Members of the Chair of Medieval History (Jaspert) Laurin Herberich, M.A.

• History of the military religious orders (esp. of the Hospitallers)
• History of the Republic of Venice
• History of the Republic of Genoa
• History of the Eastern Mediterranean
• Digital Humanities (esp. relational databases, cypher, neo4j)
• Historical Methodology (esp. Latin philology)

Maritime Predators in the Eastern Mediterranean

Source diction does not usually correspond to research definition. The fact that the Venetians and Knights of St. John, who were mostly affected in the eastern Mediterranean, did not only call Catalan perpetrators of violence “piratae” and “cursarii” without distinction reflects this rule of thumb. Surprisingly empirical research derives its definitions of the phenomenon of maritime predation not only from the modern equivalents of the latter terms, but also specifically from their distinction.

Reasons seem to be its source-analytical focus on entities and its legalist understanding of maritime predation.

To test newer attempts at definitions empirically and support them possibly, this project is not only setting a new focus on group- and single actors, but also a new outcome-oriented understanding of maritime predation as its guiding principle.

The aim is a prosopographical study of the phenomenon of maritime predation, that should enable insights in financial structures, social careers as well as diplomatic networks. At the end, a more useful definition of the phenomenon in the Late Middle Ages should be available, which matches its actors.

• since October 2022: Researcher in the DFG-Project “Medieval Maritime Predation – A Database Supported Analysis of Mediterranean Violence”
• October 2021 – September 2022: Scientific Assistant at the Chair of Medieval History (Prof. Dr. Nikolas Jaspert) at the Department of History of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg
• Juli 2021: Second State Exam (Latin and History)
• January 2020 – Juli 2021: Student teacher at Ludwig-Frank-Gymnasium Mannheim and the Seminar for the professional training of teachers Heidelberg
• November 2019: First State Exam (Latin and History)
• October 2013 – November 2019: Studies in Classical Philololgy and History at Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg

• Summer term 2024: Luxemburg in European contexts (Excursion)
• Summer term 2023: Genoa, Pisa and the Mediterranean (Excursion)
• Summer term 2023: Wissembourg between Bunkers und Castles (Excursion)
• Summer term 2023: Marshall Boucicaut (Exercise)
• Winter term 2022/23: Norman Connections (Excursion)
• Summer term 2022: The Teutonic Order in the County of Hohenlohe (Excursion)
• Summer term2022: The Teutonic Order (Seminar)
• Winter term 2021/22: Venice and Maritime Predation (Exercise)

• Review of “Florian Chamorel, Un destin méditerranéen. Les princes de la Maison de Savoie en Méditerranée orientale (XIVe-XVe siècle) (Études d'Histoire Médiévale, 18), Paris (Honoré Champion) 2023”, in: Francia-Recensio.

   Online access (last access: 12.11.2024)

• Review of “A Military History of the Mediterranean Sea. Aspects of War, Diplomacy, and Military Elites (History of Warfare, 118), hg. von Georgios Theotokis / Aysel Yildiz, Leiden/Boston 2018”, in: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters (2024, 79,2), pp. 915-917.
• Maritime Powers and Maritime Predation: Strategies of Everyday Thalassocracy in the Eastern Mediterranean, in: Jaspert, Nikolas, Rüdiger, Jan, Über die Küsten hinaus: Thalassokratien im Mittelalter (Mittelmeerstudien, 25), Paderborn 2023.

• Tailored Terms: Catalan and Genoese Maritime Predators in Venetian Words, in: Ibero-Mediaevistik. Mittelalterforschung zur Iberischen Halbinsel (07.06.2023).

  Online access (last access: 07.06.2023)

• Alfons V. and his Predators – Control through Goodwill, in: Ibero-Mediaevistik. Mittelalterforschung zur Iberischen Halbinsel (08.10.2022).

  Online access (last access: 08.10.2022)

• In vielen, nicht so einfachen Schritten zum eigenen Metropolitanbistum, in: Ibero-Mediaevistik. Mittelalterforschung zur Iberischen Halbinsel (26.12.2021).

  Online access (last access: 26.12.2021)

• „[multum] aliud importat“ – Venetians, Catalans and Maritime Predators, in: Ibero-Mediaevistik. Mittelalterforschung zur Iberischen Halbinsel (18.11.2021).

  Online access (last access: 18.11.2021)

• Neo4j, easydb, und fylr: Quantitative Lösungen prosopographischer Probleme, Presentation at the Medieval Research Colloquium of the Department of History at the University of Münster (18.12.2024).
• Accessing Medieval Maritime Predation, Presentation at the DFG-funded conference “Accessing the Sea in the Middle Ages: Quantitative Approaches to Mediterranean Mobility” in Heidelberg (30.10.2024).
• A City out of Time: Venice and the Latency Problem, Presentation at the 16. Conference of the European Association for Urban History (EAUH) in Ostrava (05.09.2024).

• Pride and Predation: Conflict resolution between Venice and the Crown of Aragon in the late Middle Ages, Presentation at the IMC of the Institute for Medieval Studies at Leeds University (01.07.2024).

  Online access (last access: 22.02.2025)

• Hospitallers and Maritime Violence: Bystanders or Beneficiaries? – Part II, Presentation at the Humboldt Symposium in Heidelberg (14.06.2024).
• Hospitallers and Maritime Violence: Bystanders or Beneficiaries? – Part I, resentation at the Humboldt Symposium in Heidelberg (27.10.2023).
• Loose Enden: Kriegsgefangene, Flüchtlinge und Sklaven zwischen Venedig und dem Osmanischen Reich, Lecture in the study course of Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani (04.10.2023).
• Out and Proud: The ‘pirata publicus’ in Venetian Archival Records, Presentation at the IMCS of the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University (13.05.2023).
• Seeraub und Seeherrschaft: Strategien alltäglicher Thalassokratie im Östlichen Mittelmeer, Lecture at the Great Colloquium of the Department of History of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (20.12.2022).