5.31 TS – Cultural Exchanges at the Time of the Palaiologoi: Beyond the Borders of Byzantium

Due to the political, cultural, and familial connections of the Palaiologoi (r. 1261-1453), the 13th-15th centuries offer perfect case studies through which to investigate the impact and legacy of Byzantium beyond its traditional geographical and chronological borders. In this Thematic Session, cross-cultural pollination between Byzantium, Renaissance Northern Italy, Serbia, and the Ottomans will be contextualised through visual culture, literary production, the evolution of political thought, and interpersonal connections. By challenging approaches based on the narrative of national and disciplinary boundaries, speakers will clarify our understanding of complex historical phenomena surrounding the transmission of ideas within the broad borders of medieval Eurasia. Papers will deal with the spread of visual and literary models and the mobility of intellectuals, artisans and elites. Examples include the development of castles and fortresses from the mid-fourteenth century, the political and cultural significance of the presence of foreign elites in Constantinople, examinations of the political role of pan-Mediterranean figures such as Theodore Palaiologos of Montferrat, the social networks of Serbian families and related artistic production, the interpretation of the Roman past in Late Byzantium and, in turn, the reception of the Byzantine past in the Ottoman period. By exploring architecture, paintings, literary and textual evidence from Late Byzantium, Northern Italy, medieval Serbia and the early Ottoman world from a broad interdisciplinary perspective, the speakers will demonstrate how networks of people and ideas easily transgressed the boundaries that the modern interpretation of Byzantine, Ottoman, and Renaissance Studies have imposed.