Research The Buddha and the Medieval West
The Professorship researches the diverse connections in Eurasia before 1500 from two main perspectives: As part of the book project “The Buddha and the Medieval West”, which has been funded by the Volkswagen Foundation through an “Opus Magnum” since April 2025, Romedio Schmitz-Esser is tracing the influence and knowledge of Buddhist ideas on and in Latin Europe during the Middle Ages. In particular, he emphasizes the central importance of the Franciscan Order and the geographical area of Upper and Central Italy as part of an entangled transcultural history. However, research into mobility as a whole also plays an important role at the professorship, as can be seen in Alicia Wolff's dissertation on the significance of lists in late medieval travel accounts and the anthology “A Cultural History of Transport and Mobility in the Middle Ages” (edited by Romedio Schmitz-Esser and Aaron Vanides).
Conferences
Der Pilgerbericht des Hans Tucher: Neue Perspektiven auf einen unterschätzten Text des ausgehenden 15. Jahrhunderts, organized by Alicia Wolff and Romedio Schmitz-Esser in cooperation with the Tucher Kulturstiftung, December 12th and 13th 2024 at Schloss Schoppershof of the Tucher Kulturstiftung in Nuremberg
Afrika und Europa. Interaktionen in einem globalen Mittelalter, lecture series organized by Tobias Frese, Rebecca Müller and Romedio Schmitz-Esser, June 14th and 28th, July 5th and 19th 2023, Institut für Europäische Kunstgeschichte in Heidelberg
Der Friedrichswagen im Museum für Geschichte des Joanneums, workshop organized by Romedio Schmitz-Esser and Bettina Habsburg-Lothringen, June 28th 2021, Museum für Geschichte, Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz
Publications
Table
Buddhistische Mönche und der franziskanische Armutsstreit. Wie die Ostasienmission das spätmittelalterliche Lateineuropa beeinflusste, in: ZHF 48 (2021), 645-678. | |
The Buddha and the Medieval West: Changing Perspectives on Cultural Exchange between Asia and Europe in the Middle Ages, in: Travel, Time, and Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time: Explorations of World Perceptions and Processes of Identity Formation, hrsg. von Albrecht Classen, Berlin–Boston 2018, 311-330. | |
Odorich von Pordenone, Asienreiseberichte des Mittelalters und ihre „causa scribendi“, in: Mediaevistik 30 (2017), 147-175. | |
Tra esperienza personale e piacere del pubblico: Odorico da Pordenone e il ruolo del retroterra veneziano per la conoscenza dell’Asia nel Medioevo, in: Venezia e l’Europa Orientale tra il tardo Medioevo e l’Età moderna, hrsg. von Grigore Arbore Popescu und Cristian Luca, Crocetta del Montello 2017, 261-278. | |
A forma di sfera. Espansione europea e cartografia medievale, in: Ligabue Magazine 66 (2015), 140-155. | |
Travel and Exploration in the Middle Ages, in: Handbook of Medieval Culture. Fundamental Aspects and Conditions of the European Middle Ages, hrsg. von Albrecht Classen, Berlin–Boston 2015, Bd. 1, 1680-1704. |
