Přehled o publikaci

The Middle Ages was a continuous expansion of Europe, identified with christianitas, until the fall of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Medieval Europe was born in the melting pot of migrations, at the end of the era it expanded across the oceans, but this had happened to some extent earlier (the Crusades). People moved within Europe – without freedom in this area it is difficult to imagine colonization processes. We are used to talking about medieval Europe as states and nations, but it still wanted to be a universe, which – for a large part of the continent – was led by Rome. One could even put forward a provocative thesis that Europe at that time was a Roman state, ruled by popes with broader competences than the power of medieval emperors. Medieval cartography also gave us such a vision of Europe and the world (except that the axis mundi lay outside Europe – in Jerusalem). But even particular maps did not show borders. Let us therefore try to face the question of whether medieval Europe was a unity, or whether it was more united than later. Perhaps it was also a Europe of dynamic people. Perhaps it was simply a Europe without borders, both on a macro and micro scale.