Paper -a:
This paper will explore the study of the term and the people medieval historians refer to as faidits. In particular it aims to re-think the definition offaidits found in both older and more recent historiography of a generic but unclear group of noble Occitans who were forced into exile by the Albigensian Crusade. The paper will argue that in order to understand who these faidits really were we need to construct a new definition of the term, and to apply it to primary sources related to the Albigensian Crusade and its aftermath. A close examination of the sources will demonstrate that the term faidits was not limited to the nobility but also included common people. In addition, the paper will show that these faidits were a complex and well organised group whose importance to the period in which they lived should not be underestimated.
Paper -b:
This paper investigates the role of Venice as a counterpart of Jerusalem in the peregrinatio ad loca sancta during the 14th and 15th centuries. While there has been significant research on the Venetian architectural and artistic jerosolimitan mimesis of the Holy Land during the Middle Ages, this paper focuses on the emergence of Venice as an early stage of pilgrimage before the oversea voyage to Palestine. Connections between the pilgrims' description of the city and the actual political and socio-economic organization of the Republic regarding the management of sea-travel and visitors' reception are assessed. It emerged that within the sanctae peregrinationes Venice should be considered not solely as a temporary stage of departure before the Holy Land voyage, but as an equally important pilgrimage destination.
Paper -c:
Using the example of the Chronologia Magna, written by Paulino Veneto in the first half 14th century, the paper will analyse the presentation of the Holy Land in the wider context of late medieval world historiography. The Chronologia Magna is of central relevance in the development of this literary genre, because it is on the cusp of dualistic world history writing and a new mode of world historiography, which is multi-dimensional in a political as well as in a religious sense. Paulinus in his presentation of world history also integrates non-European/non-Christian rulers in the same tabular lines he is using for European Christian rulers. This changing perception also has an impact on the perception the Holy Land.
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