East of Venice: La Serenissima as seen from its eastern frontiers; Corfu and Greekness

A round table panel discussion I wish I could have attended in New York on February 13

"Viewing the history of the Venetian Republic through the lens of its neighbors in the Balkans and its Mediterranean frontiers, this international panel of specialists examines the various exchanges—cultural, linguistic, and religious, among others—between the Ottoman and the Venetian worlds, between East and West".

Especially interesting, the topic of the paper by Dr. Daphne Lappa (University of Crete):

“Borderland Religion in the Eastern End of the Serenissima: Greeks in the Venetian City of Corfu”

"What did it mean to be “Greek” in the early modern Venetian and Ottoman lands? Was this a uniform category? Or, could it take on different, local contents? The paper addresses these questions through the study of Greek-Orthodox religion as practiced in the city of Corfu, a part of the Venetian maritime state since the late fourteenth century. Using the concept of “borderland religion” to frame the very local, urban religious mélange of Latin and Greek elements in Corfu, it also compares it with Ottoman Greek-Orthodox religiosity, suggesting that these presented two different ways of being “Greek.”"


Co-presented by Carnegie Hall, Columbia University’s Department of Italian and its Italian and Mediterranean Colloquium and The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America.