Vittoriano
The opening day takes us into the heart of centuries-old connections between Italy, the Mediterranean and Africa. From Ethiopian knowledge in early modern Rome to the complex diplomacy between Italian powers and Mamluk Egypt, the morning explores how goods, news and diplomacy linked seemingly distant shores. In the afternoon, attention turns to representations of Africa in medieval Europe and journeys from sub-Saharan Africa through the Sahara to Renaissance Europe, before examining North Africa in the eighteenth century and imperial rivalries in Egypt. Nineteenth-century scholarship on Christian Africa and the circulation of colonial knowledge in the twentieth century complete a day devoted to rediscovering the Mediterranean as a dynamic crossroads of ideas, people and histories.
