Präsenzveranstaltung

25. Mai 2022, 18.30–20.00 Uhr 

Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien, Hörsaal 30

Katalin Prajda (Wien): The Upper Adriatic in the Middle Ages: Cultural Exchanges and their Networks in the Borderlands

Moderation: Tara Andrews

Abstract:

The present paper proposes to re-evaluate the written documentation and the historiography of the eastern part of the Upper Adriatic, extending geographically between Trieste and Zara, in the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. This ongoing research aims to analyze the ways merchant networks of long-distance trade shaped the history of the territory, the modality of their settlement and integration into the host societies. It also examines the approach of the primary source material toward cultural differences and political belonging and consequently the interpretations provided by the specialist literature. Since the eleventh century, the territory had constituted a borderland between various political entities, including the Republic of Venice, the Patriarchate of Aquileia, the Duchy of Austria, and the Kingdom of Hungary which corroborated the ethnic diversity in the local society. The foundation of the Mark of Istria as an autonomous province within the Holy Roman Empire symbolizes the rising significance of the area. The second part of the talk will employ as a case study the history of Trieste to assess the role played by merchant networks as agents of cultural mediation. This longue durée analysis of the social fabric will likely provide us with a better understanding of the cultural exchanges in the history of borderlands from the High Middle Ages to the early Renaissance period.

Zur Vortragenden:

Katalin Prajda is a historian of medieval and early Renaissance Italy. Her first monograph is entitled Network and Migration in Early Renaissance Florence, 1378-1433: Friends of Friends in the Kingdom of Hungary (2018). Her second book, Cross-Cultural Exchanges and their Social Networks between the Italian States and the Kingdom of Hungary in the Early Renaissance (1340s-1490s), is awaiting publication.

Rückfragen: martina.fuchs@univie.ac.at