Adriatic Connections: The Adriatic as a Threshold to Byzantium (c.600-1453)

Arbor Sapientiae è lieta di  partecipare come espositore bibliografico al convegno internazionale:

Adriatic Connections: The Adriatic as a Threshold to Byzantium (c.600-1453)

The British School at Rome -  14 – 16 January 2015

visualizza catalogo tematico


Programma:

14 January

9.30 Introduction

10.00 Prof. PAUL STEPHENSON (Nijmegen)
Keynote lecture: The Adriatic in Medieval Geographical Thought

10.50 Questions

11.10 Coffee

Morning session

Chair: Prof. CHRIS WICKHAM

11.30 Dr. TOM BROWN (Edinburgh)
The Early Rivals of Venice: Comparative Urban and Economic Development in the Upper Adriatic c.751-1050.

12.00 Prof. STEFANO GASPARRI (Venice)
Le origini di Venezia fra l’Italia, Bisanzio e l’Adriatico

12.30 Questions

13.00 Lunch Break

Afternoon session 1

Chair: Prof. SAURO GELICHI

14.00 Dr. FRANCESCO BORRI (Vienna)
A Winter Sea: Byzantium and the Barbarians during the Ebbing of the Adriatic Connection 600 – 800

14.30 Prof. OLIVER JENS SCHMITT (Vienna)
Dalmatia and Albania under Venetian rule

15.00 Dr. TRPIMIR VEDRIŠ (Zagreb)
Hagiography and the Cult of the Saints in Early Medieval Byzantine Dalmatia

15.30 Tea

Afternoon session 2

Chair: Prof. VALENTINO PACE

16.00 Prof. JEAN-MARIE MARTIN (CNRS)
La Pouille byzantine

16.30 Dr. MAGDALENA SKOBLAR (BSA/BSR)
The Iconography of the Virgin in the Early Medieval Adriatic (c. 751-1095)

17.00 Questions

17.30 Prof. CHRISTOPHER SMITH (BSR)
Presentation of the Adriatic Connections workshop held in October 2014

19.30 Drinks reception
 

15 January

9.30 Prof. RICHARD HODGES (Rome)
Keynote lecture: The Adriatic Sea AD 500-1100: Corrupted or Unified and ‘Global’?

10.20 Questions

10.40 Coffee

Morning session

Chair: Prof. CHRIS WICKHAM

11.00 Prof. SAURO GELICHI (Venice)
Venezia e l’Adriatico tra la tarda antichità e l’alto medioevo: evoluzione dell’insediamento nel quadro socio-economico

11.30 Prof. JOANITA VROOM (Leiden)
Thinking of Linking: Pottery Connections, Southern Italy, Butrint and Beyond

12.00 Dr. PAGONA PAPADOPOULOU (Athens)
From One Coast to Another and Beyond: Adriatic Connections through the Sigillographic Evidence

12.30 Questions

13.00 Lunch Break

Afternoon session

Chair: Prof. JUDITH HERRIN

16.00 Tea

16.30 Prof. JOHN MITCHELL (Norwich)
Abul-Abbas & All That: Visual Dynamics between the Caliphate, Italy and the West in the Age of Charlemagne

17.00 Prof. VALENTINO PACE (Udine)
Icone e affreschi della Puglia nell’Adriatico e nel Mediterraneo bizantino

17.30 Questions

 

16 January

9.30 Prof. MICHAEL ANGOLD (Edinburgh)
Keynote lecture: Venice between the Adriatic and the Aegean in the Twelfth Century

10.20 Questions

10.40 Coffee

Morning session

Chair: Prof. JUDITH HERRIN

11.00 Dr. PETER FRANKOPAN (Oxford)
The Rise of the Adriatic in the Age of the Crusades

11.30 Dr. CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT (London)
Contexts of Sea Power and the Evolution of Venetian Crusading

12.00 Questions

12.30 Lunch Break

Afternoon session

Chair: TBA

13.30 Dr. GUILLAUME SAINT-GUILLAIN (Amiens)
Venice and the Southern Adriatic after the Fourth Crusade: Negotiating the Expansion

14.00 Prof. ELISABETH CROUZET-PAVAN (Paris)
Venise cosmopolite : le cœur battant de la Méditerranée chrétienne

14.30 Questions

15.00 Tea

15.30 Prof. JUDITH HERRIN (London) and Prof. CHRIS WICKHAM (Oxford)
Closing responses and final discussion

 
Adriatic Connections: The Adriatic as a Threshold to Byzantium (c.600-1453)

ABSTRACTS

DAY 1 (14 January 2015)
Keynote Lecture by Paul Stephenson
The Adriatic in Medieval Geographical Thought
How Byzantine was the Adriatic? What was the nature, level and frequency of Byzantine interest in the Adriatic Sea and its coastal lands during the period c. 700 – c. 1100? The answer depending on one’s interpretation of a rather small body of evidence: either Byzantine interest was limited and irregular, with interventions intended mainly to secure the status quo or to restore a status quo ante; or it was sustained, if low level, except when a higher register or greater urgency was dictated and allowed by circumstances. Byzantine interest, and less concretely Byzantine presence, can be explored in several broad categories. Since my assigned task, or at least the one I have taken upon myself, is to frame some papers and provide context rather than profound insights and answers, I shall highlight just two broad themes: first geography and cosmography, then political and military concerns, plus areas where they intersect. My observations will not address the textual and archaeological investigation of particular towns and cities to which other contributions are devoted, but I will offer some brief notes on travel, trade and the exchange of certain goods between Constantinople and the Adriatic. For political and military concerns I shall provide only a selective outline, avoiding the temptation to immerse myself once again in the narrative detail that has informed two of my earlier monographic works.

Morning sessions
Tom Brown
The Early Rivals of Venice: Comparative Urban and Economic Development in the Upper Adriatic c.751-1050
This paper grows out of my recent work on Ravenna in the post-Byzantine period. This has shown on the basis of the extensive documentary and archaeological evidences that, contrary to earlier views, the city maintained an important political, ecclesiastical and cultural role for centuries. At the same time considerable recent research has been published on the early medieval Adriatic and its continuing ties with Byzantium. My paper argues that Ravenna shares common features with a number of other cities in the upper Adriatic, such as Comacchio, Venice, Zara, Split and Ragusa. Its earlier economic and artistic ties with Istria and Dalmatia were maintained, as were links with Constantinople. Although the evidence for the eastern Adriatic is more limited than for their Western counterparts the Ravenna evidence can offer comparative insights into the social developments of the former, which were clearly also dynamic in this period.
The paper concentrates on five main themes, covering the period from the loss of Ravenna to the Lombards in 751 to the decline of Byzantine power in the West from the mid-eleventh century:
1. Comparative political and institutional developments in each city in the light of their similar Romano-Byzantine background.
2. Economic expansion, especially in the area of maritime trade and links with the hinterland.
3. The effect of the ebb and flow of Byzantine power in the area on political, economic and cultural life of each city.
4. The relations of each city with often hostile forces in their nearby hinterlands, whether papal, Frankish, Ottonian, Croatian or Hungarian.
5. The problem of their relations with Venice, which has received much more scholarly attention, not least because of its powerful myth of distinctive growth and success from an early stage. It is argued that despite often-hostile relations with Venice and the republic’s eventual domination of the Adriatic, in the earlier period other cities played an important role in the Adriatic zone and were viable economic competitors.

Stefano Gasparri
Le origini di Venezia fra l’Italia, Bisanzio e l’Adriatico
Quanto bizantina era Venezia? Studiare le origini e primi secoli del ducato veneziano può essere utile per comprendere le caratteristiche della presenza bizantina in Veneto e nell’alto Adriatico? Per riuscire a rispondere a queste domande, non è possibile limitarsi al Veneto ma ci si deve collegare anche alle trasformazioni dell’Esarcato di Ravenna, di cui Venezia faceva parte dalla fine del secolo VI. Infatti Venezia emerse come ducato autonomo proprio dalla crisi generale dell’Italia bizantina, avviata durante il secolo VII dal progressivo rafforzamento territoriale del regno longobardo e poi fatta precipitare nel corso del secolo VIII, contemporaneamente all’offensiva del re longobardo Liutprando contro l’Esarcato, dalla reazione della popolazione italica alla politica iconoclastica di Bisanzio. La successiva affermazione di una dimensione autonoma del ducato veneziano, coincidente con la controversa elezione di duchi da parte della comunità locale, non portò comunque mai alla fine dei legami con Bisanzio. Quest’ultima rimase sempre l’autorità legittimante, spesso solo teorica, delle autorità del ducato (duchi o magistri militum e tribuni), sia pure talvolta in concorrenza con il prestigio crescente della Chiesa di Roma. Come si vede anche da quest’ultima affermazione, il legame politico e culturale di Venezia con l’oriente non va sovrastimato. Infatti, durante tutto il primo periodo della sua storia autonoma, quando si formarono la società venetica, le sue istituzioni, la sua stessa identità politica, Venezia, nonostante le sue origini bizantine, fu profondamente influenzata dagli sviluppi sociali e istituzionali della terraferma italica, alla quale essa era intimamente connessa dal punto di vista territoriale e commerciale. L’uguale importanza che per Venezia avevano sia il legame con la terraferma – in riferimento in particolare al commercio sui fiumi padani – che il controllo dell’area altoadriatica è dimostrato da due fatti, realizzatisi nel corso del secolo IX: la collaborazione e poi la concorrenza con l’emporio di Comacchio (fino ad arrivare alla sua distruzione) e l’instaurazione molto precoce di una sorta di protettorato commerciale sull’Istria, in costante contrasto con la pirateria, saracena e slava. Entrambe le operazioni furono condotte dopo la conquista franca dell’Italia e la formazione dell’impero carolingio, in una situazione dunque nuova e difficile, nella quale il ducato veneziano cercò di mantenersi in equilibrio fra i due imperi. Alla fine, superata una fase di grande incertezza politica, Venezia, dopo la pace di Aquisgrana, restò inserita all’interno della sfera politica bizantina, anche se in un modo diverso rispetto al secolo precedente. Il dominio nell’alto Adriatico, acquisito a duro prezzo e molto lentamente (e in realtà completato solo intorno al Mille), consentì comunque a Venezia di mantenere sempre vivi i legami con Bisanzio e di porsi come centro principale di quella comunità adriatica “romana” (bizantina) che comprendeva anche l’Istria e la Dalmazia. Una comunità i cui comuni tratti culturali, sociali e istituzionali sono difficili da cogliere a causa della scarsissima documentazione superstite, ma possiamo tuttavia intravedere grazie a un documento straordinario quale il placito di Risano (in Istria) dell’804, messo a confronto con la più antica documentazione veneziana.


Afternoon sessions
Francesco Borri
A Winter Sea: Byzantium and the Barbarians during the Ebbing of the Adriatic Connection 600 – 800
Since the central decades of the seventh century the Roman provinces on the Adriatic Sea experienced the progressive withdrawal of the empire. While a formation of barbarian polities followed in Italy, in Dalmatia aristocracies became almost invisible and society seems to have turned tribal. Around 700 Byzantium concentrated its power and its officers in the far south of the Adriatic, closer to the central Mediterranean. Later authors explained these changes through tales of migration and conquest, but we know almost nothing about the region’s structures, affected by the shrinking intensity of communication and exchange. And yet, since the end of the eighth century, literary evidence attests Byzantine presence much northern of the straits of Otranto: in some Dalmatian centres, Istria and the north-eastern shore of Italy. Powerful men of barbarian origin were ruling over northern Dalmatia on behalf of the Franks.
The paper will collect the scanty evidence and the many “subtle silences” in order to deal with cohesive strands such as taxes, maritime communication and the role of the army. Understanding these social aspects allows a better comprehension of the continuity and discontinuity of power structures in the dark decades between the seventh and eighth century together with their reflection on local identities.

Oliver Jens Schmitt
Dalmatia and Albania under Venetian rule
The fifteenth century was decisive for establishing Venetian rule along the Eastern Coast of the Adriatic. Historiography on the topic is still rather fragmented between national historiographies which hardly communicate and a few scattered attempts in international Mediterranean studies. This essay is aimed at providing a comprehensive analysis of Venetian expansion in double perspective, both Venetian and regional, from the late fourteenth century until the end of the fifteenth century. It introduces micro-historical case studies as a new approach for assessing the character of Venetian rule which reacted to different local political and socio-economic structures and did not try to create a homogenous state administration. The paper will also reflect recent discussions on Venetian statehood and current research in Croatian and Albanian historiography. It will also try to situate the Adriatic system of power within the larger frame of Venice’s overseas administration.

Trpimir Vedriš
Hagiography and the Cult of the Saints in Early Medieval Byzantine Dalmatia
The discussion on the cult of the saints in what might be termed “Byzantine Dalmatia” is primarily meant to contribute to an ongoing debate about the extent and character of Byzantine presence in the early medieval Adriatic. The point of departure is the question whether it is possible to speak about Byzantine saints in this area. In other words, what made the saints venerated in Dalmatia Byzantine? Was it the place of origin of their relics, the role institutions of the Empire eventually played in their promotion, their Greek hagiography, or something else?
In order to approach these issues I propose to present a typology of major saints venerated along the East Adriatic coast between the reconquista of Justinian I in the mid-sixth century and the short-lived return of the Empire under Emanuel Komnenos in the second half of the twelfth. By outlining the temporal and spatial framework, I will present the evidence for the cult of particular groups of saints primarily in the light of the evidence for Byzantine presence in the Adriatic. Different characteristics of that presence (ranging from “tangible” military presence of the imperial armies all the way to longue durée economic and cultural influence) allow for some preliminary conclusions.
Namely, the earliest hagiotopography of the region clearly attests that Dalmatian thema(s) throughout the early medieval period was densely “populated” with churches dedicated to “Byzantine” saints like St Michael, St George, St Cosmas and Damian or St Nicholas. Moreover, the majority of the early medieval urban patron saints of the East Adriatic coast seem to have been of Eastern origin (e.g. St Euphemia, St Anastasia, St Blaise or St Tryphon). Many of these tituli were, undoubtedly, introduced and promoted as a part of Byzantine foreign policies. Yet, despite this relatively “thick hagiographic layer” in the Dalmatian sanctorale, it is also true that local liturgical evidence did not preserve many elements of the Greek liturgy nor does local hagiography fit into the specifically Byzantine cult of the saints.
Taken all together, it goes without saying that different chronological and cultural layers of the cult do not necessarily exclude one another. Given that the manifold cultural contacts made the early medieval Dalmatia a region in which Byzantine presence might not have been expressed through the Greek language or Eastern liturgies – I find it highly delusive to label particular saints as exclusively Greek, Frankish or Roman. Bearing all these complexities in mind, I propose to interpret characteristics of local cults of saints primarily against the background of the place of Dalmatian urban elites in the framework of the Empire, as well as the specific position of the early medieval Dalmatian Church “between Rome and Constantinople”.

Jean-Marie Martin
La Pouille byzantine
La Pouille, conquise par les Lombards entre la fin du VIe et la seconde moitié du VIIe siècle, était restée dans le cadre politique de la Longobardia minor jusqu’au IXe siècle. C’est en chassant, en 871, les Arabes (qui avaient fondé un émirat de Bari) que l’Empire a conquis la région, au moment où il perdait la Sicile; il voulait protéger les Balkans et visait à dominer les principautés lombardes du Sud: Bénévent fut occupée de 891 à 895, mais en 899/900 le nouveau thème de Longobardie ne couvrait que la Pouille et la Basilicate actuelles. Sauf l’extrême sud-est (Salento méridional), où sont arrivés des Grecs de Sicile, c’était une région de droit lombard, de langue latine, de rite romain (l’Empire a maintenu l’usage du droit privé lombard et contribué à créer des évêchés latins), dont seule la partie centrale était bien peuplée ; il était en fait séparé du thème de Calabre par de vastes espaces presque vides.
La Pouille, séparée de Bénévent, n’avait pas de véritable aristocratie locale; les églises importantes étaient rares et, au début du Xe siècle, les abbayes campaniennes ont abandonné leurs possessions apuliennes: on n’y trouvait donc pas de grande propriété.
Le partage de la Longobardia minor entre l’Empire et les principautés n’était accepté par aucune des deux parties: dans les années 920, le prince de Bénévent Landolf Ier voulait devenir stratège de Longobardie et, pendant une quinzaine d’années, la présence impériale a été mise en question. De toutes façons, l’administration locale restait aux mains de gastalds. En 969/70, le thème devint catépanat d’Italie (la Calabre constituant toujours un thème séparé). Les gastalds furent remplacés par des tourmarques; l’Empire envoya des officiers des tagmata, des troupes des thèmes centraux et des mercenaires. Il créa de nouvelles villes dans les régions à mettre en valeur (Basilicate). Enfin, dans les annes 1010-1020 le catépan Basile Boiôannès fonda au nord-ouest du catépanat la série des villes de Capitanate, qui établissaient une frontière fortifiée entre l’Italie byzantine et la principauté de Bénévent; la Capitanate restait toutefois marginale: elle n’abritait pas de dignitaires et n’était pas soumise à la fiscalité normale.
Dans la région centrale (autour de Bari) au contraire, le système fiscal byzantin a été mis en place avant la fin du Xe siècle. L’Empire distribuait des dignités, puis des fonctions à des notables locaux, cherchant ainsi à encadrer la population. La monnaie impériale (surtout le nomisma et le follis), qui permettaot de payer les soldes et les rogai, circulait bien. Les autorités multiplièrent les villes, la population rurale tendant à se regrouper en villages.
Bien que la strateia soit attestée, la défense du catépanat ne dépendait guère des troupes locales, essentiellement composées de conterati. Les révoltes locales ne traduisent pas un particularisme lombard. Ce sont finalement les mercenaires normands qui ont conquis le pays de l’intérieur: la conquête normande, qui dura plusieurs décennies, aboutit à la prise de Bari en 1071.

Magdalena Skoblar
The Iconography of the Virgin in the Early Medieval Adriatic (c.751-1095)
This paper presents a portion of my research into the cult of the Virgin in early medieval Adriatic which was funded by the British Academy’s Adriatic Connections programme and hosted at the British School at Athens and the British School at Rome. The project has been focusing on the time prior to the total Venetian domination over the Adriatic, the Comnene Dynasty in Byzantium, and the Crusades, and the reason for it lies in the fact that up until the late eleventh century, Adriatic connections were more heterogeneous and, at times, even unstable, producing a culture rich in diversity and idiosyncratic artistic achievements.
These can be observed in the depictions of the Virgin on both sides of the Adriatic. The material presented here will consist of eleventh-century relief carvings which will be examined with regard to the Roman and Carolingian/Ottonian sources on the one hand, and those from Byzantium on the other. The paper will also present the examples of the iconographic types which are consistent with Byzantine icons. One such type is the Virgin orans such as the Madonna Greca from Ravenna and two less known carving from Biskupija in Dalmatia. Another example is the Virgin Hodegitria depicted on the icon from Santa Maria de Dionisio in Trani. This specific phenomenon which pre-dates the twelfth-century influx of Byzantine-style Marian icons, associated with the circulation of objects during the Crusades, will be examined with regard to the sites where these depictions occur and the likely channels of communication which may have brought them there.
 
DAY 2 (15 January 2015)
Keynote Lecture by Richard Hodges
The Adriatic Sea AD 500-1100: Corrupted or Unified and ‘Global’?
This lecture begins with a post-Braudelian overview focusing upon the Mediterranean in the light of the major studies by Horden and Purcell, Abulafia and Broodbank. With increasing awareness of Asia and the Indian Ocean in the early Middle Ages, these new studies invoke a reassessment of nationalist and Europhile approaches to the Adriatic Sea and especially the role of Venice. Drawing upon new evidence from the excavations around the northern Adriatic Sea, but using particular archaeological evidence from the southern Adriatic, the emphasis of the lecture will be on how we have been approaching the origins of Serenissima, and the indisputable chronologies that pinpoint the stages of economic decline and revival in this region.


Morning sessions
Sauro Gelichi
Venezia e l’Adriatico tra la tarda antichità e l’alto medioevo: evoluzione dell’insediamento nel quadro socio-economico
La vicende legate alla nascita e allo sviluppo di quel luogo straordinario che è Venezia sono da sempre all’attenzione dei ricercatori. Tuttavia, negli ultimi anni, una rinnovata attenzione alla documentazione archeologica, finalmente orientata verso la comprensione dei processi sociali ed economici, aiuta a riconsiderare la storia di questa laguna, e dell’arco nord adriatico più in generale, in una nuova prospettiva. Ci aiutano, nella ricomposizione di tale quadro, anche i risultati delle indagini archeologiche realizzate, nell’ultimo decennio, a Comacchio: l’emporio che può essere a ragione considerato il maggior competitore dei Venetici durante l’altro medioevo.
Questo intervento si divide in tre parti. Nella prima parte si cercherà di tracciare un profilo storico-insediativo della laguna veneziana tra la tarda antichità e l’alto medioevo (fino cioè al momento del trasferimento della sede ducale in Rivoalto, agli inizi del secolo IX), analizzando il carattere degli insediamenti, gli spostamenti demici, le funzioni dei luoghi in relazione allo sfruttamento delle risorse, le vocazioni economiche. Tali processi saranno analizzati anche alla luce delle tensioni politiche e delle caratteristiche sociali delle aristocrazie lagunari.
Nella seconda parte si delineerà il contemporaneo sviluppo degli insediamenti nella laguna di Comacchio (che si trova a sud di Venezia, nei pressi della foce del Po). Le recenti indagini archeologiche hanno infatti consentito, forse meglio che a Venezia, di poter definire l’estensione dell’insediamento e di caratterizzare i suoi connotati economici nel corso dei secoli VIII e IX (rapporti con l’entroterra e con i commerci adriatici, funzioni artigianali etc.), Gli scavi hanno poi permesso di seguire la parabola discendente di questo importante emporio tra IX e X secolo.
In una terza parte si cercherà di comprendere all’interno di quale sistema economico Comacchio e la nascente Venezia vanno a relazionarsi, passando attraverso i loro rapporti con il mondo longobardo, bizantino e poi franco.
Risultato finale sarà quello di dimostrare l’eccezionalità di queste esperienze insediative, la loro stretta dipendenza da processi di natura socio-economica (e, conseguentemente, da fattori di carattere politico e istituzionale), il loro ruolo nel quadro degli scambi dell’Adriatico e del Mediterraneo post-antichi.

Joanita Vroom
Thinking of Linking: Pottery Connections, Southern Italy, Butrint and Beyond
This paper aims to present a general overview of the distribution of Medieval pottery finds such as fine wares, amphorae and coarse wares in the southern Adriatic. The focus will be on excavated pottery finds from sites on the Albanian coast, for example, Butrint, Saranda and Durrës, and excavated pottery finds from sites across the Adriatic in southern Italy, especially those from the Salento region. Comparison between ceramics found on these opposite coastal regions with similar looking examples from other sites in the eastern Mediterranean sheds light on trade and distribution patterns in the southern Adriatic from ca. the seventh to fifteenth centuries AD.

Pagona Papadopoulou
From One Coast to Another and Beyond: Adriatic Connections through the Sigillographic Evidence
The paper will focus on the connections between the two shores of the Adriatic during the period of Byzantine rule, as well as on the connections between the broader Southern Adriatic area with the rest of the Byzantine world, as these are evidenced by the sigillographic evidence. Since lead seals were more often than not attached to documents of an administrative nature, they offer invaluable evidence about the administrative network of communications. The conclusions drawn from the study of lead seals will then be compared with two other kinds of evidence: the numismatic evidence, which has a double – administrative (fiscal) and economic– function, and the ceramic evidence, which is generally recognized as a solid indicator of trade connections.

Afternoon sessions
John Mitchell
Abul-Abbas & All That: Visual Dynamics between the Caliphate, Italy and the West in the Age of Charlemagne
In the visual sphere, the Arab caliphate emerged as a cultural force under the Umayyad dynasty towards the end of the seventh century. Over the following fifty years patterns of procedure were developed in architecture, sculpture and painting which not only laid the foundations but also started to form the superstructure of a tradition which was to reach enduring cadences later under the Abbasids and other regional dynasties. In all the arts, striking and characteristic new patterns were set and standards established taking Greco-Roman paradigms beyond anything being produced in the contemporary Mediterranean theatre, and resulting in new paradigmatic buildings such as the Dome of the Rock, the caliphal palace at Amman, the rural palace at Khirbat al-Mafjar, and the desert hamam at Qusayr Amra with its extraordinary scheme of wall-paintings.
In this same period the successor polities to Rome, in the west, the Franks in northern Gaul, the Anglo-Saxons in England and the Lombards in the Italian peninsular, were constructing visual apparatuses to vaunt and facilitate their own various ambitions and strategies to state formation. Modern critical opinion sees these newly forming kingdoms as looking to ancient and late antique Christian Rome and to Byzantium as well as to earlier indigenous traditions of their own for idea and example. Mediated, let alone direct, acquaintance with what was happening in the Islamic near east is hardly countenanced.
However, contacts between the western Mediterranean, even Anglo-Saxon England, and the caliphate in the critical early eighth century are clear from the historical record, either directly or by inference, Although evidence for such relations has been slow in coming to recognition in the archaeological record, there are a wide range of cultural indicators pointing to striking parallel developments in the visual culture of both regions. Beyond this, recent research has thrown up a series of exact analogues between art produced in the Arab fertile crescent and in the orbit of the Lombard courts of Italy. Further, some of the most emphatic developments in Italian pictorial invention in the eighth century, experiments which were to condition some of the signature characteristics of Carolingian art in the following century, seem to have had their origins in cultural preference and artistic practice at the caliphal courts of the period.
A range of these connections, large practices and general types, on the one hand, and precise reference and replication, on the other, will be identified and analysed in this paper. Although the Adriatic has yet to be shown to have played a precisely discernible roll in any particular case of cultural transmission from the south-eastern Mediterranean to the Italy in the period, there is little doubt that such contacts would have involved passage on sea-ways to ports on the eastern coast of the peninsular.

Valentino Pace
Icone e affreschi della Puglia nell’Adriatico e nel Mediterraneo bizantino
Le due sponde dell’Adriatico hanno una storia comune che risale ai tempi antichi e che mostra come il mare, ancor più che la terra, ha offerto possibilità di comunicazioni fra diversi e anche distanti territori. La “storia dell’arte” dei territori adriatici della penisola italiana offre diversi casi esemplari di questa connettività, che assai di frequente trova sull’uno e sull’altro versante dell’Adriatico una comune convergenza su esperienze promosse e diffuse da Costantinopoli o da altri centri dell’impero bizantino. Si è così verificato, in ambito adriatico e nel più vasto mondo mediterraneo, quel fenomeno del cosidetto Commonwealth figurativo bizantino, che impregna di sé in modo particolarmente evidente le esperienze della pittura monumentale (“affreschi”) e su tavola (“icone”). E’ un fenomeno che non va tuttavia omogeneizzato da un generico riferimento al concetto di “arte bizantina” perché i contesti di produzione, di committenza e di ricezione possono essere ben diversi. Per esempio, le numerose “immagini” della Madonna con il Bambino (come definite in Italia) possono essere ben state dipinte, almeno in parte, per diretta copia da prototipi di importazione d’oltremare e, anzi, hanno derivato di frequente il loro carisma dalla credenza che fossero arrivate miracolosamente dal mare (che tuttavia non doveva significare necessariamente Costantinopoli o la Grecia, bensì anche e soprattutto la Terrasanta). Tuttavia queste immagini si collocano in contesti di devozione ‘latina’ e ‘cattolica’ e i loro devoti difficlmente possono averne riconosciuto una radice ‘bizantina’ nel modo con cui oggi noi interpretiamo questo aggettivo. E’ d’altronde significativo che non una delle tante icone pugliesi provenga da uno stabilimento monastico ‘greco’, dove peraltro gli eventuali affreschi sono di frequente fortemente improntati ai modelli della ritualità dell’ortodossia, potendosi definirli espressioni di quella che è stata chiamata la “transperiferia bizantina”, che nei diversi territori trova proprie specificità.
Questo complessa rete di interrelazioni e di specifiche modalità espressive sarà oggetto del mio intervento, tramite una scelta esemplazione di casi particolari e confronti fra opere delle due sponde.
 
DAY 3 (16 January 2015)
Keynote Lecture by Michael Angold
Venice between the Adriatic and the Aegean in the Twelfth Century
Venice in the twelfth century was nothing like as powerful as it was to become in the first half of the fifteenth. Yet the Ottomans were able to deal it a crippling blow in the war of 1463-1479, while, try as they might, Byzantine emperors had little lasting success against them in the twelfth century. The major difference was that the Venetians were already integral to the functioning of the Byzantine Empire, which was never the case with the Ottomans. They had a substantial stake in the local trade of the Byzantine Empire and provided essential naval assistance. Their role within the Byzantine Empire goes back to the tenth century. The chrysobull of 992 was largely a confirmation and clarification of existing privileges and practices. I would argue that this was also true of the chrysobull traditionally dated to 1082, which Alexius I Comnenus granted to the Venetians. In other words, I would contend that the Venetians established a permanent presence in the Byzantine provinces before rather than after 1082. This entailed setting up factories or counters around a Venetian church with control of weights and measures. The chrysobull of 1082 tolerated a large measure of de facto autonomy. Once the Norman threat started to recede in the last years of Alexius I Comnenus, this became less and less acceptable. His son and successor John II refused to ratify the chrysobull. The Venetian victory in a sustained naval campaign was decisive. John’s son Manuel I Comnenus equally sought to bring the Venetians to heel and adopted a bolder strategy. He challenged their control of the Adriatic and in 1171 interned Venetians resident in the Byzantine Empire and seized their property. This time the Venetian tactics, which had worked so well against John II, failed completely. The Venetians survived only because they had the Adriatic to fall back on. The Byzantine challenge forced them to strengthen their hold over the Adriatic. Venice derived its basic strengths from the resources – human and material – of the northern Adriatic, which allowed them among other things to equip formidable fleets. Even if 1104 – the traditional date for the foundation of the Arsenal by Doge Ordelafo Falier – turns out to be wrong, it was around this time that its organisation began to take shape. It allowed the Venetians not only to dominate the Adriatic, but also to further its interests in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. The creation of the Arsenal was just one indication of the development of a very effective system of government, which elicited the admiration of Eustathios of Thessaloniki. Its reach extended into the Byzantine Empire in the sense that it supervised the needs of the Venetian communities established there. The irony is that despite the friction this produced the Venetian patriciate understood that their interests were best served by effective Byzantine government, which guaranteed the security of the seas.But returning to the Byzantine Empire in the 1180s the Venetians found ineffectual government and piracy rife. It was the opening of a new chapter.


Morning sessions
Peter Frankopan
The Rise of the Adriatic in the Age of the Crusades
Venice’s pre-eminence in the Mediterranean had much to do with the Crusades. The establishment of western colonies in the Holy Land brought opportunities for those able and willing to provide military and logistical support, as well as opening up new channels for commercial and cultural exchange between the west and the east. This paper will look at how the Crusades opened the cultural and commercial perspectives of Venice and of the Adriatic. It will assess how the rhythm of Mediterranean trade changed as a result of the shift in focus of Europe towards the Levant, and will consider how the impact of increased levels of communication affected the Dalmatian coastline. It will show how the Adriatic became increasingly vibrant from the eleventh century as a result direct and indirect contact with the Crusader states, but also how and why the region became a key region where competition between Constantinople, Rome, Venice and Hungary played out.

Christopher Wright
Contexts of Sea Power and the Evolution of Venetian Crusading
For the Italian maritime cities, far more than for other societies in Western Europe, crusading in the eastern Mediterranean was entwined with more routine activities and concerns, reflecting their distinctive bridging role between the zones of crusade recruitment and of military action. Their commercial and later territorial connections in the East inextricably entangled every turn of the crusading movement there in a web of material interests on which it could have a profound impact, precluding for the maritime powers any isolation of the imperatives of crusading from more mundane considerations. The frequency with which the seafarers’ involvement in crusading took a subsidiary form, providing transport to travelling contingents or later fielding naval forces on behalf of others, embedded their activity in the geographical context of their landward connections, complementing the contextualisation imposed by their far-flung overseas links. In these respects, Venice was set apart even from its closest counterparts by its location and by the longevity and extent of its ties to the Byzantine world, as well as by the precocious establishment of its maritime empire and its durability as a major naval power. This paper will examine how these elements of Venice’s context impinged upon the city’s role in an evolving crusading movement.
In the early decades of crusading, in which the forces of the maritime powers autonomously complemented rather than being fused with the activities of other crusaders, Venetian engagement with the movement was set apart from that of its seafaring counterparts by the long-standing and extensive nature of its eastern interests, splayed out along the routes plied by fleets travelling to the Holy Land. This encouraged the mingling of crusading action with the assertion of Venetian prerogatives in the Adriatic and in the Byzantine sphere, a combination with a long and eventful history. The shift from land to sea routes for crusading linked the role of the maritime cities increasingly to transport and escort of the armies of others, and hence to their geographical position as nodes on transit routes. Consequently, the diversion to other routes of many of the crusaders from the natural catchment area for its services as a port undercut Venice’s prominence in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Its acquisition of an empire in the East through the principal exception to this pattern, the Fourth Crusade, would in time cement the city’s early and enduring engagement with the transformed crusading movement of the late Middle Ages, transferred increasingly to the defensive, to efforts to control maritime space and to the erstwhile Byzantine world. In this era, the particular distribution of Venice’s territorial and commercial interests modulated the relative strength of the disincentives operating in different areas of an increasingly Muslim-dominated environment to constrain its participation in crusading. Becoming preponderant as a port of departure, as a provider of naval power for hire and as the often reluctant mainstay of Christian cooperation at sea, Venetian crusade activity developed a symbiotic relationship with that of Hungary, counterpointing their persistent rivalry.


Afternoon session
Guillaume Saint-Guillain
Venice and the Southern Adriatic after the Fourth Crusade: Negotiating the Expansion
The conquest of Constantinople by the Frank and Venetian crusaders in 1204 marked the beginning of a new era for Venice, in the Aegean through her major position in the structure of the new Latin Empire of Romania, but also in the Adriatic, which had been already for a long time the main target of her expansionist policy. However, she was able to secure this new influence in the area only through a process of negotiations, embodied in a series of diplomatic documents. The Partitio Romanie, the act sharing the spoils of the Empire between the conquerors, drafted in Constantinople at the end of the summer 1204, attributed most of Byzantium’s former Adriatic possessions to the Venetians and shortly after that, through another document, the central administration of the Venetian commune secure their control for itself, rather than for its local representative in Constantinople. However, this direct Venetian domination on the South-East Adriatic remained for the most part on paper only. Venice had to establish official diplomatic contacts with the local powers, most of them newly established after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, to substantiate her claim to hegemony and a form of sovereignty in the area. Her rapports with the only two Venetian enclaves she managed to carve out there (Corfu and Dyrrachion) were also regulated by written documents, although of a different kind. The range of modalities through which this relations were established, and the typology, formal aspects and later textual history of the documents which established them will be examined in this paper. This strategy initially achieved only limited success, however the preservation of the texts of those documents later assumed a political and historiographical function which strengthened Venetian ambitions on the Adriatic.

Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan
Venise cosmopolite : le cœur battant de la Méditerranée chrétienne
Des travaux assez nombreux, de manière plus ou moins récente, se sont attachés à retracer l’histoire des flux migratoires qui, par vagues, en provenance de la Dalmatie, de l’Albanie ou de la Grèce, touchèrent Venise. Ces étrangers arrivaient d’un monde balkanique secoué par les guerres et la misère, d’un empire qui se dépeuplait dans une métropole qui réclamait des hommes pour ses armées, des bras pour ses galères. Les années 1430-1440 virent un premier grand flux migratoire se déclencher. La poussée turque de la décennie 1460 mit en mouvement d’autres groupes de population qui débarquèrent sur la côte adriatique, des Pouilles aux Marches, des Marches à Venise. Tous ces immigrés n’étaient pas misérables. L’apport des architectes de marine et des charpentiers d’origine grecque à la construction navale vénitienne fut, on le sait, par exemple considérable. Mais beaucoup des étrangers fournissaient aussi une main d’œuvre à bon marché et les équipages nécessaires à une flotte en croissance rapide.
C’est ce dossier qui sera en premier lieu repris dans cette communication. Bien des études à disposition sont en effet strictement monographiques, centrées sur l’analyse quelques années durant des Albanais ou des Grecs. Mon ambition est de montrer comment dans la Venise du XVe siècle certains quartiers accueillaient de manière privilégiée les étrangers venus de la mer, comme d’ailleurs les étrangers venus de la terre, et de faire resurgir, en conduisant une étude socio-anthropologique, un zonage urbain. Le terme de socio-anthropologique est choisi à dessein. L’impact de ces transferts migratoires ne fut pas en effet que démographique ou socio-économique. De façon ponctuelle là encore, certaines études ont pu observer la création de telle ou telle confrérie liée à ces groupes de population. Il s’agira de montrer comment ces dévotions, la montée en puissance du culte de certains saints et plus largement différentes grandes opérations de translations de reliques permettent aussi à la métropole vénitienne de s’affirmer comme le cœur battant de la Méditerranée chrétienne.