Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module, students will be able to:
– comprehend the scope of geographical and ethnographical knowledge during classical Antiquity, the middle ages, and the Renaissance;
– use a plurality of perspectives (including considerations of cartography, foreignisation, gender, historiography, political and religious bias) when approaching primary sources;
– assess critically the role of travel and exploration in (re-)interpretations of the Classical past from Antiquity through to the Renaissance;
– conduct individual research on selected topics for presentation orally in class and in writing;
– analyse, synthesise and present information and ideas clearly both orally and in writing, demonstrating a capacity for independent thought.
Indicative Module Content:
1. Minoans and Phoenicians.
2. Mythical imaginary worlds.
3. Ctesias and Herodotus in deep Asia Minor, reports of India.
4. Alexander the Great's travels in Persia to India and movement of peoples.
5. Romans in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
6. Roman trade with India, expeditions to Sub-Saharan Africa.
7. Marco Polo goes to China and is employed by Kublai Khan for c.24 years, returns; his Travels co-written with romance-writer Rustichello da Pisa with whom imprisoned in Genua, influenced by medieval romance.
8. Ibn Battuta goes (inter alia) to China and India, employed by kings (Ibn Battuta, Rihla), like other christian/islamic writers, influenced by ancient conceptualising of geography (e.g. Alexander romance).
9. Niccolò de’ Conti's account written down by Poggio Bracciolini (De varietate fortunae IV), and various other merchants' and missionaries' accounts (e.g. Varthema, Nikitin, Giovanni da Empoli, Pedro Nunes, Tomé Pires, Fra Mauro).
10. Amerigo Vespucci (Vespucci's Letters, Mundus Novus (1503); More Utopia).