exhibit
Introduction
For this assignment, I choose to illustrate the journey of Saladin and Messer Torello in story 9, Day 10 in Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio with the Al-adrisi world map.
The story begins with the Saladin hearing that there is a crusade in preparation and decides to set off to inspect his future enemies, the Christian kingdoms. During his journey in Europe, he meets Messer Torello on the roads to Pavia and asks him if they could make it to the city in time. Messer Torello, noticing that the disguised Saladin and his viziers must be of noble lineage tricks them into accepting his hospitality and provides them with luxurious lodging. Later he tricked them again into his buffets and banquets and introduced his children and his wife to the Sultan and his viziers. His wife gifted the Sultan and his servers robes made with fur and silk and the Sultan leaves promising to return this great favour. Years later Messer Torello decides to go on a crusade but was captured by Saladin and taken prisoner near Acre where a plague breaks out among the crusaders. After Messer Torello is transferred to a prison in Alexandria Saladin recognizes Messer Torello and returns his favour by freeing him and making him a noble in his court.
To illustrate the story I have outlined the routes taken by Messer Torello and Saladin, as well as three interesting places that are important in the story. The journeys in the story could be divided into three parts, Saladin's journey in the Christian kingdoms and meeting Messer Torello near Pavia, Messer Torello travelling to Acre to join the crusaders and him being taken prisoner and led to a prison in Alexandria, which are all noted in the map.
In conclusion, the conflict between the places not only serves as the background of the story as well as pushes the plot forward. The story also explores the idea that people from different faiths and different places can show hospitality to each other. The map re-interprets the story by emphasizing the physical journeys as well as providing visualizations for key items and characters.
Space
Set in a time when war, instead of cross-faith dialogue is more common between Christians and Saracens, the journeys in the story are highly associated with war: the preparation for war and the result of war. The journeys in the story include Saladin travelling to the Christian kingdoms to prepare for the upcoming crusade, Messer Torello sailing to Acre to join the crusade and him being taken captive and led to Alexandria. To make war, Messer Torello and Saladin have to travel in a physical sense: Saladin in Europe and Messer Torello in Asia/Africa.
However, the war does not only forces the characters to travel physically, their social status also changes depending on the place they are in. Drastic changes in social status are seen when the characters travel to the "heathen land", i.e. the Christian half of the world for Muslims and the Islamic world for Christians like Messer Torello. Saladin, the Sultan of Babylon has to disguise himself among the Christians while Messer Torello, a gentleman with servants, dogs and a beautiful estate on the banks of the Ticino(W. W. Norton, 747) is captured by Saladin's army and worked as a prisoner of war. Through the story, it is noted that there is a specific mood set for each place. Pavia is described as the city of luxurious parties and banquets with words like "beautiful"(Boccacio, 747), "excellent"(Boccacio, 748) and "exquisite"(Boccacio, 750); Acre the stronghold where plague rages and battles are lost. The change in the character's social status, as well as the general mood of the narrative further, emphasizes the rivalry between the two different faiths and how people, as well as the world, are divided in medieval times.
Despite the open hostility between the two rival faiths, however, the story also shows that certain virtues are upheld across faith in different places and followers of a different faith who come from different places can show hospitality to each other. This is seen when Saladin returns his former host, Messer Torello's favour by freeing him and making him a noble in his court and Saladin praising Messer Torello's wife. "I believe that of all the women I've ever seen, she's the one whose way of life, whose manners, and whose demeanour-to say nothing of her beauty, which will fade like a flower-seem to me most precious and commendable" (Boccacio, 755).
In conclusion, the conflict of space(different people from different places and faiths) is the prominent conflict of the story, and the hospitality that people show to each other despise these barriers is explored deeply in the story. Moreover, faraway places also serve to spice the story with an exotic scent as exotic luxuries are featured ("Its mattresses were all covered in the Eastern fashion with velvet and cloth of gold") (Boccacio, 755) and necromancy, witchcraft not formally approved in Catholic Europe is performed in Alexandria.
Digital map
The mapping project is based on the Al-adrisi world map, which is fitting for the project since it is mainly focused around the Mediterranean sea which is also where the story takes its place. Furthermore, Muhammed Al-adrisi, the creator of the map and a most excellent geographer of his time, drew the map in 1154 for the Christian king Roger II of Sicily in 1154, which is not far off from the third crusade which Saladin took part in in 1189-1192. Therefore it is probably what comes to Messer Torello and Saladin’s mind when they picture their travels.
The map tries to outline how the main characters (Messer Torello and Saladin) in the story travel and to better visualize their journeys as well as illustrate the concepts that appeared in the story, three important places were picked and each is paired with an image of relevance. In the map, each interesting place is marked with a point of a distinct colour. The line of the same colour shows a possible route for the journey that begins from the point and ends where the line ends. Although the text does not provide a detailed road map as to which route the characters take, it is mentioned that Messer Torello rides to Genoa where he boards a galley and sails to Acre. To make the map as authentic as possible this route is chosen for map.
The map features three interesting items to accompany the storyline. The three items are a sketch of a seated woman and a hermit from 15th century Pavia, a crusader’s lamp in the 13th century near Acre and a manuscript page with an illustration of Saladin jousting with Richard Lionheart of England. These items are to visualize the objects and characters that appeared in the story (the Pavian robe in the sketch and Saladin in the jousting scene), as well as to provide an insight into what the character's life would look like (the lamp used by crusaders like Messer Torello).
The map represents the story in three distinctive parts, the travel of Saladin from Alexandria to Pavia, Messer Torello setting off from Pavia to Acre and him being taken prisoner and led to Alexandria. This is different from the structure of the original story, which can be divided into two parts: Messer Torello treats Saladin and Saladin returns the favour. This is because the map project emphasizes more on travelling places so partitioning the story according to the change of place setting is more appropriate. This also means that the map, when re-interpreting the story, would focus more on representing the physical travels of the characters.
Going through the process of mapping each part of the story with where it is set, I now have a deeper understanding of the story. One could see the lines of going through Europe and imagine where Saladin stops to observe his future enemies, see the sea route from Genoa to Acre and picture how Messer Morello “boarded a galley and set sail, arriving at Acre in short order” (Boccacio, 752) and feel the long marches to Alexandria Messer Torello has to endure as a prisoner of war. The project also enables me to visualize the story better, as I find myself picturing Messer Torello’s wife as the woman in the sketch and Saladin as he appears in the manuscript.
This assignment also provides an opportunity to practice digital mapping. I noticed that when mapping the routes I often overlooked the actual geological characteristics of continents (rivers, islands and peninsulas) and look for cities and interesting places. This could relate to many of the medieval maps as many maps put guiding travellers from city to city before accurately representing the geographical features of the world.
Works Cited:
Boccacio, Giovanni. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 4th ed., B, W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.
Crusader. “Lamp.” Metmuseum.org, The Metropolitan Museum, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/26460.
da Verona , Stefano. “Three Standing Figures (Recto); Seated Woman and a Male Hermit in Half-Length (Verso).” Metmuseum.org, The Metropolitan Museum, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/337894.
“Luttrell Psalter.” Turning the Pages™ - British Library, British Library, www.bl.uk/turning-the-pages/?id=a0f935d0-a678-11db-83e4-0050c2490048&type=book.
"Muhammad Al-Idrisi World Map". Transpacific Project, 27 Oct. 2015. http://www.transpacificproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Tabula-Rogeriana_Idrisi.jpg.