IMC 2023: Sessions
Session 1306: Nihil novi ex oriente?: China in Western Eyes in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
Wednesday 5 July 2023, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations, Northeast Normal University, Changchun |
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| Organiser: | Bernhard Hollick, Institut für Altertumskunde, Universität zu Köln / College of Humanities, University of Exeter |
| Moderator/Chair: | Cornelia Linde, German Historical Institute, London |
| Paper 1306-a | The Silk Road through the Eyes of the Nomads (Language: English) Index terms: Economics - General, Folk Studies, Language and Literature - Comparative |
| Paper 1306-b | Reading about China: Franciscan Travelogues and their Audience (Language: English) Index terms: Education, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Latin, Mentalities |
| Paper 1306-c | 'Western' Antiquity in G. P. Maffei's Historiae Indicae, Book VI: China (Language: English) Index terms: Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance) |
| Abstract | From the 13th century onward, a growing number of western diplomats, merchants and missionaries reached the Mongol Empire and Yuan-China. Their historical, ethnographic and geographic accounts profoundly changed the way these formerly mysterious, if not mythical, regions in the Far East were perceived. The session will throw light on the scholarly networks, through which this new knowledge spread in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe: the papers will analyse who wrote about the 'Seres', how their educational backgrounds and hidden intentions affected their image of China, and what audiences were receptive for their writings (travelogues and related texts). |