On Perspective and Possibility in Mediterranean History

Transnational patriotism widens our understanding of the Mediterranean and the interactions and entanglements that constituted its social and political landscapes at a conjuncture of great transformation. Zanou's anti-teleological reading of early nineteenth-century intellectual mobility challenges hegemonic frameworks of the nation-state that obscure her book's protagonists in national historiographies. The perspective of the Ionian and Dalmatian characters (to simplify the complex array of languages of expression and locations of origin) retells in compelling fashion the history of modernity's possibilities and contributes to a growing body of scholarship on these Adriatic worlds. Zanou takes the reader on a journey beyond the sea's shores and into various hinterlands, but we also travel beyond ideas about exchange and interaction that insist upon port cities as primary nodes in regional connectivity. That geographical framework has come to dominate much of the recent historiography in and of the Mediterranean and, in Zanou's book, we learn how invariably intertwined are patterns of social and political relocation. She illustrates how ‘patria’ and belonging are at the centre of these mercurial intellectual circles, but that their definitions do not conform to ex post facto renderings imposed by the social and political containers of the nation-state. In focusing on this transformative conjuncture of meaning which defines the transition from early modern to modern worlds, Transnational patriotism is a welcome addition to the historiography of the Mediterranean.

Punta di Zambrone I

This monograph presents a significant portion of the scientific results of the archaeological excavations at the Bronze Age settlement site of Punta di Zambrone on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria (southern Italy). These excavations were conducted from 2011 to 2013 in an Italian-Austrian cooperation. The book is the first in a series dedicated to the final publication of those excavations and focuses on the later part of the settlement history (13th–12th cent. BCE). Major topics include the topography of the site (including a harbour bay), its chronology, investigations into the economic basis of the Bronze Age society and its local, regional and interregional interactions. The new data from Punta di Zambrone are evaluated in comparison with new research results from coeval sites in Italy and Greece, which forms the basis for a historical contextualization of the settlement and thus contributes to the broader reconstruction of Mediterranean history at the end of the second millennium BCE. These coeval sites are presented by their excavators or investigators. The authors conducted geophysical and bathymetric surveys as well as underwater archaeological investigations, typological analyses of artefacts, a definition of the relative and absolute chronology, archaeobotanic and archaeozoological studies, aDNA analysis, Sr isotope analyses on human and animal teeth, chemical and Pb isotope analyses on metal artefacts, provenance analyses of pottery vessels, amber and stone artefacts (from Zambrone and other sites).

The Mediterranean

This chapter discusses Dante’s relationship with major issues of interest to scholars of Mediterranean history, including his knowledge of Mediterranean geography; his understanding of the ships used to cross the Mediterranean from Italian ports; and his references to literature, philosophy and technology that reached Italy from across the Mediterranean. In particular, the chapter considers Dante’s knowledge of the mi ‘raj (the traditional narratives of the Prophet Muhammad’s miraculous journey to Hell and Heaven), as well as Islamic stories of the opening of the heart of Muhammad in preparation for his role as prophet. It reviews Dante’s references to the philosophy of Averroes. It argues that the new papermaking technologies that had reached Italy from the eastern Mediterranean during the century before Dante’s life, and Italian papermaking innovations like the watermark, were of particular importance to Dante in a practical sense and as source of poetic imagery.

Algerian Olive Germplasm and Its Relationships with the Central-Western Mediterranean Varieties Contributes to Clarify Cultivated Olive Diversification

Olive tree with its main final product, olive oil, is an important element of Mediterranean history, considered the emblematic fruit of a civilization. Despite its wide diffusion and economic and cultural importance, its evolutionary and phylogenetic history is still difficult to clarify. As part of the Mediterranean basin, Algeria was indicated as a secondary diversification center. However, genetic characterization studies from Maghreb area, are currently underrepresented. In this context, we characterized 119 endemic Algerian accessions by using 12 microsatellite markers with the main goal to evaluate the genetic diversity and population structure. In order to provide new insights about the history of olive diversification events in the Central-Western Mediterranean basin, we included and analyzed a sample of 103 Italian accessions from Sicily and, a set of molecular profiles of cultivars from the Central-Western Mediterranean area. The phylogenetic investigation let us to evaluate genetic relationships among Central-Mediterranean basin olive germplasm, highlight new synonymy cases to support the importance of vegetative propagation in the cultivated olive diffusion and consolidate the hypothesis of more recent admixture events occurrence. This work provided new information about Algerian germplasm biodiversity and contributed to clarify olive diversification process.

An Interview with Giancarlo Casale

Giancarlo Casale is Chair of Early Modern Mediterranean History at the European University Institute in Florence, as well as a permanent member of the history faculty at the University of Minnesota. His new book, Prisoner of the Infidels: The Memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in Seventeenth-Century Europe will be released in summer 2021 from the University of California Press. Casale is also the author of award-winning Ottoman Age of Exploration (Oxford, 2011), and since 2010 has served as executive editor of the Journal of Early Modern History.

What Comes to an End When a “Religion” Comes to an “End”? Reflections on a Historiographical Trope and Ancient Mediterranean History of Religion

This article argues that the neglect of narratives about the end of religious traditions is due to a complex entanglement of our positions as historical narrators and specifics of the sources for histories of religions, that is of emic and academic narrators. Typically, academic histories are not only based on emic narratives, but also tend to accept their conceptual frameworks with regard to the unities of description. It will be shown that such an entanglement has consequences for the neglect of the end of religious practices or groups. Against this background an analytical grid for change and discontinuation of different dimensions of “religion” will be offered and exemplified in an analysis of the “end of Paganism” in the late ancient Roman Empire. The most problematic implications of such narratives, the article will argue, are assumptions about the coherence of the religious protagonists brought center-stage.

Lepanto in the Americas: Global Storytelling and Mediterranean History

This paper reveals the voices, logics, and consequences of sixteenth-century American storytelling about the Battle of Lepanto; an approach that decenters our perspective on the history of that battle. Central and South American storytelling about Lepanto, I argue, should prompt a reconsideration of historians’ Mediterranean-centered storytelling about Lepanto—the event—by studying the social dynamics of its event-making in light of early modern global connections. Studying the circulation of news, the symbolic power of festivities, indigenous responses to Lepanto, and the autobiographical storytelling of global protagonists participating at that battle, this paper reveals how storytelling about Lepanto burgeoned in the Spanish overseas territories.

A Reappraisal of the Seismicity of Sardinia, Italy

In popular opinion, Sardinia is the only nonseismic region of Italy. Most researchers are likely to agree, up to a point. Geology-wise, the Sardinia–Corsica block is among the stablest areas of the Mediterranean. History-wise, up to 2011, only one Mw 5.1 event located offshore Sardinia was listed by Italian seismic catalogs (13 November 1948). Seismic networks record only a few, low energy (Mw<5) events, mostly located offshore and with little or no effects on land. Seismic hazard in Sardinia is very low. “Low,” yes, but not “totally lacking.” We present the results of a recent reappraisal of Sardinian seismicity. We gathered information on three major earthquakes (1616, 1771, and the 1948–1949 sequence). Another sequence (January–March 1901) was re-evaluated, identifying its previously unknown main event. It was confirmed that some earthquakes (1870, 1906, 1922, and 1924) had low magnitudes and scarce to nil macroseismic effects, whereas some other turned out either very doubtful or wholly fictitious (1835, 1838, 1855, and 1898). The seismic hazard of Sardinia can now be reassessed on a sounder basis than before. We hope that our work will help the people of Sardinia to improve their awareness of living in a seismic land, if with a low level of seismicity.

Entangling Medieval Emotions and Gender in Mediterranean History

This essay introduces a group of essays that together explore the entanglement of gender and emotions in the medieval period, with a special interest in the Mediterranean. Focusing on the practices of crusading, pilgrimage, friendship and diplomacy from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, the essays reveal some of the many modes of human connection across the Mediterranean and beyond. These connections were informed by multiple factors – political, economic, social, religious and cultural. Considering the interplay of gender and emotions deepens our understanding of the complexity of the Mediterranean world and gives us fresh insights into the relationships that stretched across the sea itself, its many and diverse communities, and its cultures of belief and thought.