Abstract
This chapter uses the digital mapping component of a collaborative project undertaken by John Manke and Kathryn L. Reyerson to explore the potential of this technology to advance the study of history. This project used the career of the Aragonese admiral Roger of Lauria to illuminate a spectrum of violence in the medieval Mediterranean. The digital map that was one of the results of this research provides an evocative illustration of this spectrum. In addition to presenting spatial data in new ways, this chapter also explores the potential of digital mapping as a pedagogical tool. This technology allows research to be presented in a way that is often more tangible than footnotes at the bottom of a page and to increase geographic literacy among students.
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Notes
- 1.
See Chap. 3 of this volume.
- 2.
On data mining, see, for example, Shlomo Argamon and Marc Olsen, “Words, patterns, and documents: Experiments in machine learning and text analysis,” Digital Humanities Quarterly 3, n. 1 (2009), http://digitalhumanities.org:8081/dhq/vol/3/2/000041/000041.html. For a general introduction to digital mapping in the humanities, see Christopher Donaldson, Ian Gregory, Patricia Murrieta-Flores, and Paul Rayson, “Geoparsing, GIS, and textual analysis: Current developments in spatial humanities research.” International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 6, no. 1 (March 2015): 1–14.
- 3.
Hathi Trust Digital Library, https://www.hathitrust.org/, accessed 12/03/2021; The Internet Archive, https://www.archive.org, accessed 12/03/2021. The Hathi Digital Trust is a University Consortium that gathers together images from Google Books, the Internet Archive, and image files of books digitized locally at member institutions. These materials can be accessed by students and faculty at member institutions. The Internet Archive is a wide-ranging project whose stated goal is “universal access to all knowledge.” The initiative currently has digitized 475 billion web pages, 28 million books and texts, 14 million audio recordings, 6 million videos (including 2 million television news programs), 3.5 million images, and 580,000 software programs. See “About the Internet Archive,” https://archive.org/about/.
- 4.
Bibliothèque nationale de France Catalogue Général,” Bibliothèque nationale de France, accessed 12/03/2020, https://www.bnf.fr/en/bibliotheque-nationale-de-france-catalogue-general; “Explore the British Library,” British Library, http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=BLVU1.
- 5.
“Medieval England and France, 700–1200,” The British Library, https://www.bl.uk/medieval-english-french-manuscripts.
- 6.
Frederic C. Lane, Venice, a Maritime History (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973), viii.
- 7.
We are indebted to the patience and hard work of the employees of this center. Our work would not have been possible without the aid of Shana Crosson, Dr. Benjamin Wiggins, and Melinda Kernik. The work of this center can be found here: U-Spatial, https://research.umn.edu/units/uspatial.
- 8.
Online access to ArcGIS can be purchased on their website, but many institutions have subscriptions. ArcGIS, http://www.arcgis.com, last accessed. For QGis, see QGis, http://qgis.org, last accessed.
- 9.
For example, Giovanni Villani describes the Ghibellines of Genoa acting as pirates against the Guelfs in the Gulf of Liguria. Giovanni Villani, Crónica, edited by G. Porta (Parma: Fondazione Pietro Bembo/Guanda, 1991), 1250, https://archive.org/details/cronicagiovannivillani/mode/2up.
- 10.
Note that I am providing links to the source where they can be found on Archive.org, the Hathi Trust, or other websites. Bartholomeus de Neocastro, Historia Sicula, ed. Giuseppe Paladino, Raccolta degli Storici Italiani XIII, Part III (Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1922), https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008922131; Nicolai Specialis, Historia Sicula, in “Rerum Italicarum scriptores X, edited by Ludovico Muratori (Milan: Societatis Palatinae in Regia Curia, 1727), 912–1091, https://archive.org/details/RerumItalicarumScriptores; Philippo Evola ed., Lu rebellamentu di Sichilia (Palermo: Biblioteca Nazionale, 1882), https://archive.org/details/Lu_rebellamentu_di_Sichilia_Palermo_1882/page/n5/mode/2up; Vincenzo de Gaetano, La vinuta di lu re lapicu in Catania (Catania: M Galati, 1898), https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100511045.
- 11.
Ramon Muntaner, Crónica Catalana, edited by Antonio de Bofarull (Barcelona: Imprenta de Jaime Jepús, 1860), https://books.google.com/books?id=KwAZ55VsDFIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false; Because this project was first presented in a 300-level undergraduate class, we also utilized Ramon Muntaner, Chronicle, translated by Lady Goodenough (Cambridge, Ontario: In Parentheses Publications, 2000), http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/muntaner_goodenough.pdf; for Villani, see note 9 above; the Annales Ianuenses cover centuries of history. For the volume on the latter half of the thirteenth century, see Iacopo Doria, Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e de’ Suoi Continuatori dal MCCLXXX al MCCLXXXXIII, edited by Cesare Imperiale, Fonti per la Storia d’ Italia 14.5 (Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano, 1929), https://archive.org/details/p5fontiperlastor14istiuoft/page/n7/mode/2up; Bernat Desclot, Crònica del rey En Pere e dels seus antecessors passats, edited by Joseph Coroleu (Barcelona: Imprenta La Renaixensa, 1885), https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100533892.
- 12.
John H Pryor, “The naval battles of Roger of Lauria,” Journal of Medieval History, vol. 9, 3 (1983): 179–216.
- 13.
Società Siciliana per la Storia Patria, ed. Documenti per la servire alla Storia di Sicilia, vol. 5 (Palermo: Società Siciliana per la Storia Patria, 1882), https://archive.org/details/documentiperser03patrgoog/page/n6/mode/2up.
- 14.
Guiseppe La Mantia, ed., Codice Diplomatico e di Re Aragonesi de Sicilia (1282–1353) (Paemo Scuola: TIP Boccone del Povero, 1917).
- 15.
Charles D. Stanton, Roger of Lauria (1250–1305): “Admiral of Admirals” (Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 2019), 25–35.
- 16.
For the reconstruction of the fleet, see Bartholomeus de Neocastro, Historia Sicula, 54 and Bernat Desclot, Crònica del rey En Pere, 226.
- 17.
Rosselli, Francesco. Detail of the Tavola Strozzi. Museo Nazionale di San Martino. 1472. Photo credit to Francesco Bini @ Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tavola_strozzi_(flotta_aragonese_al_ritorno_della_battaglia_di_ischia_il_12_luglio_1465),_1465-1500_ca.,_11982,_09_maschio_angioino.JPG.
- 18.
The extant records of this office have been published. See Ausilia Roccatagliata, L’Officium Robarie del Comune di Genova (1394–1397), Collana storica di fonti e studi 54 (Genova: Università di Genova: Istituto di medievistica, 1989).
- 19.
For examples of the ways that different humanistic fields have used digital mapping, see Ian Gregory, Christopher Donaldson, Patricia Murrieta-Flores, and Paul Rayson, “Geoparsing, GIS, and Textual Analysis,” cited in note 2 of this chapter, above.
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Manke, J. (2022). Digital Mapping Technology and the War of the Sicilian Vespers: Using New Methods to Better Understand Old Problems. In: Sohmer Tai, E., Reyerson, K.L. (eds) Mapping Pre-Modern Sicily. Mediterranean Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04915-6_14
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