Nation and municipal identity in Mediterranean space during the

Middle Ages Erasmus IP "Myths, Nation-Building, Political Identities”

Siegen, March 2011

Enrica Salvatori, University of Pisa

Structure

  Why we are here?

  Nation and Middle Ages

  Nation and Early Middle Ages

  High Middle Ages in Mediterranean Sea

  Conclusion

Why are we here?

  The Crisis of European Identity

  The Persistence of the Nation model

  The Vitality of Ethnic claims

  The use/abuse of History

We need to understand Past and Present in a European and Mediterranean scenario

Nation and Middle Ages

[Geary, The Myth of Nations]

  A Poisoned Landscape: Nationalism

  Philology and Nationalism

  Ethnoarcaeology

  The Toxic Waste: People = Nation

Nation and Early Middle Ages

[Geary, The Myth of Nations]

  Gentes and Populus

  Barbarians and Classical Ethnography

  Barbarians Ethnogenesis

  What is the Identity of a People?

Nations in High Middle Ages

  Communities and peoples in High Middle Ages

  Migrations and Commerce

  Christians and Muslims in a fragmented Scenario

High Middle Ages Mediterranean Sea

[Abulafia, Pisan Colonies; Salvatori, Corsairs’ Crews]

  Town as Nation

  Consulates, colonies, emporia, fundaca

  Identity at home and abroad

  Identity and religion “on board”

High Middle Ages Medieterranean Sea

[Jacoby, From Byzantium to Latin Romania]

  More than a “town”: West and East

  Greeks and Latins in the XIII century

  Political scenario and commercial practice

Conclusion

  Could we speak of nationes and identity in the Middle Ages? Yes, but we HAVE TO stay away from the temptation

  to find continuity between nationes and state/nation

  to look at religious conflicts OR dialogues in order to promote current political strategy

  to look at medieval European space as the birthplace of the present Europe

Past is a distant country

Historians have to understand the Past not to support Political Propaganda of any kind

Bibliography

  P.J. Geary, The Myth of Nations. The medieval Origins of Europe, Princeton-Oxford 2002

  D. Abulafia, Pisan commercial colonies and consulates in twelfth century Siciliy, in «The English Historical Review», XCIII (1978), 68-81.

  E. Salvatori, Corsairs’ Crews and Cross-Cultural Interactions: the Case of the Pisan Trapelicinus in the Twelfth Century, in «Medieval Encounters», 13/1 (2007), 32-55.

  D. Jacoby, From Byzantium to Latin Romania: Continuity and Change in B. Arbel, B. Hamilton, D. Jacoby, eds., Latins and Greeks in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204 (London, 1989), 1-44