Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The paper explores the issue of understanding Africa and African culture during the Middle Ages. Throughout centuries, European scholars, travellers and even knights (e.g. crusaders) encountered people of African origin as well as legends and unproven stories describing mysterious Christian states, societies and cultures, existing beyond the Sahara desert. One of the most significant outcomes of that were medieval maps and descriptions, presenting the extent of knowledge the Europeans had of medieval Africa and setting the limits of medieval imagination. The 14th-century Libro del Conosçimiento de todos los reynos y tierras (The Book of the Knowledge of All the Kingdoms) is one of the best examples of that. The names of those mysterious states, their coats of arms as well as information about their enemies or allies can be found in this medieval compendium.
Source: Roczniki Humanistyczne
DOI: 10.18290/rh26742.1
Author: Piotr Plisiecki
Institution: John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7152422921