GRC40330 Exploring New Worlds

Academic Year 2023/2024

Exploring New Worlds from the Phoenicians to Amerigo Vespucci

At the centre of the Graeco-Roman world lay the Mediterranean Sea (or mare nostrum, ‘our sea’, as the Romans came to call it) and the inhabited regions around its periphery. From Antiquity until the discovery of the New World (the Americas), Western Europeans continued to regard Europe and the Mediterranean as the centre of the known world. Why did this Graeco-Roman-centred perspective endure despite the spread of knowledge of and ideas about many other worlds during Antiquity and afterwards? To answer this question we will first examine geographical and ethnographical accounts in Herodotus’ Histories; Ctesias’ Persica; and Eratosthenes’, Ptolemy’s, and Strabo’s Geographies. Next we will consider Alexander the Great’s travels to India in Arrian and Quintus Curtius Rufus, and Roman forays into Britain, Africa and the East in Tacitus, Strabo and Pliny the Elder. After Antiquity biblical, classical, and islamic ideas informed medieval maps of the ‘Old World’, until the returning explorers Marco Polo (1254-1324) and Ibn Battuta (1304-1368/9) shocked traditional mindsets with at times fantastical but largely observation-based accounts of Kublai Khan’s Mongol Empire, Indonesia, India, and Africa. Following in their footsteps, Renaissance missionaries and merchants such as Niccolò de’ Conti (c.1395–1469) travelled to India, Sumatra, Vietnam and China and returned with utopian tales of Timur, Vijayanagar and the kings of India. Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) gave his name to the Americas and reports from one of his sailors led Sir Thomas More to write his Utopia (1512). We will examine how the ancient writers influenced medieval and Renaissance explorers’ accounts, using a plurality of perspectives to explore how the horizons of the known world changed over time, how different cultures were presented to non-travellers through the prism of Antiquity, and how this 'new' knowledge influenced the ideas of the increasingly ‘Old World’.

All primary sources will be consulted in English translation.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module, students will be able to:

– comprehend the scope of geographical and ethnographical knowledge during classical Antiquity, the middle ages, and the Renaissance;
– use a plurality of perspectives (including considerations of cartography, foreignisation, gender, historiography, political and religious bias) when approaching primary sources;
– assess critically the role of travel and exploration in (re-)interpretations of the Classical past from Antiquity through to the Renaissance;
– conduct individual research on selected topics for presentation orally in class and in writing;
– analyse, synthesise and present information and ideas clearly both orally and in writing, demonstrating a capacity for independent thought.

Indicative Module Content:

1. Minoans and Phoenicians.
2. Mythical imaginary worlds.
3. Ctesias and Herodotus in deep Asia Minor, reports of India.
4. Alexander the Great's travels in Persia to India and movement of peoples.
5. Romans in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
6. Roman trade with India, expeditions to Sub-Saharan Africa.
7. Marco Polo goes to China and is employed by Kublai Khan for c.24 years, returns; his Travels co-written with romance-writer Rustichello da Pisa with whom imprisoned in Genua, influenced by medieval romance.
8. Ibn Battuta goes (inter alia) to China and India, employed by kings (Ibn Battuta, Rihla), like other christian/islamic writers, influenced by ancient conceptualising of geography (e.g. Alexander romance).
9. Niccolò de’ Conti's account written down by Poggio Bracciolini (De varietate fortunae IV), and various other merchants' and missionaries' accounts (e.g. Varthema, Nikitin, Giovanni da Empoli, Pedro Nunes, Tomé Pires, Fra Mauro).
10. Amerigo Vespucci (Vespucci's Letters, Mundus Novus (1503); More Utopia).

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

22
Specified Learning Activities

66
Autonomous Student Learning

112
Total

200
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
A weekly seminar will typically involve covering key themes, theory and content of a topic (1hr—intructor and students work together), with students presenting relevant sources (1hr—with instructor and peer review).

Source selections and reading lists will be circulated in advance. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment: Seminar presentation on an ancient source to be written up as an assignment of up to 1,000 words in length. Week 7 n/a Graded No

20
Assignment: Seminar presentation on an medieval/Renaissance source to be written up as an assignment of up to 1,000 words in length. Week 10 n/a Graded No

20
Essay: 5,000 word end-of-trimester essay on topic of student's choice in agreement with Module Coordinator. Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

60

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Students will receive individual written feedback on their commentary and essay within 20 working days of submission. Students are welcome to arrange a meeting with the module coordinator to discuss their grade and feedback.

Selected General Reading

M. Woolmer, A Short History of the Phoenicians, Revised Edition, Bloomsbury, 2021 (e-copy ordered for James Joyce Library)

G. Hawes (ed.), Myths on the Map: The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece, Oxford University Press, 2017 (e-copy ordered for James Joyce Library)

S. Bianchetti – M.R. Cataudella – H.-J. Gehrke eds. Brill’s Companion to Ancient Geography: The Inhabited World in Greek and Roman Tradition, Leiden-Boston, 2015 (e-copy ordered for James Joyce Library)

K.A. Raaflaub – R.J.A. Talbert eds. Geography and Ethnography Perceptions of the World in Pre- Modern Societies, Wiley Blackwell, 2010 (e-copy in James Joyce Library)

D.W. Roller, Eratosthenes' "Geography", Princeton University Press, 2010 (e-copy in James Joyce Library)

D.W. Roller, A Historical and Topographical Guide to the Geography of Strabo, Cambridge, 2018 (e-copy in James Joyce Library)

G. Woolf, Tales of the Barbarians: Ethnography and Empire in the Roman West, Wiley Blackwell, 2011 (e-copy in James Joyce Library)

C. Adams – R. Laurence (eds), Travel and Geography in the Roman Empire , Routledge 2001 (e-copy ordered for James Joyce Library)

D. Abulafia – N. Berend, Medieval Frontiers: Concepts and Practices, Routledge, 2002 (e-copy in James Joyce Library)

J. Larner, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, New Haven and London, 1999
 
R.E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveller of the 14th Century, updated with a 2012 preface (e-copy in James Joyce Library)

B. Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1420–1620, Harvard University Press, 1963 (reprinted several times)

J.P. Rubiés, Medieval Ethnographies European Perceptions of the World Beyond, Routledge, 2009 ( e-copy in James Joyce Library)

J.P. Rubiés, Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India Through European Eyes, Cambridge, 2000

You may also find useful explanations of modern conceptual frameworks in: S.A. Weaver, Exploration: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, 2015.
Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
 
Spring
      
Seminar Offering 1 Week(s) - 21 Thurs 11:00 - 12:50
Seminar Offering 1 Week(s) - 23 Thurs 12:00 - 13:50
Seminar Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Thurs 14:00 - 15:50
Spring