Progressive Geographies

The four sessions on medieval geographies were held yesterday at the Royal Geographical Society. Because the sessions were all in the same room at Imperial College, it felt like a small workshop running in parallel to the main conference. We were really pleased with the quality of the papers – by geographiers, historians, linguists, and art historians. These covered the Arabic, Latin and Byzantine world, from cartography to texts, artworks and manuscript illustrations. There were papers on the use of GIS to look at the Gough Map and the Domesday Book, and the diffusion of coins in medieval England. My own paper was on the concept of territorium. Because there were a few people who’d had to cancel, we had plenty of time for discussion, which was filled with some great questions. Thanks to all involved, especially to Keith Lilley and Veronica della Dora for co-organising this, and David C. Harvey for chairing one of the sessions. The abstracts and other info can be found here.