This lecture considers the ways in which historians have researched the Byzantine refugees from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and from the Morea in 1460. It will first consider the ‘Intellectual approach’ of western European scholars who understood the significance of the refugees in terms of their contribution to the development of Greek studies at the time of the Renaissance. It will then discuss the ‘Nationalist Approach’ which saw them as playing a role in the formation of modern nation states. It will consider the critics of both these approaches. The focus will then turn to developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries when scholars took an archival approach to the diaspora. This avenue has led to some significant and surprising insights, for example offering an explanation as to why some of the refugees found their way to areas far from Italy and the cities of the Renaissance.
Period
13 Dec 2024
Held at
Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, Croatia