zzLIbSt6Ew20-io0zsg
On Tuesday 14 December 2021 at 18.00 (UTC), the webinar in the SMM’s ‘The Medieval Mediterranean: Local & Global Perspectives’ was on the subject ‘Jewish women, Conversas and Christian women in Medieval Catalonia: Agency and economic resources’
featuring:
Dr Anna Rich-Abad (University of Nottingham);
Dr Dana Wessell- Lightfoot (University of Northern British Columbia);
Dr Alexandra Guerson de Oliveira (University of Toronto); and
Dr Mireia Comas Via (University of Barcelona)
Image: Tanaquil, De mulieribus claris, British Library, Royal 20 C V fol. 75, early 15C
The SMM webinar for November 2021 will be: Memories of Crusading in Latin Christendom: from East to West
Speakers: Dr Stephen Spencer (King’s College London), Dr Andrew Buck (University College Dublin), and Dr Francesca Petrizzo (University of Leeds),
Chair: Dr Mike Carr (University of Edinburgh)
Image: Battle of Hattin, 1187, from Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora.
Source: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 26, f. 140r
Courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
The winner of the SMM’s Dionisius A. Agius book prize for 2021 speaks about the monograph: Islamic Manuscripts of Late Medieval Rum, 1270s-1370s: Production, Patronage and the Arts of the Book (Edinburgh University Press, 2020)
Speakers:
Dr Philip Booth
Dr Marci Freedman
Dr Harry Munt
The Medieval Mediterranean was frequently travelled by "pilgrims" of all three main Abrahamic religions, with accounts and descriptions of these pilgrims and travellers able to tell us about Medieval religions in practice, travel, and of encounters with other cultures and beliefs. But questions of how the experiences and intentions of these pilgrims differed from one another, as well as the ways they comparatively conducted themselves or performed their devotions, is still a topic of open discussion.
To this end, the panel will discuss the pilgrimage accounts of Theoderic, Thietmar, and Riccoldo of Monte Croce, the travel account of Benjamin of Tudela, and a fatwa/treatise by Ibn Taymiyya on the legality of Muslims' pilgrimage practices in Jerusalem. By considering together accounts of Medieval Christian, Jewish, and Muslim pilgrims to sites in the Eastern Mediterranean we can think more closely about the similarities between these "pilgrims" of different faiths and about the varied expressions of pilgrimage and travel in the Medieval world.
On Tuesday 18 May Dr Victòria A. Burguera i Puigserver (Institució Milà i Fontanals-CSIC, Barcelona & Universitat de les Illes Balears) spoke on:
The Intervention of the Crown of Aragon institutions on Maritime Conflict Management
The aim of this talk is to delve into the institutional structure of the Crown of Aragon in terms of intervention in maritime conflicts. At a specific level, I will focus on the role of the King, that of the major maritime cities (Barcelona and the cities of Valencia and Majorca), that of the Diputació del General and the one of the corporation of merchants. I will link their intervention not so much to the resolution of those conflicts as to the capacity to respond against them, according to the power acquired by each institution through the last centuries of the Middle Ages, in parallel to the Crown’s territorial expansion in the Mediterranean. Their scope of action in offensive-defensive matters regarded mostly fleet ownership and campaign financing.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
On Tuesday 20 April at 6pm BST/7pm CEST Dr Alessandro Rizzo (University of Liège) spoke on:
Christian-Muslim Diplomacy - Gestures and Words: European Ambassadors and the Mamluk Sultanate
The instructions given by the Christian powers to their envoys to be sent to the Mamluk Sultanate (Egypt-Syria, 1250-1517) shed light on several aspects of the diplomatic dialogue (reasons behind the exchanges, oral and written communication, ceremonial, chancery documents).
In particular, the webinar will focus on the letter of instructions delivered to the first Florentine ambassadors sent to Cairo in 1422, which will be examined in a comparative perspective in relation to other analogous documents.
On Tuesday 30 March at 6pm GMT/7pm CET, Dr Franz-Joseph Arlinghaus (Universität Bielefeld), Dr Jaume Aurell (Universidad de Navarra), and Dr Afrodesia McCannon (NYU), chaired by Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo (University of Lincoln), spoke on the theme:
The Autobiographical Impulse in the Medieval Mediterranean
The panel discussed modes and representations of the 'autobiographical impulse' in the Medieval Mediterranean from multidisciplinary perspectives.
On Tuesday 23 February 2021 at 6pm GMT/7pm CET, the SMM hosted a webinar entitled:
Out of Sight: Artefacts and Assemblages in the Medieval Mediterranean
Chaired by Dr Jitske Jasperse (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Anne E. Lester (Johns Hopkins University) discussed her concept of the "material field" in relation to objects in the Mediterranean and Dr Verónica Carla Abenza Soria (CSIC Madrid) shed new light on the magnificent 1054 foundation charter of Santa María la Real de Nájera.
