Georg Christ

A Newsletter in 1419? Antonio Morosini's Chronicle in the Light of Commercial Correspondence between Venice and Alexandria

While studying Venetian trade in Alexandria, I discovered a hitherto unknown letter in the State Archives of Venice which sheds light on the activities of the Venetian diarist Antonio Morosini and his chronicle. The letter is in Morosinis own hand and directed to his nephew, serving as Venetian consul in Alexandria. It deals mainly with political and military subjects and is therefore very different from the typical merchant letters of the period. Other letters directed to the same consul reveal the singular character of Morosinis; apart from its first and last paragraphs it seems to be almost an early form of newsletter or avviso. According to established opinion, the newsletter came into being only at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Therefore, the study of this letter has far-reaching consequences not only for research on Morosinis chronicle, on which this and several other merchant letters cast new light, but also for the history of news production and diffusion in general.

Le monde rural du Maghreb central (XIVe-XVe siècles): Réalités sociales et constructions juridiques d’après les "Nawāzil Māzūna"

the texts occasionally to explain the wider world in which these thinkers lived and moved, and how that might have contributed to their thought. And while he convincingly shows the influence they exercised on each other, he does not delve into the vectors of this influence, or dwell too much on the greater significance and impact of their thought. None of this is meant to detract from the fact that this is an elegantly executed study of the development of mysticism and al-Andalus and the relationship between Judaism, Sunnī and Shīʿa Islam in this period. Implicitly it offers further proof of the existence in the medieval Mediterranean of a broad religious/intellectual culture that transcended sectarian boundaries.

The Venetian Consul and the Cosmopolitan Mercantile Community of Alexandria at the Beginning of the 15th century

Abstract Three case studies (Veneto-Cretan shipping of Egyptian-Arab merchandise, Catalan-Venetian cooperation, and Venice acting on behalf of Latin pilgrims) around the activities of the Venetian consul inform an investigation of the cosmopolitan community formed by local groups and foreign nations, and the role of the Venetian consul in this wider community. It will be argued that the Venetian consul was not only a Venetian envoy but also a Mamlūk official and an informal head of the cosmopolitan business community in late medieval Alexandria.

Mapping Change: A Collaborative GIS-based Cue Card System for the Humanities

The junior research group “Trading Diasporas in the Mediterranean 1350–1450” in the Research Programme “Transcultural Studies” at the University of Heidelberg is working on the development of a multi-role database system for the management of literature, sources, meta data and projects in the humanities. Therefore, it cooperates with the Universities of Zurich and Basel (Litlink initiative) and a research group at the University of Toronto (e-porte). The paper gives an overview over the history of scientific knowledge management in order to assess the value of the now used system Litlink and possible development perspectives. In a broad alliance with IWR and HRA at Heidelberg University as well as the partners mentioned above, we hope to contribute to reengineer the traditional cue card system and maybe even improving it, for instance as far as collaborative work is concerned. The envisioned research environment shall include also capabilities to geo-reference information and a prospecting (preliminary data exploration) tool to analyse data in terms of predefined temporal, geographical and thematical criteria.

Eine Stadt wandert aus. Kollaps und Kontinuität im spätmittelalterlichen Alexandria

While the political center of Egypt moved increasingly to Cairo, natural disasters (as earthquakes, droughts, and the plague), communal strife, pirate attacks, administrative reform, and economic change shattered Alexandria’s urban fabric in the late Middle Ages. The city intra muros resisted its decay tenaciously but eventually collapsed after its last important institution, the Venetian consulate, had moved to Cairo in the sixteenth century. However, Alexandria as a whole did not collapse. The neighborhood on the peninsula north of the walled city recovered from the ordeals: It grew thanks to a constant flow of immigrants, tax benefits, and the continued importance of the port. New port facilities, a new fortress, and Sufi-institutions (dating back to the thirteenth century) served as settlement cores supplying the necessary infrastructure. The peninsula became Alexandria’s new center, while the walled city decayed.