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H2020Individual fellowship2016–2018

MIGMED · Migration in the early modern world: the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land as a facilitator of the circulation of people in the Mediterranean

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2016-09-01 → 2018-10-18
EU contribution
€183,455
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST

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Results in brief

Migration in the early modern world: the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land as afacilitator of the circulation of people in the Mediterranean

The aim of the project was to deepen current knowledge of early modern mobility across the Mediterranean (1600-1800) addressing some methodological problems and focusing on issues that have been neglected by previous historiography: the link between short-and long-distance mobility; and the relation between individual paths and the circulation of entire groups. These questions were addressed through the analysis of people passing through the houses of the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land in the Eastern Mediterranean and of the networks and institutions that facilitated their movement, on both a local (Palestinian) and a regional (Mediterranean) level. Besides advancing Mediterranean historiography on migration, the project aimed to open avenues for further research and to suggest a new methodological approach to the study of mobility in pre-modern societies. More specifically, it proposed to overcome the limits of previous historiography through the meso-level of analysis. In the specific case, this meant the study of the social structures that facilitated and addressed individuals’ short and long distance movement. Mobilizing concepts that have proved useful for the understanding of contemporary mobility, such as “migration network”, and interpreting the Franciscan order’s structures/functions and the complex interactions between all actors in a coherent fashion, the project conceptualized the Franciscans as a migration network. Besides early modern migration, thanks to the broad geographical and thematic perspective, the research also advanced major fields like religious history / confessionalization, intercultural exchanges and history of Catholic parishes. Finally, departing from the analysis of migration in the early modern Mediterranean, the project aimed at contributing to current debate on contemporary migration, enlarging its perspective and challenging its very basic elements.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Migration is a key socio-political issue in present-day Europe, however it is by no means a new phenomenon. Even though the importance of South-North (and vice versa) mobility on the development of our society has been addressed by historians, characteristics of this phenomenon have not yet been fully investigated nor have been the similarities between early modern’s mobility and our actual experience. Was migration in the early modern world a network driven phenomenon? What is the link between internal migration and long distance mobility? Leaving aside individual experience, how did migration influence the life of communities at large? This research project aims to answer to these questions and to deepen our understanding on migration in the Euro-Mediterranean region during the early modern period. In order to do so it investigates mobility between Palestinian parishes and from Palestine to Europe during the 17th and the 18th century focusing on the Custody of the Holy Land of Jerusalem. By complementing Islamic court records and Ottoman surveys with Franciscan sources and previously unused parish registers, it will shed new light on spatial mobility and will contribute to overcome the limits of current research on the topic. Methodologically, the proposal breaks new ground by combining micro-, meso- and macro-level analysis and conceptualizing the role of the Franciscan order as part of a migration network. The results of in-depth research on numbers, motives and experiences of individuals and groups moving in and around the Holy Land will help to advance the wider fields of migration, mission and parish studies in the Mediterranean.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

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Data: CORDIS, © European Union