[USEMAP] From Port to Port THE MEDITERRANEAN HISTORY AS A PORTOLANO BOOK Georges Moustaki En Méditerranée (1971) Dans ce bassin où jouent des enfants aux yeux noirs, il y a trois continents et des siècles d’histoire, des prophètes des dieux, le Messie en personne. Il y a un bel été qui ne craint pas l’automne, en Méditerranée. Immagine che contiene persona, uomo, musica, chitarra Descrizione generata automaticamente Questa foto di Autore sconosciuto è concesso in licenza da CC BY-SA Summary of presentation Six pins pointed on several spots on a road map Mapping the Mediterranean Maps and Mapping Work “Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness”. – Alfred Korzybski. • A map is always an interpretation of a territory. • A map is always: •reduced •approximated •symbolic Map of the world according to Eratosthenes (276 BC - 194 DC) [USEMAP] The T-O Diagram Image-concept of the known world during the Middle Ages. [USEMAP] [USEMAP] Map of al-Idrisi (1099-1165) Immagine che contiene testo, galleria, stanza, cornice Descrizione generata automaticamente Map of Enrico Martello (1489) Map of Europe and the Mediterranean from the Catalan Atlas of 1375 Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Aerial top view container ship Goods and People across the Sea: a Mediterranean History Migrations in human history • The human history is the history of human migration. • Since the beginning of humanity, people were moving across the world for some reasons, in the first place for existential needs (e.g., food, shelter, safety, etc.). • The main migrations across the Mediterranean Sea of the past centuries were: •The Phoenician commercial colonization (they built a lot of Emporia, commercial city); •Great migration of Greek people to the Southern Italian coasts (Campania, Puglia, Calabria, and Sicilia), the Magna Graecia; •The Rome domination (military, politic, and commercial) of the Mediterranean Sea. •The Germanic people migrations. •The Islamic people domination of Eastern and Southern of the Mediterranean basin and of Iberic (the Al-Andalus) and Sicily. • Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Main prehistoric migrations Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Phoenicians’ trade routes Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Greek’s trade routes Magna Graecia Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente (gr. Μεγάλη Ελλάς Megálē Hellás ‘Greater Greece’) the Greek colonies in Southern Italy (from 8th century BC) Etruscan cities Etruscan colonization area and main cities, such as the members of the league: Dodecapolis (Gr. Δωδεκάπολις). Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Greek and Etruscan trade routes (8th – 6th BC) Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Map of the Roman fleets and major naval bases during the Principate (27 BC – 284 AD) Christianization Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Map of the diffusion of Christianity in Europe Map of the main Byzantine-Muslim naval operations and battles in the Mediterranean, 7th–11th centuries. Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente The Maritime Republics Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Also called ‘‘Merchant Republics’’, the Mediterranean thalassocratic city-states in competition during the last centuries of the Middle Ages. Sabir: a Mediterranean Lingua Franca • Sabir (< saber ‘to know’) was a Lingua Franca (a bridge language) used in Mediterranean basin since 11th century BC. •The language was based mostly on Northern Italy’s languages (mainly Venetian and Genoese) and secondarily from Occitano-Romance languages (Catalan and Occitan) in the Western Mediterranean area, at first, Lingua Franca later came to have more Spanish and Portuguese elements, especially on the Barbary Coast (now referred to as the Maghreb). Lingua Franca also borrowed some elements from Berber, Turkish, French, Greek and Arabic. • Example: ◦Se ti sabir ◦ti respondir, ◦se non sabir ◦tazir, tazir. – Molière, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) • A little Portolano Questa foto di Autore sconosciuto è concesso in licenza da CC BY-SA What is a portolan chart? “portolan chart, also called harbour-finding chart, compass chart, or rhumb chart, navigational chart of the European Middle Ages (1300–1500)”. – Encyclopaedia Britannica • Portolan chart (< it. portolano < it. porto (lat. PORTUS) ‘(chart) relative to the ports’) is the navigation map of Middle Ages, dedicate to the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas. • The principal elements of portolan charts are: •Sea coasts and port names; •Windroses; •Rhumbline networks. • Windrose [USEMAP] The main winds: 1.(N) Tramontana 2.(NE) Greco (or Bora) 3.(E) Levante 4.(SE) Scirocco 5.(S) Mezzodì (or Ostro) 6.(SW) Libeccio (or Garbino) 7.(W) Ponente 8.(NW) Maestro (or Mistral) 9. 9. Rhumbline network Immagine che contiene cupola, edificio, soffitto, parecchi Descrizione generata automaticamente •Or windrose network. •Starting from a windrose (also called compass rose), the projection lines are drawn. •This lines are the rhumblines, the navigation routes. A portolan chart [USEMAP] Pietro Visconti’s portolan chart (1311) Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Portolan chart (14th century BC) – Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) Carthage •Phoenician colony in nowadays Tunis. •Became one of the commercial capital of the Mediterranean area thanks to his favorable position, in the middle of Mediterranean Sea. •Its characteristic is the circular port. [USEMAP] Rhodes •Port of the Aegean sea. •Its lighthouse was on the top of the monumental Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Immagine che contiene testo, tessuto Descrizione generata automaticamente Alexandria •City in Egypt in the Nile Delta and on the Eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea. •Its lighthouse, the Pharos, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Neapolis •Greek Colony of the Magna Graecia. •Nowadays city of Naples. Immagine che contiene natura, montagna, altopiano Descrizione generata automaticamente Portus •The fluvial harbor of the Tiber river, one of the main commercial gate of the Ancient Rome. •Nowadays is Ostia (RM). Immagine che contiene testo, vecchio, bosco Descrizione generata automaticamente Constantinople •Capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, then Byzantium, capital of the Byzantine Empire (Prosphorion Harbour). •Ottoman Turkish conquests it in 1453. •The gate of Bosphorus. •Now adays Istanbul (Turkey). Immagine che contiene testo, natura, costa, resort Descrizione generata automaticamente Venezia •City in the Nord-East of the Italian Peninsula on the Adriatic Sea. •It was built on the laguna, a small land surrounded by the sea. •During the centuries, Venice has been one of the commercial capitals of the Middle Ages and Early modern period. Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Genova •City in the Nord-West of the Italian Peninsula on the Tyrrhenian Sea. •Like Venice, Genoa has been one of the commercial capitals of the Middle Ages and Early modern period. Immagine che contiene mappa Descrizione generata automaticamente Ports and Mediterranean History • It’s commonly known that the Mediterranean Sea was a bridge between people. • The ports are the knots of a network that connect people from different cultures. • The History of the Mediterranean can be considered an history of the people moving across the Mediterranean Sea (e.g., migrations, commences, wars, etc.). • In addition, the domination on the Mediterranean Sea (the so called “thalassocracy”) or part of it has been a crucial aspect for the European politics. • For these reasons, we tried to see the history of the Mediterranean Sea through the history of ports and maritime routes, as a Portolano book. • • Rocky cove by the ocean Thank you!