James I, Medieval Catalonia, and the Mediterranean perspective

• Autores: Brian A. Catlos
• Localización: Catalan Review: international journal of Catalan culture, ISSN 0213-5949, Vol. 37, 2023, págs. 105-113
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Medieval Catalonia, long studied from a regional, culturo-linguistic or national perspective, is in fact a Mediterranean territory par excellence. A multiethnic, multi-confessional, polyglossic environment, the Crown of Aragon, of which Catalonia was the epicenter, spread across from the Iberian Peninsula, to Africa, southern Italy, the Mediterranean islands, the Balkans, and Greece. It presents a textbook case of Horden and Purcell’s variegated and inter-connected Mediterranean geography. In terms of social, cultural, and ethnic relations one can see at work the three dynamics which undergirded the pre-Modern Mediterranean system: Mutual Intelligibility, which provided a medium for cross-cultural communication and integration; Convenience, which compelled majority and minority communities to establish stable, functioning relationships, and Dynamics of Scale, which facilitated economic, social, political and cultural relations across confessional divides. These dynamics can all be seen at work in the life of and career of James I, the Conqueror, the count-king who not only set the Crown’s course as a Mediterranean empire but epitomized both the Crown of Aragon and the Mediterranean world in which it was situated.