Medieval Maritime Predation. A Database Supported Analysis of Mediterranean Violence

该项目的目标是通过更广泛地分析海上掠夺行为，将海上掠夺行为分析为海上暴力掠夺货物，从而改写通常被简化和误导地称为“海盗行为”的历史。为了做到这一点，将形成一种研究工具，使历史学家能够在超越民族国家的水平上研究海洋捕食。此外，两项比较的宏观区域研究将说明这种方法的启发式潜力。该提议旨在刺激海事史领域的范式转变，在该领域，方法传统上侧重于国家战争、常规舰队的活动或远程贸易。相比之下，这个项目将突出半官方或个人形式的海上暴力，并揭示它们与经济网络、特定代理人群体和国际政治的联系。正如每年发生的数百起海上掠夺事件所表明的那样，这一主题不仅从历史的角度来看是高度相关的，而且是具有时代性的。该项目团队将把地中海置于更广泛的次州海上暴力历史中，并提高对这一主题的持久性和动态性的敏感性，这一主题迄今在中世纪研究中尚未得到充分考虑。除了两本专著和一系列论文外，该项目的成果将包括创建一个最先进的关系数据库，作为未来研究的强大和可扩展的工具。到2026年，“中世纪海上捕食行为数据库”(DMMP)不仅将编入程序并全面投入使用，而且还将提供来自地中海四个主要中心(Regesta和精选全文)的主要来源。它将回顾基于粗略证据发展出来的理论。更重要的是，它将使历史学家能够提出新的问题，并通过复杂的关系数据检索来回答这些问题。这两本设想的专著将说明这些潜力，并分别提出关于地中海西部和东部中世纪海上掠夺的强有力的比较案例研究。国际讲习班的进程将检验该数据库的可行性，扩大该项目的视角，并建立一个专家网络，以保证DMMP的扩展和可持续性。构成该项目基础的文件来自经编辑的资料收集，主要来自地中海的四个著名档案。它们将由两名早期职业研究人员组成，他们不仅拥有创建和维护数据库的经验，而且精通这一主题，并获得了使用这些藏品的第一手档案经验。此外，博士后研究员已经收集了大量的原始材料，将分析当代对海洋捕食的态度，并负责建立数据库。

This project’s goal is to rewrite the history of what is often simplistically and misleadingly termed “piracy” by analysing maritime predation more broadly as the violent appropriation of goods at sea. In order to do so, a research tool will be fashioned that enables historians to study maritime predation on levels that transcend those of the nation-state. Furthermore, two comparative, macro-regional studies will illustrate this approach’s heuristic potential.The proposal is designed to stimulate a paradigm shift in the field of maritime history, where approaches have traditionally focused on state warfare, activities of regular fleets or long-distance trade. In contrast, this project will highlight semi-official or individual forms of maritime violence and reveal their connection with economic networks, specific groups of agents and international politics. The subject is not only highly relevant from a historical point of view, but also topical, as the many hundred cases of maritime predation perpetrated every year illustrate. The project team will situate the Mediterranean within the wider history of sub-state maritime violence and heighten sensibility for the longevity and dynamics of a topic hitherto not sufficiently considered within medieval studies.Apart from the two monographs and a collection of essays, this enterprise’s output will consist of the creation of a state-of-the-art, relational database, that will serve as a powerful and expandable tool for future research. By the year 2026, the “Database of Medieval Maritime Predation” (DMMP) will not only be programmed and made fully operational but will also have been fed with primary sources hailing from four major Mediterranean centres (regesta and selected full texts). It will review theories that have been developed based on cursory evidence. Even more importantly, it will enable historians to pose new queries and answer them by means of complex, relational data retrieval. The two envisaged monographs will illustrate these potentials and present robust, comparative case studies of medieval maritime predation in the western and eastern Mediterranean respectively. The proceedings of an international workshop will test the database’s viability, expand this project’s perspective and forge a network of experts who will guarantee the DMMP’s expansion and sustainability.The documents that form the base for this project stem from collections of edited sources and primarily from four eminent archives of the Mediterranean. They will be assembled by two early career researchers who not only possess experience in the creation and upkeep of databases but are also well-versed in the subject matter and have acquired first-hand archival experience working with these holdings. In addition, the postdoctoral researcher, who has already collected extensive source material, will analyse contemporary attitudes to maritime predation and also be responsible for setting up the database.