During the courses of Medieval History and Historical Geography, speaking of civitas, of medieval cities, the map of Constantinople, by Cristoforo Buondelmonti, was both a generic reference and the oldest for that city. Then, consulting...
moreDuring the courses of Medieval History and Historical Geography, speaking of civitas, of medieval cities, the map of Constantinople, by Cristoforo Buondelmonti, was both a generic reference and the oldest for that city.
Then, consulting some of his works, I realized that the Florentine Buondelmonti represented a figure of a cultured and erudite traveler, a character certainly more interesting than one might apparently believe.
From many perspectives, he was a true pioneer, if we think of his activity as a skilled finder of Greek manuscripts, his antiquarian interests in archeology, epigraphy, and the invention of a new and very successful literary genre such as the” isolario”, the book of the islands, which recovered the geographic knowledge of the medieval tradition re-proposing them through narrative schemes that already contained the humanistic matrices in the XV century, therefore tradition and innovation.
In addition to having brought manuscripts by Greek humanists, Buondelmonti managed to capture that codex containing the then-unknown Hieroglyphica of Orapollo. He demonstrated the intuition of a fine connoisseur in the selection, picking up a book that would certainly have aroused interest in the environments he frequented and from where he received funding, therefore also particularities, interest, and curiosity towards other cultures; in a historical moment in which the humanist presbyter could often run into "walking exclamation points" (OZ, 2017, pp. 36-37).
My research was then oriented towards the reconstruction of the figure of Cristoforo Buondelmonti, not always well defined due to the rarity of the direct sources concerning him, his multiple activities, and the relationships that linked him to his illustrious clients such as the Florentine Niccolò Niccoli and the Roman cardinal Giordano Orsini. Many scholars have written and debated this complex overview, helping me in the attempt to give written form to my readings and reflections.
I tried to proceed, in the first two chapters of the paper, to an analysis of the historical period in which Buondelmonti lived: the customs and laws in force, the context in which his city was depicted at that time, and the quality of life for the citizens. The dialectical dialogues, the language, and the emotional spirit that hovered at the time; I then tried to frame the geographical and geopolitical context at that moment, extending the range to the entire European continent, giving the role of supporting actor to the pars Orientalis.
Moreover, the historical reconstruction, besides the interpretation of the sources, presents some problematic aspects since it is always the result of a dialectic between "fact" and "interpretation" and this too can have repercussions on historical geography.
Professor Alan Baker argues, with a hint of healthy provocation that: "if historical geography is not simply a reconstruction in the mind of individuals, and if consequently there is not one but an infinity of interpretations, of which there are none one more "just" than another ... The double challenge that a historical geographer must face "- concludes the scholar with a touch of paradox -" is to take note of the problematic nature of both his sources and his theories, and persuade other scholars to accept the interpretation of the geography of the past that he prefers. ”(BAKER, 1995, p. 45). To study the processes of change that inevitably characterize the geographic space of the present, it will be current human geography to ask for help from historical geography, while historical geography, which studies geographic facts of the past, can advantageously make use of methods and tools of current human geography. : think about the themes of urban geography (the development of cities, their function, urban networks ...) or diffusion phenomena (technological innovations, epidemics ...).
In essence, therefore, historical geography must be considered very close to contemporary human geography (while reaffirming the reciprocal autonomy of the two disciplines), as they have the same goal, namely the study and interpretation of the processes that produce change.
Then there are various types of changes, those induced by technological transformations (the navigation techniques which, with each important innovation, have redesigned the map of the ports of the world's seas) and the very important changes relating to human groups and their mutual relationships, which affect political, economic, commercial and conflictual relations.
Lastly, we must not forget the changes triggered by the action of single individuals, which can produce changes destined to be exhausted in a short time but which, however, are sometimes able to impress a lasting influence on the territory (ROTA, 2004, p. 4).
I then tried, in the third chapter, to identify the environments that Buondelmonti may have frequented, the studies done, the social background, the family from which he came, the origin of his ancestors, the cult and religious observance and his biography, however, mentioned, given the scarcity of reliable data.
Finally, I tried to capture certain moments of the character, the clericus vagans, the man in a context that he will choose, fame and celebrated reputation, but not of himself, because of language, food, habits, and customs. Perhaps also to find a place that would guarantee him more serenity towards that black plague that in Europe would have killed a third of its population. In the solemn tribute that Giacomo Leopardi made, in 1827, to the very learned Greek philosopher Giorgio Gemisto Pletòne, reading the "discorso in proposito di una orazione greca " there is a brief description, praise, on the perception of which environment and to which type of nature, spirit and temperament he would have approached or imagined to approach. Through the pen of the Italian philologist and writer, we can read the following:
"Truly this Greek nation is an admirable thing, which for a space of around twenty-four centuries, without any interval, was in civilization and letters, most of the time, sovereign and unparalleled in the world, never surpassed: by conquering, it propagated the one and the others in Asia and Africa; conquered, he communicated them to the other peoples of Europe. And in thirteen centuries, he kept them for the most part in bloom, always almost uncorrupted; for the other eleven, he kept them alone in the barbarian world, and oblivious to all good doctrine. It was a new spectacle, in the time of the Crusades, for European nations: polite, literate people, inhabitants of noisy, large, splendid cities for temples, squares, magnificent palaces, for excellent works of art in every way; to rough people, without a hint of letters, inhabitants of towers, villas, mountains; almost savage and inhuman. To the last one, already close to taking over a barbarian game, and losing its name, and, so to speak, life, it seemed that in the manner of a flame, extinguishing itself, it cast a greater light: it produced very noble wits, worthy of much better times; and fall, fleeing from its ruin many of them to different parts, once again she was in Europe, and therefore in the world, a teacher of civilization and literature."
The Florentine will try to reshape and resize that context, with the humanist attitude and spirit that distinguished him. The cultural background he brought with him inherited from the rank of his family, in the influential Florence of the time, with its remarkable group of intellectuals that he in one way or another, some of them, certainly had been able to know and contact, for the codex it considered bringing back and reselling.
Thanks to the influential circle of Florentine friends, he will be given a box of work tools, which he, with skill, will use to develop, renew and relaunch, as a cartographer as he was; areas not recognized or to be rediscovered, and spaces to be re-appropriated.
And considering the difficult geopolitical balances, with his style, filing and accepting, often as a humanist, sometimes as a carpenter, the differences between Latin and Oriental, as well as trying to give a face and an identity to the implicit antagonist, the Sublime State Ottoman, which in itself contains the same common root as theirs, "with the destiny of a God, who inevitably - as Thomas Mann will write - follows the evolution of human destiny" (MANN, 1967, p. 126).
The codes that I went to consult, in chronological order, first see the Descriptio Insulae Creta, then the Liber Insularum Archipelagi, together with its description of the polis, πόλις, Byzantium and of the cryptic Mount Athos. Lastly, I left the Nomina Virorum Illustrum, third Codex, certainly attributed to Cristoforo Buondelmonti, where thanks to the research of the medieval philology scholar, Tania Bertozzi, I was able to add fundamental data, to understand a little more, both of the presbyter, how much the chessboard, the frame and the chess players of that area, in the period between the end of the XIV and the first half of the XV century.
