Books by Ilaria Sabbatini
Lʼoriente dei viaggiatori. I diari di pellegrinaggio fiorentini tra XIII e XVI secolo.
This monograph, prepared for publication by the publisher Textus, concerns the representation of ... more This monograph, prepared for publication by the publisher Textus, concerns the representation of the Orient in pilgrimage diaries between XIII and XV centuries. The object of this research is the representation of men, women, customs, cultures, between religion and observation, by Western travellers in Middle-East. The study shows the Western perception of the Muslim world through the descriptions of peoples and customs present in the pilgrimage diaries. In fact in this kind of sources, for their own nature, is evident the contrast between the stimuli aroused by the comparison with otherness and the resistance coming from a conservative and suspicious cultural background (until the hostility) against the different cultures. The pilgrimage diaries, as has been demonstrated, represent a complex writing tradition, in which narrative and memoir cross each other. This strongly autoptic dimension is particularly significant, as it expresses a way of perceiving and representing the Orient. The research covers the entire corpus of Florentine diaries and this broad but well-defined perspective is its peculiarity. Although there are many excellent studies about the pilgrimage, no one had yet developed a systematic study on the representation of otherness, a subject full of consequences for the history of Western thought.
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Although it is a field not yet investigated, it is now known that there is a controversialist tra... more Although it is a field not yet investigated, it is now known that there is a controversialist tradition that was hostile toward the pilgrimage, ever since the early Middle Ages. Less well known is that this kind of criticism found justification in the judicial pilgrimage, a practice spreads in West since the late antiquity. None positive aura surrounded this vagatio imposed by ecclesiastic authorities (afterwards also by civil institutions) and, admitting to believe the good intentions of the penitents, does not change the fact that the pilgrims were not always good people. Who put himself in this kind of pilgrimage was guilty of murder or serious sexual offenses, so that Cyrille Vogel, that studied the phenomenon, did not hesitate to define it as ‟pilgrimage of criminal clerics”. Although studies on the subject are mostly related to the French practices there were also Italian destinations for penitential pilgrimage. This article presents a Flemish document of the late XVIth century containing a list of the places where the tribunals were usual to send the convicts to pilgrimage. Among others there are also some Italian places whom, among many shrines, were considered most important for effectiveness of the penitence.
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This monograph presents to the public, for the first time, the critical edition of the Jerosolimi... more This monograph presents to the public, for the first time, the critical edition of the Jerosolimitana peregrinatione by Bernardino Dinali, a Milanese merchant who did the journey from Venice to Jerusalem in 1492. The book consists of three parts: an essay on travel literature, both as a literary genre and as a source of historical and documentary value; a monograph about Bernardino Dinali and the history of the manuscript; the critical edition of the diary accompanied by a plant of philological and codicological notes. The text of Dinali is very important in its kind because it is not limited to exemplify one of the many variants of the journey to the Holy Land. This diary demands a special attention from specialists for the liturgical importance of the report, largely devoted to the collection of the prayers that the Franciscans of the Custody of Holy Land were recited with the pilgrims. The diary, not surprisingly, has been considered one of the milestones in the evolution of the literary gender of Jerusalemite processionals (Liber de perenni cultu terrae sanctae et de fructuosa eius peregrinatione by Bonifacio Stephano Ragusino). The monograph highlights all the importance of the diary of Dinali as witness of the fundamental balance between liturgy and travel literature.
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Papers by Ilaria Sabbatini
La città, il viaggio, il turismo. Percezione, produzione e trasformazione, 2018
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Almatourism, 2018
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I quaderni del m.æ.s. - Journal of Mediæ Ætatis Sodalicium, 2017
L'aria, il tempo dell'anima. Aerie potestates. Il simbolismo della vela e della conchiglia.
Il... more L'aria, il tempo dell'anima. Aerie potestates. Il simbolismo della vela e della conchiglia.
Il terzo libro del Codex Calixtinus, dedicato alla traslazione del corpo di San Giacomo a Compostella, si conclude con un breve capitolo sulle conchiglie di San Giacomo e sui loro poteri taumaturgici. Esse possono attenuare la grandine, le tempeste, i tuoni e trasformare le sferzate dei venti in brezze lievi. Le conchiglie hanno potere sulle forze dell’aria ma al tempo stesso, secondo la tradizione classica e poi cristiana della filosofia della natura, possono navigare come imbarcazioni usando le valve come vele. Seguendo il filo della simbologia attraverso le descrizioni letterarie e le rappresentazioni figurate, il presente articolo indaga il significato spirituale del pellegrinaggio per proporre una lettura rinnovata di un fenomeno che ha inciso profondamente nel pensiero medievale e nella prassi religiosa.
________________________________
Aerie potestates. The symbolic meaning of the sail and of the scallop shell.
The third book of the Codex Calixtinus, which is dedicated to the translation of Saint James' body in Compostela, ends with a brief chapter on Saint James' scallop shells and on their thaumaturgical power.
According to the book, they can weaken the hail, the storms and the thunders and they can turn strong winds into light breezes.
The scallop shells can control the air powers but, at the same time, according to both to the classical and the Christian philosophy of nature, they can sail as a boat using their valves as sails.
This paper thus, following its symbolical meaning through the literary descriptions and the figurative representations, investigates the spiritual meaning of the pilgrimage in order to present a new interpretation of a practice which deeply influenced both the philosophical thought and the religious practice during the Middle Ages.
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in Deformità Fisica e Identità della persona tra medioevo ed età moderna, Atti del XIV Convegnao ... more in Deformità Fisica e Identità della persona tra medioevo ed età moderna, Atti del XIV Convegnao internazionale di studi del Centro Studi sulla Civiltà del Tardo Medioevo di San Miniato (San Miniato, 21-23 settembre 2012), Firenze, Firenze University Press 2015, pp. 355 - 389
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Gli Italiani e la Terrasanta, pp. 119-130, 2014
This study focuses, the first time as a complete set, on all of the pilgrimage diaries written by... more This study focuses, the first time as a complete set, on all of the pilgrimage diaries written by Tuscan authors.
Although many of the texts cited were already published, the Florentines diaries had not yet been studied as a corpus on their own.
This overview stresses the specificity of the Florentine case and particularly its great number of diaries. The mercantile and bourgeois ethics, whose principles the pilgrims-writers shared, consisted in the desire of social approval and, at the same time, in the respect of the political an the religious hierarchy. Certainly, the ideal of “adventure for the adventure’s sake” was not part of the cultural background of the "homines novi". The Florentines who made pilgrimages to Jerusalem not only were expressing their devotion but they also underlined their adherence to a system of values, shared through the writing of the tale of their experiences. And, inevitably, their experience resulted at the same time devout and secular.
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Florentine writers of travel, on which is based this article, were no longer interested in writin... more Florentine writers of travel, on which is based this article, were no longer interested in writing about the
Arabs as a people, charged with Christian symbols, but the Arabs became the subject of a new mode of
observation. Something of the traditional theological device remained in the Florentine diaries but what
interested travellers was the concrete observation made of the Eastern peoples grouped under the name
of Saracens. The new approach, far from banishing symbolism from the representation of reality,
stimulated its reinterpretation in the light of empirical observation. Field experiences were mingled with
bookish knowledge; data collected first-hand was interwoven with the traditional repertoire of beliefs,
producing an inseparable mixture. Given that the paradigm still remained that of St. Augustine, a great
change had taken place: the Christian symbolism, in which the real city was that of God, passed to a civic
symbolism whose point of reference was the city of men, shaped during the urban development that had
changed the face of the West. The Augustinian background was always present, but was shifting its focus
from being the city of God to the city built by Christians: the proximity to the city marked the degree of
proximity to the human species. Only in the light of these considerations can one understand the full
extent of the operation undertaken by Florentine diarists who described physically — but also socially —
the populations of the Eastern Mediterranean.
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Come a Gerusalemme, 2014
«Pisa nova Hierusalem». The Jerusalemite "imitationes" and the process of civic sacralization.
... more «Pisa nova Hierusalem». The Jerusalemite "imitationes" and the process of civic sacralization.
«Pisa nova Hierusalem» is a study focused on the process of the civic sacralisation through buildings built in imitation of Jerusalem. The development of Pisa, for instance, went hand in hand with the evocation of the Holy Land’s architectures. The architectural Jerusalemite memories in Italy come usually in two forms: devotional, that is, with liturgical purposes, and civilian as in the case of Pisa. Pisa, despite not being the only example of this kind in Italy, represents a very special case: in fact it is possible to produce a diachronic reading of its imitationes of the Holy Land. The building of the medieval walls, the construction of a new architectural fabric (both institutional and religious), the literary celebration of the enterprise of Pisa (Liber maiolichinus de gestis pisanorum illustribus), the close relationship that linked the city with the East and with the Arab world in particular in the Western Mediterranean and its leading role as defender of the Christianity: all these elements bring to introduce the town, both in the political context and in celebratory literature, as as the new Rome and as the Nova Jerusalem, the new center of the world. The imitationes of Jerusalem implied, in this historical circumstance, a civic will to share - or appropriate- the sacredness of Jerusalem. The history of the religious architectures of Pisa helps in defining the program and type of relationship among the commissioners, the city and its policy, in a path that reproduce the archetype of Jerusalem in a civic sense.
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«Liber Annuus» 61, pp. 17-41, 2012
The article shows the Western perception of the Muslim world through the representation of the pi... more The article shows the Western perception of the Muslim world through the representation of the pilgrimage’s diaries. In this kind of sources is in fact evident the contrast between stimulus aroused from the comparison with otherness and the resistance that come from a generally hostile and conservative cultural background. The research cover the entire corpus of Florentine diaries and this choice is its peculiarity. Although there are many excellent studies about the pilgrimage, no one develop a systematic study on the representation of otherness, a subject full of consequences for the history of Western thought.
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This
article focuses on the representation of the Muslim enemy in the epic literature of the Cru... more This
article focuses on the representation of the Muslim enemy in the epic literature of the Crusades and in the odeporic literature of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage diaries represent an important tradition where narrative and memory steadily entwine. Beginning with a survey of onomastic in epic literature, the study analyses the physical characterization of the Muslim enemy as a monstrous giant. Building on these assumptions, it goes on to investigate the formation of the idea of the enemy in the patristic literature, in relation to the transition from idea of Muhammad’s heresy to that
of Muslim paganism. Through this literary excursus the article shows the transformations in the physical representation of the body of the Muslim as enemy in the epic literature of the Crusades and in the odeporic literature of pilgrimage. Its novelty is a diachronic study of the physical representation of the Muslims in medieval literature that analyze in a deep way the approach of the pilgrimage’s diaries. In this context, referring to a corpus
of Florentine texts, it is possible to identify an original approach that that can be described as proto-ethnological.
This approach ignores the theological consideration of the enemy and describes otherness in a perspective that reflects the ethical environment of the bourgeois authors.
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The article analyses the transformation of the topos of the Muslim enemy by proposing an excursus... more The article analyses the transformation of the topos of the Muslim enemy by proposing an excursus through the patristic and epic literature until to the diaries of the late medieval pilgrimage. From idea of heresy to that of idolatry, the Western perception towards the Muslim world passes through a representation which depends by political dynamics. In the background of a system of high knowledge, as the monasticism, Islam was considered as a form of Christian heresy. But when the description was developed in the context of the normal people, usually poorly educated, Islam became a pagan idolatry with demonic tones. Although the epic and patristic echoes remain intense, the matter changes deeply when one observes the representation of the Muslims in the pilgrimage diaries. In this kind of sources is obvious the friction between the stimulus derived by the comparison with others and the resistance of a generally conservative cultural background. The research covered the entire corpus of Florentine diaries and this is the peculiarity of the research. Although there are excellent works about the Italian pilgrimages, none had yet developed, in this sources genre, a systematic study on the representation of otherness, a subject full of consequences for the history of Western thought.
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L'articolo mira a definire la percezione occidentale nei confronti del mondo musulmano attraverso... more L'articolo mira a definire la percezione occidentale nei confronti del mondo musulmano attraverso la rappresentazione dei diari di pellegrinaggio. In questa tipologia di fonti risulta infatti evidente la frizione tra gli stimoli suscitati dal confronto con l'alterità e la resistenza di un retroterra culturale generalmente ostile e conservativo. L'indagine ha riguardato l'intero corpus fiorentino di testi diaristici e in questa scelta consiste la sua peculiarità. Per quanto esistano nel panorama italiano eccellenti lavori sul pellegrinaggio nessuno ha sviluppato al loro interno uno studio sistematico sulla rappresentazione dell'alterità, argomento pregno di conseguenze per la storia del pensiero occidentale.
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La Jerosolimitana peregrinatione del mercante milanese Bernardino Dinali non si limita a esemplif... more La Jerosolimitana peregrinatione del mercante milanese Bernardino Dinali non si limita a esemplificare una delle molte variabili del viaggio in Terrasanta. Questo diario s’impone all’attenzione degli specialisti per l’importanza liturgica del resoconto che dedica ampio spazio alla raccolta in forma estesa delle preghiere che i francescani facevano recitare ai pellegrini. L’opera, non a caso, è stata considera una delle tappe fondamentali nell’evoluzione del processionale gerosolimitano.
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La porta d'Oriente, III (2010), pp. 69-78
"Per molto tempo non si è saputo chi fosse e si è confuso il nome di questo viaggiatore medievale... more "Per molto tempo non si è saputo chi fosse e si è confuso il nome di questo viaggiatore medievale col toponimo Noli, la cittadina in provincia di Savona. Ma dai riscontri d’archivio si è capito che non si trattava di un'indicazione della provenienza – la quale semmai sarebbe stata espressa nella forma da Noli – ma di un semplice cognome.
Dunque non di Bernardino Di Noli – e tantomeno Da Noli o Di Nali – si tratta bensì di Bernardino Dinali che, a suo stesso dire, esercitò la mercatura in Venezia da dove si imbarcò nel 1492 alla volta di Gerusalemme. «Incomincia la ierosolomitana peregrinatione facta da me, Bernardino Dinali milanese mercadante in Venetia, ne l’anno de la salute umana Mcccc° lxxxxij su la galia de la Illustrissima Signoria de Venetia chiamata la galia del Zaffo», dichiara l’autore all’inizio della sua narrazione. Da questa debole traccia è stato necessario partire per identificare un personaggio che ha lasciato tanto scarsa documentazione di sé da sollevare perfino il dubbio su quale fosse il suo nome effettivo."
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Che esista una tradizione controversistica ostile nei confronti del pellegrinaggio è cosa nota. M... more Che esista una tradizione controversistica ostile nei confronti del pellegrinaggio è cosa nota. Meno noto è quanto questa forma di critica trovasse sponda nella pratica – diffusa dalla tarda antichità a tutto il medioevo – del pellegrinaggio giudiziale. Nessuna aura positiva circondava tale vagatio e anche volendo credere alla buona fede dei penitenti ciò non cambia la realtà dei fatti: chi si metteva in quel genere di peregrinatio era colpevole di assassinio o gravi reati sessuali tanto che Cyrille Vogel non esitava a definire il fenomeno come «pellegrinaggio di chierici criminali»
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Anche se gli studi sull'argomento sono per lo più relativi all'area francese non mancano pellegri... more Anche se gli studi sull'argomento sono per lo più relativi all'area francese non mancano pellegrinaggi penitenziali italiani. Esiste un documento fiammingo del tardo Cinquecento contenente una lista dei luoghi in cui si era soliti mandare i condannati al pellegrinaggio giudiziale. Tra gli altri ve ne sono indicati alcuni italiani: quelli che tra i molti santuari venivano ritenuti più importanti per la penitenza.
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InStoria. Quaderni bimestrali di percorsi storici, n. 10, pp. 65-70. , 2010
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Ad limina Sancti Jacobi è l'espressione che definisce il viaggio presso una delle principali mete... more Ad limina Sancti Jacobi è l'espressione che definisce il viaggio presso una delle principali mete di pellegrinaggio della cristianità. E poiché gli orizzonti geografici dell'epoca erano molto diversi dagli attuali, per giungere a Santiago occorreva letteralmente andare "in capo al mondo" ossia raggiungere gli estremi confini del mondo conosciuto. Si trattava di percorrere le zone di confine con il mondo musulmano, incontrare popolazioni non sempre ospitali e rischiare di imbattersi in ladri, truffatori o assassini. Senza contare le difficoltà materiali: guadare fiumi, attraversare zone impervie e finanche superare i Pirenei. Per questo motivo la scelta dell'itinerario aveva grande importanza e poteva significare molto sia sul piano della sicurezza che della durata.
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Books by Ilaria Sabbatini
Papers by Ilaria Sabbatini
Il terzo libro del Codex Calixtinus, dedicato alla traslazione del corpo di San Giacomo a Compostella, si conclude con un breve capitolo sulle conchiglie di San Giacomo e sui loro poteri taumaturgici. Esse possono attenuare la grandine, le tempeste, i tuoni e trasformare le sferzate dei venti in brezze lievi. Le conchiglie hanno potere sulle forze dell’aria ma al tempo stesso, secondo la tradizione classica e poi cristiana della filosofia della natura, possono navigare come imbarcazioni usando le valve come vele. Seguendo il filo della simbologia attraverso le descrizioni letterarie e le rappresentazioni figurate, il presente articolo indaga il significato spirituale del pellegrinaggio per proporre una lettura rinnovata di un fenomeno che ha inciso profondamente nel pensiero medievale e nella prassi religiosa.
________________________________
Aerie potestates. The symbolic meaning of the sail and of the scallop shell.
The third book of the Codex Calixtinus, which is dedicated to the translation of Saint James' body in Compostela, ends with a brief chapter on Saint James' scallop shells and on their thaumaturgical power.
According to the book, they can weaken the hail, the storms and the thunders and they can turn strong winds into light breezes.
The scallop shells can control the air powers but, at the same time, according to both to the classical and the Christian philosophy of nature, they can sail as a boat using their valves as sails.
This paper thus, following its symbolical meaning through the literary descriptions and the figurative representations, investigates the spiritual meaning of the pilgrimage in order to present a new interpretation of a practice which deeply influenced both the philosophical thought and the religious practice during the Middle Ages.
Although many of the texts cited were already published, the Florentines diaries had not yet been studied as a corpus on their own.
This overview stresses the specificity of the Florentine case and particularly its great number of diaries. The mercantile and bourgeois ethics, whose principles the pilgrims-writers shared, consisted in the desire of social approval and, at the same time, in the respect of the political an the religious hierarchy. Certainly, the ideal of “adventure for the adventure’s sake” was not part of the cultural background of the "homines novi". The Florentines who made pilgrimages to Jerusalem not only were expressing their devotion but they also underlined their adherence to a system of values, shared through the writing of the tale of their experiences. And, inevitably, their experience resulted at the same time devout and secular.
Arabs as a people, charged with Christian symbols, but the Arabs became the subject of a new mode of
observation. Something of the traditional theological device remained in the Florentine diaries but what
interested travellers was the concrete observation made of the Eastern peoples grouped under the name
of Saracens. The new approach, far from banishing symbolism from the representation of reality,
stimulated its reinterpretation in the light of empirical observation. Field experiences were mingled with
bookish knowledge; data collected first-hand was interwoven with the traditional repertoire of beliefs,
producing an inseparable mixture. Given that the paradigm still remained that of St. Augustine, a great
change had taken place: the Christian symbolism, in which the real city was that of God, passed to a civic
symbolism whose point of reference was the city of men, shaped during the urban development that had
changed the face of the West. The Augustinian background was always present, but was shifting its focus
from being the city of God to the city built by Christians: the proximity to the city marked the degree of
proximity to the human species. Only in the light of these considerations can one understand the full
extent of the operation undertaken by Florentine diarists who described physically — but also socially —
the populations of the Eastern Mediterranean.
«Pisa nova Hierusalem» is a study focused on the process of the civic sacralisation through buildings built in imitation of Jerusalem. The development of Pisa, for instance, went hand in hand with the evocation of the Holy Land’s architectures. The architectural Jerusalemite memories in Italy come usually in two forms: devotional, that is, with liturgical purposes, and civilian as in the case of Pisa. Pisa, despite not being the only example of this kind in Italy, represents a very special case: in fact it is possible to produce a diachronic reading of its imitationes of the Holy Land. The building of the medieval walls, the construction of a new architectural fabric (both institutional and religious), the literary celebration of the enterprise of Pisa (Liber maiolichinus de gestis pisanorum illustribus), the close relationship that linked the city with the East and with the Arab world in particular in the Western Mediterranean and its leading role as defender of the Christianity: all these elements bring to introduce the town, both in the political context and in celebratory literature, as as the new Rome and as the Nova Jerusalem, the new center of the world. The imitationes of Jerusalem implied, in this historical circumstance, a civic will to share - or appropriate- the sacredness of Jerusalem. The history of the religious architectures of Pisa helps in defining the program and type of relationship among the commissioners, the city and its policy, in a path that reproduce the archetype of Jerusalem in a civic sense.
article focuses on the representation of the Muslim enemy in the epic literature of the Crusades and in the odeporic literature of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage diaries represent an important tradition where narrative and memory steadily entwine. Beginning with a survey of onomastic in epic literature, the study analyses the physical characterization of the Muslim enemy as a monstrous giant. Building on these assumptions, it goes on to investigate the formation of the idea of the enemy in the patristic literature, in relation to the transition from idea of Muhammad’s heresy to that
of Muslim paganism. Through this literary excursus the article shows the transformations in the physical representation of the body of the Muslim as enemy in the epic literature of the Crusades and in the odeporic literature of pilgrimage. Its novelty is a diachronic study of the physical representation of the Muslims in medieval literature that analyze in a deep way the approach of the pilgrimage’s diaries. In this context, referring to a corpus
of Florentine texts, it is possible to identify an original approach that that can be described as proto-ethnological.
This approach ignores the theological consideration of the enemy and describes otherness in a perspective that reflects the ethical environment of the bourgeois authors.
Dunque non di Bernardino Di Noli – e tantomeno Da Noli o Di Nali – si tratta bensì di Bernardino Dinali che, a suo stesso dire, esercitò la mercatura in Venezia da dove si imbarcò nel 1492 alla volta di Gerusalemme. «Incomincia la ierosolomitana peregrinatione facta da me, Bernardino Dinali milanese mercadante in Venetia, ne l’anno de la salute umana Mcccc° lxxxxij su la galia de la Illustrissima Signoria de Venetia chiamata la galia del Zaffo», dichiara l’autore all’inizio della sua narrazione. Da questa debole traccia è stato necessario partire per identificare un personaggio che ha lasciato tanto scarsa documentazione di sé da sollevare perfino il dubbio su quale fosse il suo nome effettivo."
Il terzo libro del Codex Calixtinus, dedicato alla traslazione del corpo di San Giacomo a Compostella, si conclude con un breve capitolo sulle conchiglie di San Giacomo e sui loro poteri taumaturgici. Esse possono attenuare la grandine, le tempeste, i tuoni e trasformare le sferzate dei venti in brezze lievi. Le conchiglie hanno potere sulle forze dell’aria ma al tempo stesso, secondo la tradizione classica e poi cristiana della filosofia della natura, possono navigare come imbarcazioni usando le valve come vele. Seguendo il filo della simbologia attraverso le descrizioni letterarie e le rappresentazioni figurate, il presente articolo indaga il significato spirituale del pellegrinaggio per proporre una lettura rinnovata di un fenomeno che ha inciso profondamente nel pensiero medievale e nella prassi religiosa.
________________________________
Aerie potestates. The symbolic meaning of the sail and of the scallop shell.
The third book of the Codex Calixtinus, which is dedicated to the translation of Saint James' body in Compostela, ends with a brief chapter on Saint James' scallop shells and on their thaumaturgical power.
According to the book, they can weaken the hail, the storms and the thunders and they can turn strong winds into light breezes.
The scallop shells can control the air powers but, at the same time, according to both to the classical and the Christian philosophy of nature, they can sail as a boat using their valves as sails.
This paper thus, following its symbolical meaning through the literary descriptions and the figurative representations, investigates the spiritual meaning of the pilgrimage in order to present a new interpretation of a practice which deeply influenced both the philosophical thought and the religious practice during the Middle Ages.
Although many of the texts cited were already published, the Florentines diaries had not yet been studied as a corpus on their own.
This overview stresses the specificity of the Florentine case and particularly its great number of diaries. The mercantile and bourgeois ethics, whose principles the pilgrims-writers shared, consisted in the desire of social approval and, at the same time, in the respect of the political an the religious hierarchy. Certainly, the ideal of “adventure for the adventure’s sake” was not part of the cultural background of the "homines novi". The Florentines who made pilgrimages to Jerusalem not only were expressing their devotion but they also underlined their adherence to a system of values, shared through the writing of the tale of their experiences. And, inevitably, their experience resulted at the same time devout and secular.
Arabs as a people, charged with Christian symbols, but the Arabs became the subject of a new mode of
observation. Something of the traditional theological device remained in the Florentine diaries but what
interested travellers was the concrete observation made of the Eastern peoples grouped under the name
of Saracens. The new approach, far from banishing symbolism from the representation of reality,
stimulated its reinterpretation in the light of empirical observation. Field experiences were mingled with
bookish knowledge; data collected first-hand was interwoven with the traditional repertoire of beliefs,
producing an inseparable mixture. Given that the paradigm still remained that of St. Augustine, a great
change had taken place: the Christian symbolism, in which the real city was that of God, passed to a civic
symbolism whose point of reference was the city of men, shaped during the urban development that had
changed the face of the West. The Augustinian background was always present, but was shifting its focus
from being the city of God to the city built by Christians: the proximity to the city marked the degree of
proximity to the human species. Only in the light of these considerations can one understand the full
extent of the operation undertaken by Florentine diarists who described physically — but also socially —
the populations of the Eastern Mediterranean.
«Pisa nova Hierusalem» is a study focused on the process of the civic sacralisation through buildings built in imitation of Jerusalem. The development of Pisa, for instance, went hand in hand with the evocation of the Holy Land’s architectures. The architectural Jerusalemite memories in Italy come usually in two forms: devotional, that is, with liturgical purposes, and civilian as in the case of Pisa. Pisa, despite not being the only example of this kind in Italy, represents a very special case: in fact it is possible to produce a diachronic reading of its imitationes of the Holy Land. The building of the medieval walls, the construction of a new architectural fabric (both institutional and religious), the literary celebration of the enterprise of Pisa (Liber maiolichinus de gestis pisanorum illustribus), the close relationship that linked the city with the East and with the Arab world in particular in the Western Mediterranean and its leading role as defender of the Christianity: all these elements bring to introduce the town, both in the political context and in celebratory literature, as as the new Rome and as the Nova Jerusalem, the new center of the world. The imitationes of Jerusalem implied, in this historical circumstance, a civic will to share - or appropriate- the sacredness of Jerusalem. The history of the religious architectures of Pisa helps in defining the program and type of relationship among the commissioners, the city and its policy, in a path that reproduce the archetype of Jerusalem in a civic sense.
article focuses on the representation of the Muslim enemy in the epic literature of the Crusades and in the odeporic literature of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage diaries represent an important tradition where narrative and memory steadily entwine. Beginning with a survey of onomastic in epic literature, the study analyses the physical characterization of the Muslim enemy as a monstrous giant. Building on these assumptions, it goes on to investigate the formation of the idea of the enemy in the patristic literature, in relation to the transition from idea of Muhammad’s heresy to that
of Muslim paganism. Through this literary excursus the article shows the transformations in the physical representation of the body of the Muslim as enemy in the epic literature of the Crusades and in the odeporic literature of pilgrimage. Its novelty is a diachronic study of the physical representation of the Muslims in medieval literature that analyze in a deep way the approach of the pilgrimage’s diaries. In this context, referring to a corpus
of Florentine texts, it is possible to identify an original approach that that can be described as proto-ethnological.
This approach ignores the theological consideration of the enemy and describes otherness in a perspective that reflects the ethical environment of the bourgeois authors.
Dunque non di Bernardino Di Noli – e tantomeno Da Noli o Di Nali – si tratta bensì di Bernardino Dinali che, a suo stesso dire, esercitò la mercatura in Venezia da dove si imbarcò nel 1492 alla volta di Gerusalemme. «Incomincia la ierosolomitana peregrinatione facta da me, Bernardino Dinali milanese mercadante in Venetia, ne l’anno de la salute umana Mcccc° lxxxxij su la galia de la Illustrissima Signoria de Venetia chiamata la galia del Zaffo», dichiara l’autore all’inizio della sua narrazione. Da questa debole traccia è stato necessario partire per identificare un personaggio che ha lasciato tanto scarsa documentazione di sé da sollevare perfino il dubbio su quale fosse il suo nome effettivo."
in the field of travel literature and the topics of research group EMAM on the issue of representation of the East in terms of territorial and geopolitical perspective. In the Xth century the Christian authors identified the source of all evil in the East, in the cities of Corozaim and Betsaide about which talked the Gospels. The Holy Land was the foremost center of providential history, the early and the purpose of the Christian eschatology. In fact, so was
inevitable that the first thought of the travellers was directed to the Biblical memories. The East was the place from which came the spiritual salvation, represented by the city of Bethlehem, but also where had origin the Antichrist. All this was reflected into the epic literature that took inspiration from religious background and its eschatological symbolism. Five hundred years later, also if persisted the same theological presuppositions, in the representations of travellers, the towns took the concrete aspect of big commercial centers with handmade productions and
economic exchanges of all kinds."
Cette réunion internationale a pour objet de mieux cerner la vision perçue de l’espace méditerranéen au Moyen Âge, et plus particulièrement celle du Proche-Orient dont les croisades ont signé l’enjeu majeur entre Orient
et Occident. Quels enjeux, finalement – et pas seulement religieux ou politiques - ont participé à cette construction, renouvelée avec la diffusion de l’islam ? Selon quelles connaissances et quels imaginaires ?
Le concours des meilleurs spécialistes actuels de chacun des domaines concernés permettra d’analyser ici les outils culturels, géographiques et politiques mis en œuvre face aux données matérielles, économiques et stratégiques qui ont forgé la perception identitaire de cette région avant, pendant et après l’occupation des Latins.
Les aspects envisagés confronteront la vision matérielle et environnementale décrite par les voyageurs et géographes au cadre aujourd’hui mieux cerné par l’archéologie et par l’étude des autres sources textuelles. Ils s’attacheront à reconnaître les aires et strates successives d’acculturation, d’habitation, d’administration, de domination et de dénomination des territoires. Ils tenteront de mieux identifier et comprendre les éléments structurant de ce paysage, sa « fabrique » : peuplement et occupation du sol, exploitation, prélèvement fiscal, circulation, échanges et affrontements. À travers leurs permanences et leurs évolutions, saisir l’interaction des éléments multiples et complémentaires qui définissent un espace, le regard et les formes d’emprise qu’il suscite.
The spacial perception of the Medieval Near East
The purpose of this international meeting is to better understand the perceived vision of the Mediterranean area in the Middle Ages, especially the Middle East, including the Crusades which have signed a major issue between East and West. What issues eventually - not just religious or political - have contributed to this construction, with the new irruption of Islam? According to what information or what knowledge and what imaginary? The participation of the best specialists of the fields concerned will analyze here the cultural tools, geographical and political implemented deal with material data, economic and strategic perception that forged the identity of this region before, during and after the occupation of the Latins. The aspects considered will confront the physical and environmental vision by travelers
and geographers with the framework now better identified by archeology and the study of textual sources. They will seek to identify areas and successive layers of acculturation, settlement, administration, domination and naming territories. They will try to better
recognize and understand the structural elements of the landscape, its «process of making» : land use, exploitation, tax levy, traffic exchanges and confrontations. Through their permanences and their evolutions, to capture the interaction of multiple and complementary elements that define a space, look and forms of control that raises.
La «peregrinatione» di Bernardino Dinali. Dal ms. 1301 della Biblioteca Statale di Lucca.
Parleremo del volume con Carla Sodini e Ilaria Sabbatini.
Non si tratterà di una semplice presentazione ma di una conferenza-colloquio con proiezione di materiale didattico e letture dal testo del diario quattrocentesco del Dinali.
Tutti questi racconti hanno un elemento in comune: l’idea di una genesi risulta sempre correlata a quella di una caduta che costituisce il raccordo fondamentale tra il mito dell’origine del cosmo e quello dell’origine dell’uomo. La cosmogonia (origine del cosmo) è infatti strettamente correlata all’antropogonia (origine dell’uomo): il loro nesso consiste appunto in un evento tragico che, all’origine del tempo, fece irruzione nella storia dell'uomo ponendolo in uno stato di degradazione rispetto all’età primigenia. Di conseguenza è proprio intorno all’idea di caduta che si sviluppano tutti quei miti e quei simboli che cercano di spiegare le origini della malattia, della morte e gli aspetti tragici della condizione umana.
In una prospettiva completamente diversa si pongono le attuali teorie scientifiche, per cui l'universo e la vita rientrano in una successione di eventi dovuti a cause naturali. In scienza non si parla di “creazione” dell'universo bensì di “origine”, concetto quest’ultimo che non rimanda a una dimensione metafisica ma immanente. Tutto ciò che non può essere osservato o riscontrato è estraneo alla scienza, tuttavia possono essere misurati gli effetti di eventi remotissimi come quello della creazione dell'universo. L’interpretazione delle osservazioni raccolte mediante strumenti scientifici permette così la ricostruzione di un accurato quadro del passato.
Dalle fedi preabramitiche, dunque, fino alle teorie scientifiche contemporanee gli esseri umani hanno continuato a interrogarsi sulle proprie origini e sull’origine della materia stessa. I miti della creazione hanno da sempre influenzato l'atteggiamento degli uomini ben al di là del fatto che essi vi credessero o meno. Tutti, infatti, ci collochiamo nel contesto delle collettività che hanno generato quei miti e che intorno ad essi si sono strutturate. Anche nelle società che si dicono laiche, tutti cresciamo in seno a culture le cui forme di pensiero sono modellate dal rapporto col mito come modalità di conoscenza del mondo. Tali strutture mentali influenzano a loro volta il nostro modo di concepire l’esistente, quali che siano le nostre appartenenze e le nostre credenze.
A partire da queste premesse viene proposto un ciclo di conferenze che hanno come tema quello delle origini dell’esistente, dalle religioni preabramitiche fino alle attuali teorie scientifiche sull’universo. La proposta riveste grande importanza ai fini di un confronto lucido e senza pregiudizi sulle concezioni che stanno alla base del nostro pensiero. Il ciclo di conferenze “Genesi e cosmologie” prende il titolo da un preciso approccio alla tematica delle origini che non vuole proporre risposte di sorta ma semplicemente offrire l’opportunità di una conoscenza più approfondita. La parola “genesi” infatti – come l’ebraico bereshìt, il greco ghènesis, l’arabo gānazī – rimanda alla dimensione trascendente delle credenze sulle origini del mondo. Viceversa la “cosmologia” è, in questo contesto, un concetto meramente scientifico riferito alla disciplina che si occupa dello studio dell'universo del quale tenta di spiegare origine ed evoluzione."