Méditerranées: Une histoire des mobilités humaines (1492–1750)

In Méditerranées: Une histoire des mobilités humaines (1492–1750), Guillaume Calafat and Mathieu Grenet propose a history of human mobility that spans the early modern era, from the expulsions of the Sephardim and Moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the fifteenth century to the mid-eighteenth century, with the movement of sailors between various ports of call. And there could be no more appropriate title than “Mediterraneans” for this rich and stimulating volume by two expert historians of the area. The plural form of the title serves, in fact, as an introduction not only to the multiple cultural, political and ethnic forms—the Mediterranean is not one, but many, and it should be understood as a complex historical problem—but also to the different types of mobility that have contributed to creating those realities. A mobility that was always intense, the authors remind us, even at times when the respective sides of the sea were in competition with each other. From the introduction, therefore, it is clear that the history of mobility proposed by Calafat and Grenet is firmly rooted in the great French historiographical tradition: understood in the longue durée and deeply linked to geography.The first of the eight chapters is precisely about geography, in which the apparent unity of the sea is countered by the complex morphology of its coasts. The nature of the Mediterranean is one of both unity and fragmentation, and territorial sovereignty has been based on this territorial reality. The ease of contact due to the proximity of the coasts and the very high physical compartmentalization of the Mediterranean space are pivotal for understanding the plurality of the political entities within the territory—historically marked by unity but also, in the early modern period, by great clashes and rivalries.This is the starting point for the discourse of Calafat and Grenet, explored in depth in the eight chapters of the book, all of equal length and of masterly solidity. Through the examination of a very wide range of up-to-date historiographical literature, the reader is guided through the complexity of humanity on the move. Taking stock of the vast amount of academic literature on the subject, Grenet and Calafat offer a summary of the historiographical assumptions made by scholars from Braudel onwards, while at the same time questioning them.In the first chapter, the two concepts of Mediterranean unity and rivalry are confronted, overcoming the binary logic between a Pan-Mediterranean idea and that of a clash of civilizations through the concept of pluralism. This Mediterranean was neither intolerant nor cosmopolitan but profoundly plural, in which different communities coexisted while remaining distinct, thanks also to a considerable number of legal and institutional mechanisms that allowed different groups to live together without merging. The following chapters are therefore dedicated to the types of mobility and their logistics, as well as to the organization of individuals and other groups in a new context, always with a constant focus on the spatial location and interrelation of migrants, minorities and diasporas with their host context.The second chapter, on expulsion, exile and migration, focuses on the Jewish and Muslim evictions from the Iberian Peninsula that marked the beginning of the early modern era, and on the transition of these communities from a European to an Ottoman space. In addressing the physical and cultural passages between the two great power blocs of the sixteenth century, the authors also take the opportunity to discuss slavery and conversions linked to privateering and piracy, always careful to identify the porosity of historical and historiographical categories supposedly in opposition with each other.The extensive knowledge of Calafat and Grenet on the history of consular institutions and the management of groups of individuals from the same country is detailed in the fourth and fifth chapters. These two parts deal with the diplomatic relations between the various countries of the Mediterranean, with particular attention to the “national” organization of foreigners both in Europe and in the Ottoman Empire. In this respect, the ability of the volume to dismantle an ahistorical application of the concept of nation to these pre-modern groups is particularly praiseworthy. Both on the Italian peninsula and in the Ottoman Empire, nations were defined by a common affiliation rather than by the same country, religion or language. So much so that while not all the Jews of Livorno could be members of the Jewish nation, the French nation in the Levant could have Greeks among its members who, in some Aegean islands, could even serve as consuls. Furthermore, apart from the solidarity of the group as a whole, these communities remained strongly hierarchical within themselves, fitting into the logic of the corporate and hierarchical society of the Ancien Régime.In this respect, the book gives emphasis to the concept of “communitarian cosmopolitanism” coined by Francesca Trivellato, according to which communities, and not individuals, negotiated their presence in the territory from time to time, in a corporate logic that did not lead to amalgamation, but kept the boundaries between communities well defined, as well as within the communities themselves. The diasporas and family dynamics favored by this type of system are investigated in chapter six, while chapter seven concentrates on the spatial dynamics within which the coexistence of the groups developed. This part clearly highlights how the appropriation of urban space by foreigners was also a conquest of visibility that is equated with an idea of a “reconnaissance [. . .] de leur place dans leurs sociétés d’accueil” (p. 470), which was translated, at the same time, into the ability of these groups to shape the visual space, remaining an essential element of the urban landscape in many cities.The book ends with a final chapter on religious contact, in which, once again, the focus is on the porosity of religious barriers and identities, closing the historiographical spectrum touched on by the authors with a focus on the religious sensibilities of the early modern period.The entire argumentative framework of the text successfully emphasizes how pluralism not only represented a way of administratively and jurisdictionally managing minorities but also played a fundamental role in the daily interactions between real people. Methodologically rigorous and written in an elegant and agreeable style, Méditerranées is an attractive text even for a non-specialist audience, allowing the exploration of many topics, all interrelated in a coherent way. For students and researchers, this is an enormous compendium that does justice to the great liveliness of Mediterranean studies. Through a wide fresco of extraordinary breadth and skill, Calafat and Grenet have accomplished an important historiographical endeavor, destined to remain a reference work in the field.