New perspectives on early globalisms from objects and images
Tales Things Tell offers new perspectives on histories of connectivity between Africa, Asia, and Europe in the period before the Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century. Reflected in objects and materials whose circulation and reception defined aesthetic, economic, and technological networks that existed outside established political and sectarian boundaries, many of these histories are not documented in the written sources on which historians usually rely. Tales Things Tell charts bold new directions in art history, making a compelling case for the archival value of mobile artifacts and images in reconstructing the past.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Finbarr Barry Flood and Beate Fricke present six illuminating case studies from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries to show how portable objects mediated the mobility of concepts, iconographies, and techniques. The case studies range from metalwork to stone reliefs, manuscript paintings, and objects using natural materials such as coconut and rock crystal. Whether as booty, commodities, gifts, or souvenirs, many of the objects discussed in Tales Things Tell functioned as sources of aesthetic, iconographic, or technical knowledge in the lands in which they came to rest. Remapping the histories of exchange between medieval Islam and Christendom, from Europe to the Indian Ocean, Tales Things Tell ventures beyond standard narratives drawn from written archival records to demonstrate the value of objects and images as documents of early globalisms.
Author(s): Finbarr Barry Flood, Beate Fricke
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 298
Cover
Contents
A Note on Transliteration
A Note on Dating
A Note on Geographic Terms
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Archives, Flotsam, and Tales of Globalism
Part 1. From al-Andalus to Germany: Objects, Techniques, and Materials
Chapter 1. Melting, Merchandise, and Medicine in the Eastern Mediterranean
Censers on the Market
Ore and Origins
Changing Shapes
Incense and Medicine
Censers in Motion
Temporalities
Chapter 2. Knowledge and Craft in Medieval Spain and Germany
Innovation in Making Niello
The Nature of Niello
Three Different Histories of Niello
Inspiration and Imitation
Spiral as Essential Structure
Spiral as Sign
Chapter 3. Coconuts and Cosmology in Medieval Germany
A Composite Object
Looking Beyond and Within
Treasures and Trophies
Changing Functions
Fruits from Paradise
Incarnated Knops
Part 2. From Iraq to India and Africa: Technologies, Iconographies, and Marvels
Chapter 4. Magic and Medicine in Medieval Mesopotamia
Magic-Medicinal and Incantation Bowls
Poison Bowls and Precedents
Hydrophobia and Surrogacy
Serpents, Scorpions, and Quadrupeds
Similarity and Sympathy
Constellation, Commodification, and the Portable Library
Chapter 5. Distance Made Tangible in Medieval Ethiopia
An Equestrian Relief
Prophet, Saint, and King
Princely Hunters
Maritime Chimeras
Indian Antecedents?
Objects, Images, and Material Connections
Chapter 6. Narrative and Wonder in the Indian Ocean
An Iraqi Maqāmāt
Sailors and Slaves in a Maritime Cosmopolis
The Artist as Exegete
A Wondrous Interlude
A Magical Denouement
Anachronisms, Survivals, and Revivals
Conclusion: Global, Local, and Temporal
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Image Credits
