Professor Paolo Grillo takes us on a journey back to a time and place, Europe in the Middle Ages, through the eyes of those who lived on the borders and beyond the horizon of Catholic realms.

We will discover how Vikings gave up on America for the discovery of a new way of sailing introduced by Ligurians; that a walrus has more in common with an elephant than you might think; that Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian continent, the infinite Mongolian steppe were unknown places in an imaginary geography, but open to trade and commerce. We will discover that the world seen from its peripheries is often more interesting than if it were just observed from its center of power. Like for Frankopan’s book The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, there is a lot of interest for stories told from unorthodox points of view.

Paolo Grillo teaches Medieval History at the University of Milan, with a focus on the history of Italian cities between the Twelfth and Fourteenth Century. He is a frequent contributor to “La Lettura,” Corriere della Sera’s cultural supplement.