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

1. 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

2. Structure
 Why we are here?
 Nation and Middle Ages
 Nation and Early Middle Ages
 High Middle Ages in Mediterranean Sea
 Conclusion

3. 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

4. Nation and Middle Ages
[Geary, The Myth of Nations]
 A Poisoned Landscape: Nationalism
 Philology and Nationalism
 Ethnoarcaeology
 The Toxic Waste: People = Nation

5. 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?

6. Nations in High
Middle Ages
 Communities and peoples in High Middle
Ages
 Migrations and Commerce
 Christians and Muslims in a fragmented
Scenario

7. 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”

8. 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

9. 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

10. Past is a distant
country
Historians have to understand the Past not to
support Political Propaganda of any kind

11. 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