October 30 - November 3, 2006. Venice and the Balkans in the Late Middle Ages
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Teaching Personnel
Claudia Märtl - Ludwig Maximilians Universität
Oliver J. Schmitt - University of Vienna
Venice and the Balkans in the Late Middle Ages
The aim of this course is to explore the history of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean during the 15th century. The assessment of Venice’s role in the Mediterranean and its reactions in order to face Ottoman expansion is a topic which has been discussed since the 19th century.
Research has concentrated on the political and commercial structures of the Venetian stato da Mar. We shall put particular emphasis on the development of diplomatic relationships between the Italian states and the political entities situated on the Balkans and in the Eastern Mediterranean during the second half of the 15th century, which seems to be a topic that deserves greater stress than it has received up to now.
Phases of cooperation and even entanglement between Italian and Ottoman diplomacy will be of major interest. A large amount of information on this account can be disclosed from contemporary source material that exists in Italian archives outside of Venice, especially from dispatches preserved in the archives of Milan and Mantova and from letters written by humanists and churchmen in Latin. Being mostly unpublished, these sources have been largely overlooked up to the present time. Although focussing on some crucial points, e. g. the crusading plans of pope Pius II (1405/1458-1464), the activities of Scanderbeg (1405-1468) and other Albanian warlords or the relationships between Southern Italy and the Ottoman empire in the time of king Ferrante (1458-1494), the course will be orientated to give an overall survey on the history of Venice, Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Middle Ages and on the current state of research. Most of our time, however, will be dedicated to reading and discussing contemporary sources.
Students will be expected to take an active part in transcribing, translating and interpreting Italian and Latin texts. In a previous session held in Munich, German students also have to present a short paper dealing with one of the topics listed below, for which they should use five books or articles of our ‘reading list’.
Contact
Chiara Bianchini - LMU Seminars Coordinator
Tel. +39 041 2719511
Fax. + 39 041 2719510
