Genoa and Venice Overseas

People, Power, and Art, 13th to 16th century

Rebecca Müller, Rafał Quirini-Popławski, Klaus Gereon Beuckers, Andreas Bihrer, Timo Felber

• Publisher: Böhlau Köln
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783412534622
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Art

Genoa and Venice, as leading maritime powers in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, founded numerous trading posts and "colonies". These foundations fostered intense transfer processes, widespread mobility—far beyond elite circles—and a constant exchange of raw materials, goods, and objects. The resulting entanglement of spaces, practices, and visual cultures poses particular challenges for research. This volume brings together contributions from two conferences held in Heidelberg and Kraków. The authors—historians and art historians from different fields—explore the premodern Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, focusing not only on the "mother cities" and the comparison between them, but above all on regions often studied separately due to disciplinary divisions, political circumstances, and the linguistic diversity of the source material and literature: Eastern European realms, Byzantium, the Aegean, Cyprus, the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate, and the Iberian Peninsula.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Rebecca Müller /Rafał Quirini-Popławski: Introduction
• A Hub for People and Art: Crimea as a Case Study
• Michel Balard: Les mercenaires de Caffa aux XIV e–XV e siècles
• Laura Balletto: Il notaio Antonio de Turrilia ed il falso da lui sottoscritto a Caffa nel 1469. Uno scherzo di carnevale?
• Patrick Donabédian: La sculpture arménienne en Crimée aux 14 e–15 e siècles. Les effets de la présence génoise
• Rafal Quirini-Poplawski: The Significance of the Genoese Colonies in the Crimea for the Art of the Central and Eastern Europe
• « Deux Styles, une Réussite »? The Maritime Powers in Comparison
• Antonio Musarra: Taxation, Credit and Naval Warfare. Genoa and Venice. Fiscal-Military States?
• Georg Christ: Continuities of Conflict and Cooperation. Venetian–Genoese Relations Between the Third and Fourth Genoese Wars (Second Half of the 14th Century)
• Lorenzo Pubblici: Asymmetrical Reactions. Venice and the Mongols Facing the Crisis of the Golden Horde: 1343 – 1475
• Nikolas Jaspert: Constructed Communities in the West. Genoese and Venetians in Medieval Iberian Realms
• Julian Gardner: The Projection of Power in Thirteenth-Century Venice and Genoa
• Rebecca Müller: Art in Time and Space. Materials in Genoa and Venice and Their Provenance.
• Art Overseas
• Holger A. Klein: Beyond Commerce. Genoa, Byzantium, and the Impact of Culture, ca. 1155 – 1453
• Gianluca Ameri: Storie di tesori e reliquie dalle colonie a Genova nel Trecento
• Michele Bacci: Painting in the Greek Way: Venetian and Genoese Perspectives
• Justine M. Andrews: The Artistic Patronage of the Genoese in Famagusta, Cyprus
• Ioanna Koukouni: The Levantines on Chios (14th – 16th Centuries). Cultural Assets and Heritage
• Romedio Schmitz-Esser: Genoa, Venice, and Yuan China. Art Beyond the Colonies
• Perception of the Genoese “Colonies” and “Heritage”
• Nicole Kançal-Ferrari: The Memory of the Genoese (and the Golden Horde) in Crimea in the Aftermath of the Ottoman Conquest. Textual Evidence in the Travelogues of Marcin Broniowski and Evliya Çelebi *
• Hasan Sercan Sağlam: “Genoese” Heritage Along Aegean Anatolia. Neglected Fortifications Versus Ghost Colonies
• Carlo Taviani: The Casa di San Giorgio in the Black Sea
• Image Credits
• Index