Abstract
The cultural history of the sea is an intellectual exercise that has often interested scholars. In the Italian context, Alberto Tenenti's proposal to investigate the ‘meaning of the sea’ in relation to Venetian maritime experience gained some attention; more recently, with a more informational book, Alessandro Vanoli attempted a ‘history of the sea’ from a culturalist approach. In truth, the actors moving within maritime space are generally driven by a pragmatic spirit and intentions: their existence and activities are often intertwined with empirical elements, which represent one of the primary dimensions of maritime historical investigation. However, trying to understand how people, objects and ideas move across the sea – in this specific case, the Mediterranean – through the theoretical tools of cultural history can open up remarkable perspectives. The exhibition at the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence in 2020, from which this volume originated, represents a proposal in this sense. Mobility, whether due to voluntary or coercive causes, economic needs or intellectual curiosity, is always associated with an emotional sphere.
With an interdisciplinary approach that brings history into dialogue with literature, archaeology and the science of the book, the authors of Encounters at Sea present movements and connections as cultural and sensory experiences. ‘Dangers at sea’ are one of the most frequent occurrences in written documents related to travel and mercantile expeditions and, in general, all types of transportation. And shipwreck, among these ‘dangers’, is the most feared, marking the sensitivities, memories and imaginations of those who live and work at sea or those who find themselves crossing it episodically. In the economy of the book, an account of a journey like that of Enrico Wanton could not be left out, who was stranded on a sandbank in an unknown place. In addition to considering concrete risks, even before setting out, travellers could project their expectations or, conversely, their fears onto nautical charts that depicted routes and maritime spaces: extravagant elements, signs and symbols of the religious sphere, and allegories that are not always immediately understandable reveal a universe of maritime culture that this work induces us to remember. One should never separate the practical dimension from the emotional dimension of embarking on a sea journey, an experience that still today retains its own sense of being extraordinary and pushes one to know and confront otherness.
Moreover, the sea is (or, rather, was) the only way to unite distant spaces and, through objects, it acts to connect peoples and cultures. Reading the pages of this book, we are prompted to consider trade not only as an economic fact but also as a political and cultural process, and the circulation of global commodities such as silk, cotton, sugar, cocoa, coffee, tea and tobacco as a phenomenon linked to the needs, distinction and sociality of buyers, who sometimes reside at considerable distances from the places of production. In this sense, one can hear the lesson of Fernando Ortiz Fernández, with his concept of ‘transculturation’. To this, the book adds a particular focus on the gifts that travelled with diplomats: cultural objects par excellence, they could also represent a lever for the production and consumption of certain goods, as well as trigger for competition between countries.
If objects act as vehicles for global connections and create new cultural meanings, then individuals who travel by sea are witnesses who transfer knowledge. This knowledge is transferred onto paper or texts, sometimes becoming expressions of power and control and, at others, simple stories, descriptions and reports. However, the authors of Encounters at Sea correctly provide tools for understanding that messages are never neutral: the communicators of knowledge learned through travel (related to, for example, plants, animals, minerals or objects) are ‘performative agents’ who imbue their contents with symbolic value. Although this partially deviates from the strictly maritime dimension, it is explained that diplomats had to be very attentive to these aspects, to the point that the instructions produced for their missions clearly aimed to avoid communication errors (consider, in this sense, the example of the instructions for Venetian ambassadors sent to the Persian court).
On the other hand, as demonstrated by the rich materials preserved in the Biblioteca Riccardiana, texts and images can also describe fictional scenarios or distort messages. In the modern age, this can occur through excessively Eurocentric representations of objects, such as the ethnic costumes associated with the cultivation of coffee, tea and chocolate. As for fiction, the figure of Caliban, half man, half beast, with the good features of the ‘noble savage’ mixed with demonic ones, is more than paradigmatic: it is one of the many cases in which utopian literature and cartography vividly reflect the multifaceted cultural horizons of that time. But even the traveller Wanton and his companion Roberto come into contact with a kingdom of monkeys and a kingdom of Cynocephali.
When commenting on Encounters at Sea, a significant influence is exerted by the undeniable charm of the rich and well-crafted iconographic apparatus that is present in this beautiful volume. There are maps, manuscripts and drawings. Among the most beautiful (in my debatable judgment) are those contained in the diary of Erasmo Magno da Velletri, a knight of the Order of Saint Stephen travelling in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the seventeenth century. At the same time, more concrete price lists of the goods and services that regulated life in the ports are also included, as well as other practical tools such as portolan charts. Overall, from reading this book, there is a strong impression of the role of ‘materiality’ and emotional experience in Mediterranean circulations, which are often studied more immediately on the political, economic and social levels. As people travel, they carry with them sensations, ideas, knowledge and beliefs, and they return with products, knowledge, information and stories. Sailors were those who, more than anyone else, contributed to conveying objects, images, narratives and stereotypes about others. Maritime historians should bear this in mind when conducting studies on ports, ships, trade, coastal societies and maritime labour (to mention a few of the main fields of investigation).