The Maritime, the Ecological, the Cultural—and the Fig Leaf: Prospects for Medieval Mediterranean Studies

Abstract

This contribution reflects on recent developments in Mediterranean studies. It places current scholarly dispositions in the context of an unapologetically personal overview of Mediterranean historiography since the 1990s, and suggests some caveats about the likely future of Mediterranean studies so far as the Middle Ages are concerned. I detect four ways in which the sea and its region are being pressed into service in historical scholarship. The first is as a fig leaf—for what is thought less romantic, much smaller than the Mediterranean and part of it in only a very limited and far from crucial way. The second is the maritime—according to which it is predominantly the ensemble of Mediterranean-wide crossings that makes Mediterranean history. The third is the ecological approach, of The Corrupting Sea . Less in fashion, it is summarized here in readiness for a possible return to favour. Fourth and finally, there is the broadly “culturological,” which I close by critiquing.