Here and There. From Border to Centre in the Middle Ages, session at 27th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 6–9, 2020

Every region had its centre and its borders. This was true for Europe, the Empire, particular kingdoms, Christianity, the Muslim World. The borderlands were often a distinct region which had its own specifics and which was seen by the medieval authors as dangerous, or unknown.

This leads to the question of what was known about these distant (or not) lands. The session aims to show how border regions were seen and described by the medieval authors from this or that centre. The goal is to show what were common elements of such regions. Especially how the information from these lands came to the centre and how it was adapted.

Papers are not limited to a particular region or time-frame. The topics to be presented could include:

• information networks
• sources of information
• stereotypes (for example: civilized versus uncivilized)
• the outsider-insider dichotomy

Session organizer
Antoni Grabowski, Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences