Mapping the Aegean: Cristoforo Buondelmonti's Liber insularum (15th century) and the Origins of Classical Archaeology.

Objective

This project is aimed at the study of the Liber Insularum (1420) by the Florentine traveler Cristoforo Buondelmonti, the first guide to the Greek islands, each of them described by a textual paragraph and illustrated by color maps, in a format which gave rise to the new literary genre of Isolaria. In addition to offering precious information on the specific islands, this book has great relevance for the cultural history of Europe as the travels of Buondelmonti opened the path to the exploration of Greece and its antiquities and set the preliminary step to the birth and development of modern archaeology. Given the impact this work had on the Humanistic circles, it represents a milestone in the preservation and rediscovery of the Classical tradition . Despite its importance and several editions of its manuscript tradition, no extensive analysis of the Liber has ever been carried out and the scope of the project is to fill up this gap by providing an in depth and interdisciplinary study which integrates both traditional scholarship and digital technology. Building on top of previous work carried out both through research in the libraries and through field surveys of many Greek islands, I intend to publish a monograph destined to the traditional readership in Humanistic disciplines. However, the most innovative component of the action is represented by the creation of an interdisciplinary open data digital commentary digital commentary of the descriptions and the maps which, overcoming the limits imposed by traditional publications on paper, can be expanded in size and time to incorporate all the multidisciplinary references present in this text and in its iconographic apparatus. The possibility to publish a monograph collecting the result of my previous research as well as the implementation of the digital project will boost my research career by adding a monograph to my publication records as well as new knowledge in Digital Humanities to my skills.

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s)

• MSCA-IF-2019 - Individual Fellowships

Call for proposal

H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
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Funding Scheme

Coordinator

Partners (1)