Special Issue

Face Up. Faces from the past.
The fight for freedom and democracy in Albania during the regime of Enver Hoxha

Edited by
Michele Rabà - Gaetano Sabatini

The essays collected in the present issue of RiMe bear exemplary witness to this particularly important and fruitful moment of cultural relations between Italy and Albania on the theme of shared historical memory: they are first and foremost the results of the research activity carried out as part of “Face Up. Faces from the past. The fight for freedom and democracy during the regime of Hoxha”, a project funded by the EU within the program “Europe for Citizens, Line 1 - European Remembrance (2019-2022)” which had as partners of CNR ISEM for the Italian side the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome and the Fondazione di Storia onlus of Vicenza , and for the Albanian side the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tirana and the Association "Zeri Qytetar - The Voice of the Citizen".

These essays have the aim of carrying out a careful reconstruction of the historical context in which to situate the experience of the internment camps of the communist regime in Albania, a political but also economic and social reconstruction, which also goes so far as to represent the historical phase of Albania's exit from dictatorship and its gradual return to democracy and to the natural geopolitical context of belonging.

(From "Cultural relationships between Albania and Italy and the Face Up project...")

“mar imenso solitário e antigo”:

os italianos nas rotas marítimas portuguesas

 “mare immenso solitario e antico”:

gli italiani lungo le rotte marittime portoghesi

 “mar imenso solitário e antigo”: the Italians in the Portuguese maritime routes

 

 A cura di / Edited by

Nunziatella Alessandrini - Ana Paula Avelar - Mariagrazia Russo - Gaetano Sabatini

This Special Issue is part of a line of research that has been carried out for years by its editors and is based on deepening the knowledge of the relationship between Italy and Portugal examined from various points of view.  In particular, it can be considered as a continuation and deepening of the work that three of the editors of this dossier (Alessandrini, Russo, Sabatini) have already started with the 2019 publication (CHAM Edition, Lisboa): ‘"Chi fa questo Camino è ben navigato. Culture e dinamiche nei porti di Italia e Portogallo, XV-XVI secolo', in which the strategic importance of Italian and Portuguese ports in the Mediterranean and Atlantic was highlighted, which were essential for the mobility of people and goods, and for the dissemination and exchange of news.
The contributions in this issue of RiMe can be seen as a highly effective exploration of the subject of travel descriptions in the 16th century and the sources from which they were made. The essays contained therein take into consideration various figures, certainly already well known to odeporical literature, due to the vast amount of studies dedicated to them, but of whom new aspects are presented to the reader here,  with a particular reference to a parallel reading of their works. (From the Introduction)

 

Governare l’ospedale. Modelli, regolamenti e pratiche tra XII e XVII secolo / Governing the Hospital. Models, rules and practices between 12th and 17th centuries

A cura di / Edited by Antoni Conejo da Pena - Mariangela Rapetti

The history of hospitals has always been marked by complex relations with institutions, and has gone through important moments of transformation, sometimes of rupture, but above all of reform. We are by no means dealing with a motionless and homogeneous entity, on the contrary: the hospital is an entity that varies, and for this reason it must be studied in a special way according to its geopolitical and, of course, chronological reality.
Over the last few decades, European hospital history studies have undergone new and important developments, the steps forward of which are marked by major works, wide-ranging research projects and international conferences. We can certainly mention the activities of the International Network for the History of Hospitals (INHH), which arose in 1999 and organises an international meeting every two years.
The present issue of RiMe. Magazine of the Institute of Mediterranean European History hosts some of the contributions among those presented at the 11th Abrils de l'Hospital symposium, which took place in Cagliari on 6 and 7 June 2022 in the conference room of the current Hostel Marina, the former Sant'Antonio abate hospital,
Scholars from different regions of Italy, Spain and Portugal, including a number of young PhD students and neo-PhDs, enriched the Abrils de l'Hospital panorama with original contributions, innovative research perspectives and new study projects

Per i Settecento anni del Regno di Sardegna.

Testimonianze artistiche e materiali e fonti

 For the Seven Hundred Years of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Artistic and material testimonies, and sources

A cura di / Edited by

 Miquel Fuertes Broseta, Lluís J. Guia Marín,

Maria Grazia R. Mele, Giovanni Serreli

This fourth and final issue concludes the publishing initiative dedicated to the seven hundred years since the concrete realisation of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica, which has involved dozens of scholars from different countries, who have analysed multiple aspects of this institution over several centuries. This issue contains fifteen essays dealing with archaeology, architecture, history, history of art and digital resources. It, like the three previous ones, not only offers a historiographical update on numerous topics, but also provides scholars with a large, up-to-date bibliographical resource.

Per i Settecento anni del Regno di Sardegna. Una nuova società: un lungo processo di integrazione

For the Seven Hundred Years of the Kingdom of Sardinia. A new society: a long integration process

A cura di / Edited by

Miquel Fuertes Broseta, Lluís J. Guia Marín, Maria Grazia R. Mele, Giovanni Serreli

The year 2023 marks the seven hundredth anniversary of the landing in Sardinia of the Infante Alfonso in command of the Aragonese troops. After a year of military campaign, on 19 June 1324 the Kingdom of 'Sardinia and Corsica' was definitively realised, later the Kingdom of Sardinia since the conquest of Corsica, repeatedly planned, was never realised.
In fact, while the occupation of Pisan territories in Sardinia began in 1323, the institutionalisation of the new Kingdom began in 1324.
From a strictly legal point of view, the bond with the Crown of Aragon had already existed since 1297, when Pope Boniface VIII enfeoffed the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae to King James II the Just.
In order to reflect on the historical, cultural, and social significance of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Scientific Committee wished to extend the analysis to the early 18th century when the Sardinian Kingdom was freed from the Crown of Aragon and the Hispanic Monarchy to be ceded to the House of Savoy.
The approximately fifty contributions are divided into four substantial fascicles. In this issue, 12 (June 2023) the first two are published. In December 2023, the other two.

RiMe 13/I n.s. (December 2023)

RiMe 13/I n.s. is a Miscellaneous Issue including five scientific articles, a "Research Instruments" text and a Book Review.

The first article develops a comparison between the Obra Pía de los Santos Lugares of Jerusalem – the economic and financial framework founded by the Catholic Monarchy- that was capable of financing the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land - and the proposal of public treasury to heal the finances of the Crown between the 16th and 17th centuries.

The  second article demonstrates how foreign merchants negotiated with the authorities in Venice, in particular the magistracy dedicated to mercantile affairs – the Cinque Savi alla Mercanzia. The  text reveals that instead of being transformed by Venetian legal systems, the immigrant merchants themselves succeeded in influencing judicial administration within the heart of Venice’s corporate government.

The third article focuses on transformations in the field of navigation during the 19th century, observed through the lens of a small port in Liguria, Savona. The use of a variety of primary sources (ship visits, crew rolls, travel reports) allows for the reconstruction of the gradual shift from traditional sail navigation to the new era of steam navigation.

The fourth article is focused on the cooperative relationships established between Italian fascists and Spanish Falangists during the Spanish Civil War in the city of Bahía Blanca (Buenos Aires province, Argentina). From a perspective aimed at elucidating the collaboration process among immigrant right-wing factions in Argentina, it is observed the jointly conducted activities.

The fifth article analyzes the thinking and international political action of Pasqual Maragall in the Mediterranean during his years as mayor of Barcelona (1982-1997). The text explains how his theories on the role of cities in international action were embodied in Mediterranean action of the Municipality of Barcelona and how his idea of Europe was also built from the Mediterranean.

The “Focus” Section of the Issue hosts a text dedicated to the website archiviconsolari.it, that is a study proposal, a working hypothesis, a guide to consult and understand the pre-unification Italian consular archives (1815-1860) through the publication of inventories. The brief methodological notes aim to illustrate the criteria and intents of the research.

The Issue ends with the Book Review of Manuel Alejandro Castellano García (2022). Gran Bretaña y la paz española de Utrecht. Valencia: Albatros Ediciones.

Per i Settecento anni del Regno di Sardegna. 

L’ordine politico-istituzionale tra continuità e innovazione

   For the Seven Hundred Years of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

The political-institutional order between continuity and innovation

A cura di / Edited by 

Miquel Fuertes Broseta, Lluís J. Guia Marín,

Maria Grazia R. Mele, Giovanni Serreli

 

The year 2023 marks the seven hundredth anniversary of the landing in Sardinia of the Infante Alfonso in command of the Aragonese troops. After a year of military campaign, on 19 June 1324 the Kingdom of 'Sardinia and Corsica' was definitively realised, later the Kingdom of Sardinia since the conquest of Corsica, repeatedly planned, was never realised.
In fact, while the occupation of Pisan territories in Sardinia began in 1323, the institutionalisation of the new Kingdom began in 1324.
From a strictly legal point of view, the bond with the Crown of Aragon had already existed since 1297, when Pope Boniface VIII enfeoffed the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae to King James II the Just.
In order to reflect on the historical, cultural, and social significance of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Scientific Committee wished to extend the analysis to the early 18th century when the Sardinian Kingdom was freed from the Crown of Aragon and the Hispanic Monarchy to be ceded to the House of Savoy.
The approximately fifty contributions are divided into four substantial fascicles. In this issue, 12 (June 2023) the first two are published. In December 2023, the other two.

Vol. 12/II n.s. (June 2023)

 

Per i Settecento anni del Regno di Sardegna. 

La costruzione del Regno tra negoziazione e guerra

 For the Seven Hundred Years of the Kingdom of Sardinia. 

The construction of the Kingdom between negotiation and war

 A cura di / Edited by

Miquel Fuertes Broseta, Lluís J. Guia Marín,

Maria Grazia R. Mele, Giovanni Serreli

 

The year 2023 marks the seven hundredth anniversary of the landing in Sardinia of the Infante Alfonso in command of the Aragonese troops. After a year of military campaign, on 19 June 1324 the Kingdom of 'Sardinia and Corsica' was definitively realised, later the Kingdom of Sardinia since the conquest of Corsica, repeatedly planned, was never realised.
In fact, while the occupation of Pisan territories in Sardinia began in 1323, the institutionalisation of the new Kingdom began in 1324.
From a strictly legal point of view, the bond with the Crown of Aragon had already existed since 1297, when Pope Boniface VIII enfeoffed the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae to King James II the Just.
In order to reflect on the historical, cultural, and social significance of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Scientific Committee wished to extend the analysis to the early 18th century when the Sardinian Kingdom was freed from the Crown of Aragon and the Hispanic Monarchy to be ceded to the House of Savoy.
The approximately fifty contributions are divided into four substantial fascicles. In this issue, 12 (June 2023) the first two are published. In December 2023, the other two.

 

Las mujeres de las monarquías europeas I. Espacios institucionales, prácticas de poder e identidades (ss. X-XVI). 

Women of European monarchies I. Institutional spaces, power practices and identities (10th-16th centuries)

Ángela Muñoz Fernández - Diana Pelaz Flores (coords.)

This special Issue is the result of the awareness of a comparative need, one of the main included in the objectives of the coordinated project “Las Mujeres de las Monarquías Ibéricas: paradigmas institucionales, agencias políticas y modelos culturales (siglos XIII-XV)”.

The analysis of women's political participation strategies in different historical periods has not only experienced a notable boost in recent years, but has also become one of the fully consolidated research  lines in the field of Women's History.

In the specific case of the Middle Ages, studies centred on reginality or the female royal office are going through a particularly fruitful period, both in terms of research on characters who are still little known and in terms of the diversification of thematic, methodological and analytical approaches.

 This Special Issue has been financed with funds from the project “Reinas e infantas de las monarquías ibéricas: espacios religiosos, modelos de representación y escrituras, ca. 1252-1504” (PGC2018-099205-B-C21,  integrated in the Coordinated Project "Las mujeres de las Monarquías Ibéricas: paradigmas institucionales, agencias políticas y modelos culturales",  Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigación y Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional.

 

(Vol. 11/I n.s. December 2022)

  El medievalismo en un mundo globalizado /  Medieval Studies in a Globalised World
 A cargo de / Edited by Vicent Royo Pérez - Jesús Brufal Sucarrat

This Special Issue proposes some interesting reflections on the role of medievalists in today's globalised world and the place of this field of study in the historical disciplines. Do these scholars have sufficient influence to demand a greater presence in curricula and public funding? Can they have access to solid sources of private funding? The authors of the articles also raise a number of questions about the social function of the medieval scholar in the new dynamics of the 21st century: is it necessary to generate medievalists in universities?, what will their role be in society as a whole?, how to teach Medieval History to young Europeans, many of whom have a different geographical and cultural background, and how can a medievalist contribute to the field of History in the 21st century?  Another axis of the Issue, which is also closely related to the previous ones, is the reflection on the lines of research of recent years that raise other questions: with the  nation-states under discussion in a globalising world, are the great traditional themes still valid? Should new ones be incorporated? Moreover, with the emergence of certain disciplines, is there a danger that technology will take precedence over reflection? The texts also seek to explore possible, future paths that lie ahead in an ever uncertain and changing future. (From the Introduction)

 Vol. 10/III n.s. (June 2022)

This issue of Varia contains five articles.

The first examines the question of the rootedness and the control of the urban space between the 13th and early 16th centuries, contributing new knowledge on the regio Nidi, thanks also to unpublished sources. It analyses the residential strategies developed by some noble families defined as antique at the end of the 15th century and the practices of the urban space control they even-tually activated.

The second paper aims to highlight the structural elements of the most widespread family models of Sicily in the Modern age: such as numerical extension of households, personal data of its components, type and aggregative interests. Factors that dispel the false myth of a Mediterranean archetype characterized by the patriarchal regime.

The third contribution analyses cultural pluralism in the port cities of Izmir, Valletta, Livorno, and Marseille (17th-18th century). It focuses on material identity markers in the travel accounts of the period, mainly written by French travellers. The aim is to chart how differences in the political environments affected the balance between marking and hybridising urban identities.

The fourth essay focuses on the early modern Eastern Adriatic urban space that was also a meeting point for an array of foreigners from all over Europe. Zadar, as the capital of Venetian province of Dalmatia, most thoroughly experienced this phenomenon. Among other diversities on its streets, language was surely one of the most noticeable presenting both city’s richness and a potential barrier for people.

The last text of this Issue focuses on the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando I who signed an alliance treaty with the Pasha of Aleppo, who had rebelled against Ottoman rule in 1605. Unfortunately for both of them, about twenty days after the treaty was signed, the Ottoman forces crushed the rebel pasha’s army, forcing him to flee Aleppo, thus thwarting Tuscan dreams of gaining advantages and privileges in Syria. The author of the contribution proposes to edit and examine a little-known document concerning a reconnaissance in Syria carried out by one of Ferdinando I’s military engineers named Giovanni Altoni in order to understand if and how it was possible to intervene in support of the anti-Ottoman revolts.

Trame cosmopolite. Minorità, migrazioni e città intorno al Mediterraneo.
Prospettive cosmopolite sulla città

Cosmopolitan weaves. Minorities, migrations and cities around the Mediterranean.
Cosmopolitan perspectives on the city

A cura di / Edited by
Raffaele Cattedra - Gianluca Gaias - Giuseppe Seche

In conjunction with the papers in RiMe 10/I n.s., in this second Special Issue dedicated to the theme 'Cosmopolitan perspectives on the city: Readings, gazes, practices', we find alternating geographical, historical and anthropological approaches on 'Border communities (Ventimiglia), on forms of 'overlap' and 'interaction' in public spaces (Cagliari), on 'migrant histories', on 'Tunis cosmopolitan and colonial city', on the 'Jewish community of Istanbul', on the 'plural and changing' identity of Odessa and finally a reflection on the 'cosmo-political' city. The themes of cosmopolitanism are discussed through questions of urbanity, public space, the effects of international mobility and political management, as well as the subjectivities of 'communities of communities' or minorities that 'fabricate', shape and animate cities. (From the Introduction)

Trame cosmopolite. Minorità, migrazioni e città intorno al Mediterraneo. Figure, attraversamenti, comunità

Cosmopolitan weaves. Minorities, migrations and cities around the Mediterranean. Figures, crossings, communities

 A cura di / Edited by

Raffaele Cattedra - Gianluca Gaias - Giuseppe Seche

Following the suggestion proposed by the philosopher Pascal Bruckner in his essay Le vertige de Babel (2000) on the capacities of societies to integrate and mobilise a "plurality of belongings", the project of RiMe Issues 10/I and 10/II n.s. was initiated.

The reading of cosmopolitanism proposed here, free from the uncritical praise of a harmonious society, without tensions or conflicts between groups, communities or minorities, should be seen as an investigation and questioning of the social and pragmatic capacities that societies have (or have had) to construct forms of coexistence and inclusion in the identity and cultural complexity of the Mediterranean context.

An interdisciplinary research project called “Cosmomed”, which involved some fifteen researchers, including geographers, historians, anthropologists and archivists, preceded the work presented here, and concluded with the international conference "Tracce di Cosmopolitismo intorno al Mediterraneo. Migrazioni, memorie e attualità” held in Cagliari in autumn 2019. (From the Introduction)

Il filo sottile dell’emergenza: controllo, restrizioni e consenso / The Fine Thread of Emergency: Control, Restrictions and Consent

a cura di / Edited by Idamaria Fusco - Gaetano Sabatini

In the Ancien Régime, wars, famines and epidemics of plague or other diseases that no one knew much about were usual, almost 'normal' phenomena that recurred with a certain frequency, and which the population 'waited for', being used to fighting them with fear but also with the knowledge that they were inevitable. However, although they were experienced as inevitable, such events imposed measures to counter them. And an emergency situation called into question the established order and its precarious balances, not only at a political and institutional level, of course. The economy was perhaps one of the areas of human life most affected by emergency events, as it is shown by the contributions in this Booklet, which encompasses a wide chronological span from Late Antiquity to the 21st century - from the economic and commercial effects of the Vandals' expansion in the western Mediterranean between the 5th and 6th centuries to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on world food supplies.  This has also meant questioning the effects of various epidemic waves - not only perhaps the best-known one, which was immortalised by Boccaccio in the mid-14th century, but also others that struck the Republic of Venice, the kingdoms of the Two Sicilies, Sardinia and the Balkans area between the 17th and 19th centuries

Il Notaio nella società dell'Europa mediterranea (secc. XIV-XIX) /  The Notary in the Mediterranean European Society (14th-19th centuries)  

A cura di / Edited by Gemma T. Colesanti - Daniel Piñol-Alabart - Eleni Sakellariou

The articles in this issue are a revised and updated version of the papers presented at the 6th Seminar of Doctoral Studies in History and Economics of Mediterranean Countries “Il notaio nella società dell'Europa mediterranea (secc. XIV-XIX)”, which took place in Naples in October 2019.

The time span covered by the essays - from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century - illustrates the diachronic functionality of the notarial institution, the ideal successor of the tabellio, which already played an important role in the Roman society as the person responsible for drafting private contracts that thus acquired fides publica thanks to the revival of Roman law and the legal renewal that took place in Bologna at the end of the eleventh century. An institution that had central importance in the construction of societies since the Middle Ages.

From a geographical point of view, the focus of the Booklet extends from the Iberian Peninsula to Transylvania, Croatia and Crete. The need for written evidence of transactions and human relations through the notarial act, and the professional form of the notary is the thread that gives coherence to the seventeen studies. The typological diversity and originality of the topics are akin to the temporal and geographical range of the volume. Several thematic cores are identified within this volume. The institutional evolution of this profession and of the archives for safekeeping, the preservation of notarial documents, and the changing relationship with the authorities of the state bodies in which they operated are examined in the cases of Catalonia, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples, and Transylvania. (From the Introduction)

Crossing Borders: The Social and Economic Impact of the Portuguese Maritime Empire in the Early Modern Age. 

Edited by Nunziatella Alessandrini and João Teles e Cunha

This Special Issue deals with the social and economic history of the Portuguese Maritime Empire, showcasing its many facets and the way it impacted at home, in the empire and abroad during this period, which covers broadly the Early Modern Age and the first globalisation. The editors of this dossier preferred to choose papers dealing with different periods of time and contrasting geographical spaces, highlighting crucial moments, distinct players, relevant commodities and market organisation in order to give distinctive perspectives of the character and evolution of the Portuguese Maritime Empire.

While the first section deals more with the structural side of the Portuguese Maritime Empire economy, the second part works over the people who made those routes possible, and their endeavour to adapt, thrive and survive in face of adversity. Finally, at least two essays deal with other European empires of the Early Modern Age, namely the Spanish and the British, evincing a greater connection between distinct imperial spaces. (From the Editors' Introduction)

Finally, the issue also hosts the review of a book dedicated to a master of medieval Mediterranean economic history: Paulino Iradiel

Portugal na escrita dos Italianos (sécs. XVI-XVIII)

 Portugal in the writings of Italians (16^th-18^th centuries) 

 Organizado por / Edited by

Nunziatella Alessandrini - Mariagrazia Russo - Gaetano Sabatini

This booklet is the second of its kind, after the first published in 2018 in the Journal Estudos Italianos em Portugal, by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Lisbon. It hosts the contributions of the 9th conference cycle that, since 2011, engages scholars from different cultural areas. Interdisciplinarity, interculturality and internationality are the pillars on which this network of relations is based. It increasingly unites scholars from different nations around specific thematic areas chosen from year to year and elaborated according to different perspectives and optics, but with a constant file rouge: the relations between Italy and Portugal.

The present booklet follows the same methodology: its pages encompass the Italian-Portuguese history from the 15th to the 19th century, highlighting cultural, historical, diplomatic, artistic, musical and literary aspects. The main theme of it is the 'pen', understood as writing, as a 'graphic' realisation of the contact between the two worlds. (From the Introduction)

The booklet also includes a Focus on the succession of the Maestre de campo Don Juan de Rivas, castellan of Cambrai (1596-1616)

Il credito. Fiducia, solidarietà, cittadinanza (secc. XIV-XIX). Introduzione
The credit. Trust, solidarity and citizenship (14^th-19^th centuries). Introduction
A cura di / Edited by Paola Avallone - Raffaella Salvemini

This special issue hosts the contributions of young scholarship holders and some teachers who, in 2017, discussed their research at the fourth seminar of doctoral studies “Storia ed economia nei paesi del Mediterraneo”. This scientific meeting was organised by the CNR Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo, in collaboration with various Italian and foreign institutions, and dedicated specifically to "Il credito. Fiducia, solidarietà, cittadinanza (secc. XIV-XIX)” ). At the heart of this scientific meeting were the new solidarity mechanisms which, between the central Middle Ages and the early Modern Age, aimed at reintegrating into the productive system of those who had been pushed into poverty. Mechanisms of solidarity which could also develop into complex economic systems and even into more advanced credit practices. The above-mentioned seminar was one of the events organised as part of the PRIN project of Italian national interest “Alle origini del welfare (XIII-XVI secolo). Radici medievali e moderne della cultura europea dell'assistenza e delle forme di protezione sociale e credito solidale”, which was aimed at researching the origins of modern welfare in the past, starting from the Middle Ages. (From the Introduction).

The booklet also includes a review by Maria Cristina Rossi of a book dedicated to the medieval frescoes of Campania.

I generi coloniali americani nel Mediterraneo: i grandi porti come centri di destinazione, di consumo e di redistribuzione (XVII-XIX secolo)
American colonial goods in the Mediterranean: major ports as centres of destination, consumption and redistribution (17th-19th centuries)
A cura di / Edited by Paolo Calcagno

This Special Issue reflects on the role of the Mediterranean in the new world economy between the 17th and 19th centuries, in line with certain interpretations that consider trade in luxury goods as one of the driving forces behind the process of economic growth in the modern age, and with an interpretation that identifies maritime spaces as the scenario in which world interconnections developed. A historiography that has settled over time, and too often passed on without the right critical sensitivity, has adopted the thesis of the "marginalisation" of the Mediterranean and its fleets along the oceanic routes created as a result of voyages of exploration and the construction of colonial empires outside Europe. In fact, the societies of the Inland Sea participated in the incipient globalisation of the modern age through the reception - among others - of Atlantic goods that modified their dietary habits and sociality. Progressively, over the centuries under examination, there was a boom in the consumption of American colonial goods (sugar, tobacco, cocoa, coffee, etc.), which arrived in the major ports and from there were distributed on the urban market or re-exported thanks to branched mercantile networks within variable geographical radii.

The Booklet opens with an essay on the various elements that lead scholars to hypothesise that the Piscu Nuraghe area in Sardinia was also used in the Middle Ages, since the finds from that site cover a chronological span from the 16th century BC to the 7th century AD.  The second essay, on the other hand, is entirely devoted to the early Middle Ages and in particular to Byzantine artistic influences in the Visigothic Iberian Peninsula that were not directly linked to the imperial presence but to other artistic and historical-cultural dynamics.
The third text presents a methodological approach to the study of the increasingly efficient commercial and banking firms in late medieval Europe, based on the structural analysis of two major Mediterranean firms that operated from Zaragoza and Barcelona in the first half of the fifteenth century.
The fourth paper explain the history of privateering in the Marquisate of Finale (Liguria, Italy) during the Habsburg’s Age, with a particular reference to the 17th and 18th centuries: its origins, its expansion and all the problems on legal and diplomatic levels.  The fifth contribution analyses various aspects of the phenomenon of piracy and privateering, with emphasis on the Kingdom of Naples during the Austrian presence (1707-1734) due to the incessant incursions from Turkish-Barbary and French-Sicilian piracy.  The sixth article focuses on the new needs of society that brought important changes in the use forms of leisure and the territory, also in the case of some religious sites that could be even in Sardinia new levers for the socio-economic development of inland and marginal areas.
The booklet also contains two book reviews and a review of a Webinar dedicated to the Cultural Heritage of Egypt and Italy, which took place online in December 2020.

Memorias históricas, memorias incómodas. 
Historical memories, inconvenient memories. 
A cargo de  / Edited by Maria Betlem Castellà i Pujols

The six articles presented in this Special Issue, entitled "Historical memories, inconvenient memories", delve, from very different disciplines, methodologies and perspectives, into the relegated and conflictive memories, in the clashes of memory and identities that occur and in the positions that arise, whether in the streets, in public spaces, in the press, in academia, in universities, in social networks, in institutions and/or in governments.

Josefina Irurzun brings to the surface the faint memory of the associative beginnings of the Catalans in Buenos Aires; Martí Grau brings to the surface the difficult memory of the European Union. Gustau Nerín suggests recovering the neglected memory of Spanish colonialism in Guinea. Luciano Gallinari examines the journalistic discourses generated by the assaults on the statues of Christopher Columbus and the Confederates in America, while Martí Grau i Segú presents the methodological proposals of the House of European History and the Jean Monnet House to reflect on the memory of the European Union, and Jordi Guixé and Núria Ricart analyse the assaults on the statue of Antonio López y López, who made his fortune from colonial trade and the slave trade. Finally, Mahdis Azarmandi highlights how post-colonial and racialised migrants question the historical memory of the city of Barcelona. (From the Introduction by Maria Betlem Castellà i Pujols.

Culturas Mediterráneas y usos políticos de las representaciones nacionales en el siglo XX
Mediterranean cultures and political usages of national representations in the 20th century
Marició Janué i Miret y Marcela Lucci (Editoras)

 This booklet reflects on the political uses of national representations in the twentieth century, taking the Mediterranean as its location because it is a cultural threshold, a space where two ideas combine simultaneously: that of connection and that of the frontier. Moreover, the proverbial pluriculturalism and mobility of the Mediterranean basin is an ideal geopolitical space in which to investigate the construction and reproduction of national identities. The particular interaction of cultures that have historically taken place in this area facilitates an approach to the transnational aspect of the construction of nations representations that goes beyond some excessively Eurocentric frameworks. The editors of this issue are convinced that the study of the political representations of nations requires an interdisciplinary approach that integrates different perspectives from the human and social sciences: political history, nationalism, imperialism and colonialism; the history of culture, cultural studies, social psychology and imagology in the history of art; international history and cultural diplomacy; transnational and global history; political science and sociology; and the study of migration and exile.

 

Pellegrini e crociati tra Europa del Nord e Mediterraneo (secoli XI-XIII). Seminario di studi (Roma, 13 giugno 2019) / Pilgrims and crusaders between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean
(11th-13th centuries). Study seminar (Rome, 13th June 2019).
A cura di / Edited by Francesco D'Angelo

This monographic booklet, edited by Francesco D'Angelo, hosts the papers presented at the homonymous seminar that took place on 13th June 2019 at the Sapienza - Università di Roma. The workshop, organised by the Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea of CNR in collaboration with the Department of History, Anthropology, Religions Art and Show of Sapienza - Università di Roma, was an opportunity for discussion and dialogue on the Mediterranean as a place of passage, exchange, encounter and clash between different peoples and cultures. In particular, the booklet wants to emphasize a theme that is often considered marginal: the presence and role of the Nordic peoples in the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 13th centuries.

In recent years, in fact, historiography has progressively re-evaluated their contribution, perhaps definitively dispelling the idea of their extraneousness to Mediterranean culture. In line with these new orientations, the booklet has therefore set itself the objective of bringing to light the dense web of networks, relations, communications and mutual influences intertwined between the Nordic and Mediterranean worlds in the Middle Ages.

The booklet contains three other contributions: an interesting and detailed historiographic review on the world of the Crown of Aragon and Sardinia, and two book reviews: one of a recent publication dedicated to the archival history of relations between the Crown of Aragon and the "Italian" Mediterranean, and another on the private documents of the aragonese king Peter IV the Ceremonious.

RiMe 5/II n.s. is a miscellaneous Booklet composed of 6 articles and 3 book reviews. The first three articles deal with Medieval and Modern History, while the other three deal with closely interconnected themes of Contemporary History.

The first essay is a first historical and archaeological reading and opens new theories and research perspectives on the ruins of Cuccuru Casteddu in Sardinia, perhaps in relation to a Byzantine castle.
The second article is dedicated to the symbols of power and the use of images to achieve political aims, focusing in particular on Mariano IV judge of Arborea, Peter IV king of Aragon and Robert of Anjou, king of Naples, in the mid-14th century.
The third article is a chronological itinerary of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, from his youth in Spain in the service of the Crown to the wars of Naples that gave him the title of Gran Capitán and his subsequent political apogee as first viceroy of Naples.
The fourth text deals with the important issue of mobility after the 1970s, when immigration became a topic of growing interest even in the countries of southern Europe that became the final destination of migration.
At the centre of the fifth essay is the analysis of the macro-regional strategies of the European Union and the potential of a new Mediterranean macro-region to rethink and reform the European Union.
The sixth and last article rethinks the Mediterranean space by analysing the main works of Mohammed Arkoun (d. 2010), one of the most important contemporary Arab scholars. This operation allows to understand the centrality of the Mediterranean area between Islam and the West and the possibilities of its rebirth from the common geo-historical and geo-cultural horizon.

The booklet is closed by three book reviews dedicated 1) to the theme of health in Valencia in the 15th century; 2) to the models of settlement, filiation, promotion and devotion of the orders of the Poor Clares and Dominicans in the Iberian Peninsula, Sardinia, Naples and Sicily in the Middle Ages and, finally, 3) to the public authorities in the Crown of Aragon between the 14th and 16th centuries.

Religious culture and education in 20th and 21st century Europe
Maria Giuseppina Meloni and Anna Maria Oliva (eds.)

A workshop on the topic “The presence and the quality of the religious history in the school texts for the high school and in the most important texts of general history edited in the last three decades " took place in Rome, on January 10^th and 11^th, 2019 organized by  the CNR - Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea. The workshop was part of the activities carried out within the European project ReIReS - Research Infrastructures on Religious Studies (Horizon 2020 INFRAIA).
The workshop aimed to analyze the state-of-the-art of the relations between the development of historical religious studies and the educational programs in Europe, focusing on the role that school and school textbooks have in the knowledge of religious history. The scholars discussed how far the progress in understanding of religious history, which comes from the possibilities granted by ReIReS, could have an impact in reframing the education programs and enriching education as a process of knowledge transferred from academia to a larger audience.
The papers, held by scholars and policy makers, covered various topics related to religious history and how it is dealt with by teaching and historical communication in the different European Union countries. All this was analysed not only with regard to textbooks, but also in relation to museums, websites, ongoing debates and the relationship between religious and political history.