Christian Raffensperger

Christian Raffensperger, historian and Kenneth E. Ray Chair in Humanities at Wittenberg University, discusses medieval authors and their wider awareness of Europe. He explores how writers used texts and informants to describe distant places. Short segments cover including Eastern Europe, imagined geographies, mercantile observers like Marco Polo, and identity markers such as Welsh nicknames.

Christian Raffensperger, Kenneth E. Ray Chair in Humanities and medievalist focused on Eastern Europe. He discusses how medieval authors perceived a wider world beyond their locality. Conversations cover reintegrating Eastern Europe into medieval narratives, methods for reading authorship and intent, and diverse examples from Gregory of Tours to Marco Polo and the Primary Chronicle.

Christian Raffensperger, Kenneth E. Ray Chair in Humanities and scholar of medieval Eastern Europe. He explores how medieval authors imagined worlds beyond their towns and kingdoms. Short takes look at eastern Europe’s place in medieval narratives, imagined geographies, mercantile perspectives like Marco Polo’s, and how texts create identity and space.