Byzantines and Muslims based on the Erchempert of the Montecassino’s Ystoriola (c. 887)
Felipe Augusto RIBEIRO
Original title: Gentes mediterrânicas: encontros étnicos entre lombardos, francos, bizantinos e muçulmanos a partir da Ystoriola de Erchemperto de Montecassino (c. 887)
Published in Intercultural Mediterranean
Keywords: Chronicle, Ethnography, Mediterranean, Montecassino.
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This work deals with interethnic encounters in the south of the Italian Peninsula in the 9th century, based on the chronicle entitled Ystoriola (or Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum), written around 887 by the monk Erchemperto of Montecassino. The investigation is driven by a problematization of this text: how did the chronicler portray the people – Lombards, Franks, Byzantines and Muslims – who travelled through the region? The objective is to highlight an example of the ethnography practiced by these monks, that is, the way in which such ethnic groups were portrayed. The article uses an analytical-descriptive and comparative methodology and, from a theoretical point of view, employs the categories of alterity/otherness and ethnicity. The result of the analysis is the proposition of Montecassino as a “pan-Mediterranean” monastery, an important axis – and, therefore, a privileged place for historical observation – of the polycentric circuit that crossed the Mediterranean and allowed the transit of all the people who inhabited its shores.
Perception of otherness in the Chronikè Diéghesis of Niketas Choniates (c.1155-1217)
Marica COSTIGLIOLO
Original title: Percezione dell’alterità nell’opera Chronikè Diéghesis di Niceta Coniata (c.1155-1217)
Published in Intercultural Mediterranean
Keywords: Byzantium, Mediterranean, Niketas Choniates, Otherness.
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The Mediterranean and Byzantium are crucial for understanding the cultural interactions between different peoples and different traditions. In this paper I will examine the work Chronikè Diéghesis by Niketas Choniates (c. 1155-1217) to highlight the profound cultural exchange in the Eastern Empire. These exchanges occurred in the most disparate ways, and with trade and military apparatus. Therefore, I will trace a theoretical paradigm for the analysis of otherness, throughout the works of contemporary philosophers, to highlight the salient characteristics of Chronikè Diéghesis in relation to the perception of cultural difference.
Waters of Otherness and Unity: the Mediterranean and the Western Currents of Non-Dualist Thought
Leandro BERTONCELLO
Original title: Águas de alteridade e de unidade: o Mediterrâneo e as correntes ocidentais do pensamento não dualista
Published in Intercultural Mediterranean
Keywords: Mediterranean, Non-dualism, Unity of Being, Western philosophy.
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This article analyzes the development of non-dualist thought in the Mediterranean, challenging the traditional view that restricts it to Eastern spiritualities. Based on the region’s dynamics of fragmentation and connectivity, it argues that the search for the unity of Being permeated various Western philosophical traditions, from Parmenides to Ramon Llull. The circulation of ideas in the Mediterranean fostered the formulation of concepts that reject the absolute separation between subject and object, spirit and matter, divine and human. Furthermore, the study examines how modern philosophical historiography marginalized or reinterpreted non-dualist currents in the West, emphasizing dualism as a dominant feature. The reassessment of this intellectual legacy allows for the recognition of the Mediterranean as a space of philosophical synthesis, where unity and multiplicity were reconciled within a distinct tradition. Thus, the article proposes a critical reevaluation that situates Western non-dualism within a broader framework of intellectual history.
