IMC 2022: Sessions

Borders and boundaries contribute to the construction, consolidation, reinforcement, or even loosening of identities, creating a sense of belonging and security. The session sponsored by the international EU Horizon 2020 project "NetMAR - Network of Medieval Arts and Rituals" explores in an interdisciplinary approach the meaning of mobility in such 'mixed societies', especially with regard to questions of collective identity. Savvas Mavromatidis examines the changes in the appearance of grave slabs in late medieval Cyprus due to cultural contacts during the short period of Venetian rule (1474-1571) and focuses especially on what these changes reveal about the cultural values of the society that produced them. Marina Ilia's paper also deals with the period of Venetian rule in Cyprus (1474-1571). Based on sources rarely taken into account so far (e.g. the catastici of Aradippo), she examines the role of the family as a social and economic unit in rural areas of the island, allowing new insights into the significance of mobility of these units. The paper by Sara Moure López deals with the representation of the city of Babylon in 13th-century copies of the Castilian Beatus tradition, especially its façade as a visual border between the in- and the outside. She explores the question of what kind of emotions the contemplation of the accursed city could have evoked in the monastic and courtly audience of these manuscripts - especially in light of their own experiences in the ongoing military campaigns against the Almohads.