Abstract
The Angevin-ruled territories, closely connected to the papacy, constituted a major arena of East-West diplomatic, cultural, and artistic interaction between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. Charles of Anjou’s conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1266 reshaped the political balance of the Mediterranean, fostering ambitions to extend Angevin influence over the Holy Land, the Balkans, and Constantinople. At the same time, Mongol expansion created unprecedented opportunities for diplomatic exchange, long-distance travel, and projects of military alliance. Although East-West relations in the later Middle Ages have received increasing scholarly attention, a full understanding of their diplomatic, cultural, and artistic dimensions has remained limited by the traditional separation of historical, philological, and art-historical scholarship. The project The Angevin World, the Papacy and the East (1250-1450), funded by the European Union-NextGenerationEU, brought together historians, philologists, and art historians from the Universities of Naples L’Orientale, Bologna, Chieti-Pescara, and Rome La Sapienza to investigate the interconnected networks linking the Angevin world, the papal court, and the Near East. Integrating visual and textual sources in Oriental and Western languages, the project has explored the circulation of knowledge, diplomatic practices, artistic models, and representations across political and cultural boundaries. The four research units have examined complementary bodies of evidence, ranging from Persian, Arabic, and Georgian historiography to papal diplomatic sources, military treatises, illuminated manuscripts, maps, and artistic production across Southern Italy, the Balkans, the Holy Land, France, and the Crown of Aragon. By integrating these materials within a shared digital research environment including a database, a virtual exhibition, a blog, various podcasts, and an interactive edition (https://apeprin.unior.it), the project offers a new interdisciplinary framework for understanding the cultural and diplomatic networks that shaped the medieval Mediterranean. Results: The research team in Bologna, coordinated by Irene Bueno, has investigated the circulation of information and diplomatic relations between the papacy, the Angevins and the East, identifying the papal court between the 13th and the 15th centuries as a major hub for the transmission of texts and knowledge concerning the eastern Mediterranean and Asia. The team has examined crusading treatises, travel accounts, geo-ethnographic writings, and historical works, producing an online catalogue of medieval travel narratives and crusading treatises, alongside in-depth analyses of a selection of understudied texts. Particular attention was devoted to two main bodies of evidence: the treatises de recuperatione Terrae Sanctae, composed in the aftermath of the Mamluk conquest of Acre (1291), and the diplomatic and geo-ethnographic works produced by Dominican missionaries for western audiences in the Timurid period. The research findings were presented at numerous national and international conferences and seminars, including events organised by the PRIN unit of Naples (2024, 2025, 2026), as well as international venues such as CEU Madrid (2024), Uniwersytet Warszawski (2024), Université Paris 1 Sorbonne (2024), University of Notre Dame (2024), and Masaryk University, Brno (2026). In addition, the Bologna team has co-organised two scientific events: 1) a workshop on the late medieval history of the Black Sea region at the crossroads of different sources and approaches (Bologna, 2024), organised by Irene Bueno and Francesca Pucci Donati; and 2) an international workshop on diplomatic, artistic, and cultural interactions between the papal court and the East in the 14th and 15th centuries (Bologna, 2025), organised by Irene Bueno and Francesca Manzari. The main scientific outputs of the Bologna team include: • An open-access database of late medieval crusading works and travel accounts, jointly designed by all the project units, developed by Hibou, and implemented by the Bologna and Rome research teams. Available on the project website (https://apeprin.unior.it/database), the database provides a comprehensive inventory of edited travelogues and crusading treatises and related bibliographies, supporting both comparative research and in-depth textual analysis. • Two edited open-access volumes: 1) Un mare connesso. Fonti e temi intorno alla storia del mar Nero (XIII-XV secolo), edited by Irene Bueno and Francesca Pucci Donati (Rome 2026), collecting contributions from the 2024 Bologna workshop; 2) the special issue La corte dei papi e l’Oriente: informazioni, dibattiti, immagini, XIV-XV secolo, edited by Irene Bueno and Francesca Manzari, in Storicamente (22/2026), gathering papers from the 2025 Bologna workshop. These volumes include contributions by Irene Bueno on John of Sultanieh’s description of the Black Sea region and by Marco Conti on Robert of Naples’ crusading policy. • Journal articles and further contributions: Marco Conti’s article on Charles II of Anjou’s crusading advice has been published in RM Rivista (27/1, 2026). Other publications authored by the Bologna team members are forthcoming, including Irene Bueno’s study of John of Sultanieh’s account on the Armenians (Eurasian studies, accepted). The group has also engaged in disseminating its research to a broader audience, collaborating with the other priject units on a thematic blog and a podcast series featuring presentations of recently published books in related fields. Both initiatives are hosted on the project website.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Irene Bueno
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà
Coordinatore:
Istituto Universitario Orientale di NAPOLI(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 45.539,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
17/10/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
