The 8th and last session of the 2024 Medieval Studies Seminar will be held online via Zoom on dezember 11, 2024, at 4:00 p.m.
This session, which will feature a presentation by André Marques, is dedicated to the theme “Quando a paisagem é texto: que lugar para as fontes documentais no estudo da paisagem medieval?”
Landscape study has transformed into a markedly interdisciplinary field over the last few decades. A history of the landscape based mainly on written and cartographic sources and dominated by the methods of regressive analysis of historical geography was replaced by a new paradigm in which archaeology and paleosciences stand out. This resulted in constructing a complex material record that forces us to rethink the status of written sources and, above all, their operability within the framework of this new paradigm. Starting by reflecting on the relationship between the various disciplines and records involved in the study of landscape, this seminar will seek to address the multiple forms of documentary representation of space and the informative potential of different types of texts, to finally suggest concrete ways of working that allow the integration documentary sources in necessarily interdisciplinary investigations into the medieval landscape.
André Marques received his PhD in History from the University of Porto (2012) and joined the Instituto de Estudos Medievais at NOVA as a research fellow (2013-2022). Having swapped academia for a post at the Portuguese Embassy in Copenhagen, he continues researching as an independent scholar.
He is a historian of early medieval Iberia with a special focus on Portugal and a comparative interest in northern Europe. His research initially focused on land use and landscape representation, then on justice and settling disputes. More recent work includes topics such as maritime communities, parish formation, and the production and transmission of early medieval charters. He has completed a catalogue of pre-1100 charters in Portuguese archives, which will eventually be converted into an online searchable database and full-text edition.
