The present study aims to provide a method for extending the scope of empirical landscape studies... more The present study aims to provide a method for extending the scope of empirical landscape studies into the more distant past and to use it to contribute to the discourse on land degradation in the Mediterranean area. In many areas of the world, the lack of spatially explicit sources, such as historical land cover maps and cadasters, is an obstacle to extending the study of landscape dynamics in the past. Information mined from travelers’ texts can be used to overcome it. Landscape descriptions retrieved from W.M. Leake’s narration of his travels in Peloponnese, Greece, in 1805 and 1806, were georeferenced and used to test for the occurrence of land degradation by comparing historical to current landscapes. A widespread transition of natural vegetation to agricultural areas was found mostly in low altitudes. Limited rewilding occurred on steeper slopes. About a third of the historical Greek fir forests were degraded to open stands. A total of 40% of the locations covered by deciduous...
Assessed as a series of narrative geographical constructs, isolarii reflect the diverse political... more Assessed as a series of narrative geographical constructs, isolarii reflect the diverse political and strategic agenda of the societies that produced and made use of them. Considering the geographical range covered by each isolario, their successive structure and contents, the article attempts to evaluate them as eclectic maritime cosmographies that sustained and supported the various workings of Western European overseas expansion from the early fifteenth century to the early seventeenth. the Greek Levant through the geographic and antiquarian quest for the Latin past of the islands in the Greek East. Cristoforo Buondelmonti, the Florentine priest and man of letters who lived most of his life in the Greek East, initiated the isolario tradition. Between 1415 and 1418, he composed the Descriptio insule Crete, an antiquarian geographical itinerary of Crete, dedicated to the Humanist Niccolò Niccoli, whose library Buondelmonti supplied with Greek manuscripts. Around 1420 he composed the Liber insularum Archipelagi, dedicated to Cardinal Giordano Orsini. The book contains descriptions and maps of some 79 islands and important coastal locations in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Constantinople stands as the political centre of this insular universe: a map and a long description are dedicated to it, together with the Genoese settlement in Pera, on the opposite side of the Golden Horn, described in the text as "the most beautiful city of the Genoese" (see fig. ). As an intellectual creation, Buondelmonti's isolario played a significant role in the reappropriation of the Levantine islands for Latin Christianity. We see this, for instance, in the case of the island of Syros, where the Frankish past is the only part of the island's history that Buondelmonti retained. The same approach is observed for the other islands too. In Crete he sought the descendants of the Roman families who settled there in the Augustan age, in Athens he described the Acciajuoli court, in Zakynthos he mentioned the tomb of his relative, Magdalene Buondelmonti, wife of Leonardo Tocco, and Countess Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos. 7 All this information aims
Nathalie Bouloux και Jean-Charles Duscène (éds), Territoires, régions, royaumes. Le développement d’une cartographie régionale et locale dans l’Occident latin et le monde arabe (Xe-XVe siècle), 2023
Annuaire de l'École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Section des sciences historiques et philol... more Annuaire de l'École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Section des sciences historiques et philologiques 153 (2022): 218-28. 1 Observations sur les routes qui conduisent du Danube à Constantinople à travers le Balkan ou mont Haemus, suivies de quelques réflexions sur la nécessité de l'intervention des puissances du midi de l'Europe dans les affaires de la Grèce, par le lieutenant-général comte de T.
The article serves as introduction to Special Section "Atlas1821.com: A Digital Atlas of the Gree... more The article serves as introduction to Special Section "Atlas1821.com: A Digital Atlas of the Greek War of Independence and the Creation of the Greek State, 1821-1852". After a brief overview of the potential of historical maps as visual memory registers, and a presentation of some analogous recent developments in the digital humanities, such as “spatial history”, “deep mapping” and “digital storytelling”, the article presents the aim of the project and the empirical methodology followed for the development of the Digital Atlas of the Greek War of Independence and the Creation of the Greek State, 1821–1852. The Atlas is based on the corpus of important maps produced during the period under examination, their exploitation as sources of information, and their reconstruction, achieved through the unveiling of the subsequent layers of the principal sources of information of each map, such as travellers’ accounts and scientific expeditions, topographic illustrations and reconnaissance itineraries, topographic or hydrographic surveys, statistics, etc. The atlas is further supplemented by additional information, a selection of first-hand testimonies on the Greek War of Independence, extracted from memoirs of combatants as well as illustrations related to the revolutionary events.
Penser les régions: Histoire breve d'une conception cosmographique
Thinking the Regions: a Short History of a Cosmographical Construct. The rise of regional notions... more Thinking the Regions: a Short History of a Cosmographical Construct. The rise of regional notions is related to the early modern recovery of Greek geography of the imperial era, the consolidation of the nation-states in Western Europe, the development of global communication networks, the advent of printing and the resulting diffusion and standardization of data. Within this context and in order to construct a novel and orderly image of the inhabited world, fifteenth and sixteenth century cosmographers renounced to the previous arrangement, based on naturally defined provinces, and resorted to people’s historical settlements in their natural environments. They devised and imposed regional ethno-cultural areas as key spatial units applicable on a global scale, bestowing new meaning to the ethno-cultural geographical perceptions of the roman imperial era, especially Ptolemy’s regional maps as well as chorographic descriptions by Strabo and Pomponius Mela. Although problematic, the reference to the regional ethno-cultural make-up of the Roman Empire prevailed since it allowed the rising national entities to be displayed in a coherent universal framework and reinforced the process of their historical legitimization.
This essay aims to survey certain key aspects of philhellenism underpinned by the recent and past... more This essay aims to survey certain key aspects of philhellenism underpinned by the recent and past bibliography on the issue. By exploring the definitions of the related terms, their origins and their various meanings, the paper underscores the notion of “revival” as a central working concept of philhellenic ideas and activities and explores its transformations, acceptances or rejections in Western Europe and in Greece during the period from 1770 to 1870.
A first reaction to the “island books” known as isolarii is likely to be one of amazement and per... more A first reaction to the “island books” known as isolarii is likely to be one of amazement and perplexity. The isolarii do not readily fit into the pattern of geographical literature we are used to: they seem to reflect an “underground” geographical culture, an unfamiliar kind of geography that flourished in the experimental and tolerant climate of the Renaissance but has now slipped out of our grasp. And the isolario did in fact die out without ever establishing its place in the official canon of geography, even though up to a certain time it was integrally linked with the early development of that science. That is why so much has been said and written about the origins of isolarii.1 Historians of cartography who have studied the various manifestations of the genre, especially those of the early period, have come up with many interpretations. Some, centering their analysis on the cartographic material of the isolarii, see them as early examples of regional island atlases.2 Others, c...
De Boer A., Processing old maps and drawings to create virtual historic landscapes, 49-57 Chias P... more De Boer A., Processing old maps and drawings to create virtual historic landscapes, 49-57 Chias P., T. Abad, The nautical charts of the Spanish Mediterranean coasts in the 18th and 19th centuries: digital methods to compare the cartographical techniques of the main European Navies, 58-74 Bročić P., I. Kordić, E. Sarajlić, Archives of nautical charts and publications, HHI museum in its formative stage, 75-87
637 The aim of this chapter is to highlight some apparently peripheral yet widespread scholarly u... more 637 The aim of this chapter is to highlight some apparently peripheral yet widespread scholarly uses of maps during the Renaissance—uses associated with map collecting, display, and study. The chapter examines the role of maps as visual memory aids in the light of the available evidence; it then traces the presence and arrangement of maps in Renaissance libraries and collections; and finally, it examines the symbolic functions and learned uses of maps within early modern humanistic culture.
Abstract. The aim of the study is the consolidation of a methodology suitable for organizing, uti... more Abstract. The aim of the study is the consolidation of a methodology suitable for organizing, utilizing and visualizing information regarding species distribution provided as text in historical sources. The work of the French Scientific Expedition in 1829 in Peloponnese, Greece, was used as a case study. We propose a system organized in three geographical levels: for information referring to a certain locality the form of a grid is appropriate, otherwise polygons depicting historical administrative areas or the whole region of Peloponnese should be preferred. There are three important caveats to avoid. First, species presence referring to an administrative area or region does not equal with presence in every locality and should not be transferred to the level of grid mapping, respectively reference of presence in the region should not be transferred to the administrative units’ level. Second, historical sources refer to species names that often are no longer valid; this kind of data...
Ο αναγεννησιακός χάρτης αποτελεί ταυτόχρονα εργαλείο γνώσης και αντικείμενο αισθητικής απόλαυσης.... more Ο αναγεννησιακός χάρτης αποτελεί ταυτόχρονα εργαλείο γνώσης και αντικείμενο αισθητικής απόλαυσης. Με τη διπλή τους γνωστική και αισθητική ιδιότητα, οι ζωγραφισμένοι χάρτες λειτουργούν ως οπτικά εργαλεία που καθιστούν δυνατή τη σύνδεση του αόρατου με το ορατό και, ταυτοχρόνως, ως καλλιτεχνήματα που επιτρέπουν τη μετατροπή του φυσικού δημιουργήματος σε ανθρώπινο επινόημα και κατασκεύασμα. Οι δύο αυτές λειτουργίες εμφανίζονται αλληλένδετες στα θεωρητικά κείμενα της εποχής. Οι φορητοί ζωγραφισμένοι χάρτες αποτελούν μέρος της παράδοσης των ζωγραφισμένων χαρτών. Συνδέονται με την παραγωγή αυτοτελών χαρτών σε περγαμηνή (πορτολάνοι και mappaemundi), κυρίως όμως με την παραγωγή τοιχογραφη μένων χαρτών, των οποίων μετατρέπουν τη δημόσια λειτουργία σε ιδιωτική. Οι ζωγραφισμένοι χάρτες έλκουν την καταγωγή τους από τη μικρογραφική τοπογραφική παράδοση. Στο πλαίσιο της παράδοσης αυτής, ο χάρτης καθίσταται σταδιακά ένα συμπληρωματικό εργαλείο ανάγνωσης και κατανόησης του κειμένου, έως ότου αυτονομ...
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