For the first Seminar in Medieval Studies, IEM is hosting the speech “Construyendo una historia visual del Atlántico en la Edad Media” by Kevin R. Wittmann.

Taking place on 19 January 2023 at 4pm, interested parties may participate either online, via Zoom, or in person at Almada Negreiros College, Room 315, 3rd Floor.

Summary:
The Atlantic Ocean represents one of the most transcendental spaces in human history. The gradual building of human knowledge, its character as an impassable frontier and its role as the scenario for reciprocal relationships between different cultures and societies have constituted fundamental factors in configuring the world throughout history. The Atlantic may have been widely studied in recent decades, according to different perspectives but in-depth analysis of its imaginary still remains pending.

In this lecture, I will talk the importance of the Atlantic in the medieval imaginary, and how this was built up over millennia, long before the definitive knowledge of the ocean at the end of the Middle Ages. For this purpose, we analyse cartographic, literary, artistic and historical sources in order to set out a transversal contribution to the Atlantic realities in the context of the late Middle Ages.

Biographical note on the speaker:
Graduating in the History of Art from the University of La Laguna, holding Master’s Degree in Medieval European Identity from the University of Lleida, he gained his doctoral degree from the University of La Laguna for the thesis “The oceanic imaginary. The South Atlantic islands in medieval world maps (9th-14th centuries)”.

His core lines of research are the history of cartography from a cultural history perspective and the paradigm shifts between the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance in accordance with late medieval health treatises. He has also worked on the recovery of medieval manuscripts in poor condition through multispectral imaging and presented research results in various national and international conferences and publications, both in Europe and the United States.