Networks, imaginaries and objects on the move: history crosses borders

The second day explores the tangible and symbolic networks linking Italy, Africa and the Mediterranean. Morning papers examine Italian military architectural knowledge in the Gulf of Guinea and the transcultural mobility of African objects during the Cold War. In the afternoon, the focus shifts to representations and cultural imaginaries, from Massawa before the Italian Empire to African imagery in northern Italian sixteenth-century cameos. The final session examines the movement of people and ideas, including the contested role of the askaris, perceptions of proximity between Sicily and North Africa, and artistic and diplomatic encounters such as that between Gentile Bellini and the Mamluk sultan.

9:30 Session Two – Circuits, Networks and Agents – Chair: Anna Maria Medici

John Aspinwall (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom / Universität Heidelberg), As If Africa Were So Far Away! Sicily, North Africa, and the Question of Home

Pietro Repishti (IMAF / Université Paris Cité), Bastions on the Atlantic: Italian Military Architectural Knowledge and Its Transmission to the Gulf of Guinea (1450–1750)

Simona Negruzzo (University of Pavia), Stefano Antonio Morcelli and the Scholarly Invention of Christian Africa (1816–1817)

Matteo Salvadore (American University of Sharjah), From Refugee to Papal Familiar: Abba Täsfa Ṣeyon and the Making and Unmaking of Ethiopian-European Relations

11:00 Coffee break

Senefer Mokhtari (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne / CNRA Algeria), Rome’s Legacy in Algeria: Perceptions of Pre-Islamic Remains before the Colonial Period (8th Century–1830) and the Instrumentalisation of Antiquities during Colonial Rule (1830–1962)

12:15 Discussion

13:00 Lunch break

14:30 Session Three – Imaginaries and Representations

Zsuzsanna Paal (Rómer Flóris Art and Historical Museum), African Objects on the Move during the Cold War: The Imre Patkó Collection in Győr (Hungary) as a Case Study in Transcultural Mobility and Postcolonial Musealisation

Valentina Villa (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) – Mattia Fumagalli Casati (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), Massawa before the Empire: Religious Networks and the Negotiation of Authority between Italy and the Horn of Africa (1850–1936)

Coffee break

16:15 Session Four (I) – Circulation of Objects, Ideas and People – Chair: Matteo Salvadore (American University of Sharjah)

Nicola Camilleri (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom / Heidelberg University), Violent Intermediaries between Colony and Metropole: The Role of Askaris in Italian Colonialism

Francesco Spina (Ostia Antica Archaeological Park), The “Turkish” Miscellany of Rome’s Biblioteca Vallicelliana: Mediterranean Trajectories of the Congregation of the Oratory between Rome and Africa

18:00 Discussion