Global Humanisms: A History of the Middle Ages (300-1600)

The thesis is to show that humanism is already a medieval concept, which shows in a sequence of 'renaissances', rather in the beginning of Early Modern Era. The aim of the project is to offer new and different history of the Middle Ages, which is distanced from limitations of traditional periodisation by methodical and rigorous implementation of interdisciplinary approaches. Instead of 'dark Middle Ages', the project offers a vision of humanistic medieval period in a longue durée perspective (300-1600). The research confirms theoretical base for the idea that the works of different 'court art' shows a sequence of renaissances (Constantinian, Theodosian, Sixtian, Justinianic, Theodolindian, Liutprandic, Carolingian, Ottonian renaissance of 11th and 12th century, the 1200 style, early Gothic, vernacular style), showing that ancient 'humanisms' were transmitted through intellectual elites. The aims of the project are to examine this thesis diachronically, through the periods from Late Antiquity to the Gothic period, explore it and connect through different ways of artistic expression: written word, visual arts, architecture and urbanism. Methodological approach covers wide range of activities from fieldwork (archival work, archaeological reconnaissance, recording, cataloguing of material, 3D reconstructions) to comparative (renaissances within the European space). The results will be connected in order to provide the sequence of these medieval renaissances, and will be also applied to the traditional period of Renaissance in 16th century, which could be labelled as a culmination of all previous ones.
The project is financed by “Research Cooperability“ Program of the Croatian Science Foundation funded by the European Union from the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme "Efficient Human Resources 2014-2020" with 2,200,000 HRK (482,500 AUD).