Editorial. Medieval Mental Maps

JTMS 2018; aop Editorial Matthias M. Tischler Medieval Mental Maps https://doi.org/10.1515/jtms-2018-0018 In the fifth year of the existence of the Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies, it is time to draw a first interim result of how we participated in the trends of our multi-disciplinary research field, what aims we achieved and what targets we are still aiming at. In dialogue with our programmatic first Editorial published in Summer 2014,1 we have to ask again which of the current tendencies of international research in this wide field of scientific investigation are doing well, which of them are majoritarian or minoritarian, and which deserve to be strengthened. To sum up, in what direction will Transcultural Medieval Studies go in the future? Since 2014, we have published 34 papers ranging between 16 and 95 pages, including 14 with coloured illustrations, 79 reviews and 16 news announcements referring to research activities in form of workshops, congresses, networks and larger projects. Today, nearly all established philological and historical disciplines are participating in Transcultural Medieval Studies, from Historical Linguistics, Literary Studies and History to Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies of the various languages and cultures participating in our research field. Among the other historical disciplines, a strong position is held by Archaeology, Art History and Architecture, whereas the History of Sciences and Musicology are still more outsiders. The classical multi-disciplinary Translational Studies have become big players, and an upcoming pluri-disciplinary research perspective is going to be established with Maritime Studies. Nevertheless, this new trend of more comparative, global perspectives between the Euromediterranean, Islamic and Asian worlds is still in statu nascendi, since it forces us to depart from established tracks of mono-disciplinary research and scrutinise and confront our usual research results with those of other disciplines in collaborative discussion, reflection and writing. Indications of the still-lamentable rarity but promising 1 M ATTHIAS M. TISCHLER : “Academic challenges in a changing world”, in Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies 1 (2014) 1–8. Corresponding author: Matthias M. Tischler, ICREA/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain, E-mail: [email protected] 2 Matthias M. Tischler fruitfulness of this working method and perspective are both larger overviews we published on Translational Studies and Cartography in 2014 and 2018, respectively. The Journal has covered the whole range of classical subjects of Transcultural Medieval Studies: from forms of interaction between cultures and religions (mobility, travel and migration; “convivencia”, encounters, modes of behaviour and dis/entanglement) to processes, modes, forms and media of transfer and transformation of knowledge (perception and reception, brokerage, translation and dis/integration; religious books and laws, maps and historical writing), and from peaceful to conflictive strategies of encounter between Christians, Jews and Muslims (dialogue, polemics, conversion and crusades). The contributions range from topics between late Antiquity and the early modern period and thus contribute to the promised questioning of our Eurocentric concept of the ‘Middle Ages’ in an open time-frame without fixed limits that does not dissolve the profile of an autonomous epoch bridging the before and the after with its commonalities and alterities. In terms of the Journal’s geographical perspective, the Euromediterranean world is still the privileged zone of investigation with a certain focus on its border regions such as Southern Italy, the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus), the Near East with the Crusader States, Egypt and Persia, and the greater islands of Sicily, Crete and Cyprus, whereas the Northern European world (the British Isles, the Baltic and Scandinavia) and the far-distant world regions of Eastern Europe (Rus’), SubSaharan Africa, Central and East Asia and the Americas remain still underrepresented in our panorama. In addition, Byzantium must come more into play, as it possessed a key role between most of these so-called ‘medieval worlds’ and deserves a strengthened position in the future interplay of academic disciplines worldwide. The Journal has thus developed a mirror of the many medieval mental maps, and through this mental mapping, we have rediscovered the often-contradictory (and sometimes vexing) maps of our present world. This already-complex picture of our passed future should not prevent us from postulating the strengthening of some research topics, perspectives and publications: We still lack detailed comparative studies of scripts, text genres, manuscript- and book production, text transmission and reception, and libraries in the various cultures and religions that would help us understand the impact of these forms of expression on the formation of collective cultural and religious memories. How did the agents behind these processes palimpsest, transform or even manipulate previous cultures and religions through the selective use of their ‘own’ and ‘other’ cultural and religious pasts? In addition to the big players, such as prominent representatives of their cultures and religions, and beside the often-examined Medieval Mental Maps 3 role of travellers, merchants and pilgrims, the still-underrated role of the many anonymous members of religious communities and orders and especially of the laymen deserve more attention. In addition, the spatial dimension of their agency in frontier societies and locations (cities, harbours and monasteries) has to be taken into further consideration. This multi-layered perspective is not a modern scientific invention for engendering in-depth monographic studies but is already evidenced in many medieval works, whose provision in the form of new critical editions and translations the Journal strongly recommends. The concept of transculturality has many facets and consequences. In pursuing an interdisciplinary approach and fostering methodological reflections it will offer a) comparative and global studies which systematically meditate the interaction and entanglement of European, African, Asian and American languages, cultures and religions, b) comparative studies on cultural and religious phenomena between centres and peripheries of societies, and c) studies on the interaction of these phenomena in frontier societies. In doing so, we will rediscover the impact of geographical orientation on general historical developments of all participating cultures and religions in their various places and periods between East and West, North and South. This finally will contribute to a refinement of the topography of our transcultural ‘mental map’ of entangled social, religious and cultural communities. Our many thanks go to all active and reliable collaborators of the Editorial Board and the worldwide scientific community who contributed to the success of this Journal in the last quinquennium. It was a great pleasure to work with them because it opened the door to taking further steps across the rich meadows of transculturality in the coming years. In the name of the Editorial Board Barcelona, October 2018