Seminar in Medieval Studies:”¿En busca del Preste Juan? Tradiciones, expectativas y experiencias en la exploración occidental del Atlántico y el África occidental (s. XIV- princ. s. XVI)” | Professor Víctor Muñoz Gómez

On the 22nd of June, at 4:00 pm, will take place the Seminar in Medieval Studies :”¿En busca del Preste Juan? Tradiciones, expectativas y experiencias en la exploración occidental del Atlántico y el África occidental (s. XIV- princ. s. XVI)”, by Professor Víctor Muñoz Gómez (Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. University of La Laguna), via Zoom.

It is well known that, since the mid-14th century, Portuguese and Castilian expectations of expansion into known spaces and populations (but also into others only “imagined” based on the ancient and medieval literate Greco-Roman tradition) in North Africa, and beyond of the Pillars of Hercules, envisioned a feasible possibility. Likewise, these were quickly linked with arguments for expanding Christianity and recovering holy places integrated into crusade discourse.

Precisely, it is of particular interest to verify whether the information and stories that referred to the dynamics of exploration, contact, conquest, and colonization by Europeans in the South Atlantic and West African islands followed terms, traditions, or logic proper to the idea of ​​”crusade”. In this communication, we ask ourselves about the discursive treatment of such aspects in different texts and cartographic documents produced between the mid-14th century and the beginning of the 16th century.

In this sense, we will be able to observe how the access to the conquest of Jerusalem, through Africa and the contact with potential Christian allies inside the African continent against the Muslims, personified in the figure of Prester John, had a special relevance in the Iberian imaginaries and, in general, of the medieval West. Ultimately, we can pose several questions about the role of such principles and discourses related to the defense and expansion of Christianity in the context of the exploration of the Iberian Atlantic. Would they have been internalized by the subjects involved in these processes or in their management, against other interests? How did they transform, change their consideration, or disappear over time among Westerners due to experiences of contact with new geographic and sociocultural realities on the Atlantic islands, in Africa, and in the Indian Ocean?

Biographical note:
Víctor Muñoz Gómez (Valladolid, 1981) is an Assistant Professor and manager of the University Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies (IEMyR) at the University of La Laguna. He is mobility coordinator for Geography and History at the Faculty of Letters of his university, and editorial manager of the journal Cuadernos del Cemyr, edited by IEMyR. He is part of the Interinstitutional Program “The Atlantic World in Early Modernity” (National University of La Plata, Argentina) and the EuropAmérica Working Group of the National Academy of History (Argentina). He is a member of the Spanish Society of Medieval Studies and of the Institute of Medieval Studies. Canaries.

He received his doctorate from the University of Valladolid and carried out research at the centers of the Superior Council for Scientific Research in Madrid and Barcelona, ​​​​​​at the Laboratoire de Médiévistique Occidentale in Paris (France), at the National University of Mar del Plata (Argentina), in University of Freiburg (Switzerland) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

His lines of research include the study of feudal society, manorial powers, and aristocratic clientelism in late-medieval Castile, the history of the Atlantic frontier in the late Middle Ages, and the teaching of History in Secondary Education. He has participated in numerous scientific events and publications in Spain and in several countries in Europe and America (France, United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico), in addition to being the author of monographs, book chapters and articles in scientific journals of prestige.

Among his main works, we highlight how, in 2018, the CSIC published his book “El poder señorial de Fernando “el de Antequera” y los de su casa. Señorío, redes clientelares y sociedad feudal en Castilla durante la Baja Edad Media”. Also noteworthy, among the latest advances in his research, is the publication of the monographic dossiers “Ancient Contractualism and Pactualism in the Tradition of Iberian policy” (Cuadernos de Historia de España, 88, 2021) and “Writing of History, -procedimentos narrativos e lógicas sociais da Península Ibérica ao Novo Mundo Atlântico (séculos XIII-XVII)”  (Vegeta, 2/22, 2022). In addition, the last publication of the Diplomatic Collection of Villalón de Campos and its region (1474th century) with Pascual Martínez Sopena and a monographic study on the house and clientele in Castile of Juan de Aragón, King of Navarre.

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