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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 734: Mappings, III: Borders between Text and Map

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 14.15-15.45

Organisers:Felicitas Schmieder, Historisches Institut, FernUniversität Hagen
Dan Terkla, Department of English, Illinois Wesleyan University
Moderator/Chair:LauraLee Brott, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Paper 734-aPerceptions and Descriptions of Borders during the Crusades
(Language: English)
Thomas Wozniak, Seminar für Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
Index terms: Archives and Sources, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 734-bThe 'Wilderness': Geographic Knowledge between Textual Description and Practical Application in Late Medieval Prussia
(Language: English)
Stefan Striegler, Historisches Institut Universität Greifswald
Index terms: Archives and Sources, Geography and Settlement Studies
Abstract

Somewhat paradoxically, medieval Jews and Christians considered the Holy Land to be their familiar, yet distant homeland, a place that they could describe and depict, by drawing on the ancient traditions underpinning their beliefs. Not surprisingly, then, they described and depicted contested missionary territories, which they perceived as wilderness, before laying claim to them. In order to differentiate homeland from wilderness, late medieval writers and map makers incorporated borders within and around these areas, thereby creating zones of inclusion and exclusion. Speakers in this session will provide multiple perspectives on this phenomenon and thus lay the groundwork for a fruitful discussion of the beginnings of regional mapping.