Migration and culture.

Abstract

Both science and the arts provide a particular perspective on one of the significant facets of human history: migration of people. From time immemorial, artists traveled around to find a creative environment, sponsors, and commissions. A critical mass formed in the cities that did provide artistic exposure: it was Florence and Venice in the Renaissance, then Paris, and now New York, to name only a few. Analogically, migration of talented and ambitious investigators to the best centers of research has been a longstanding feature of science. Scholars commonly traveled around European universities, like William Harvey (1578–1657), a native of Folkestone England, who studied in Padua before moving to London. Arts and science communities never really felt confined to the concept of anthropologically defined locations, embodied by the nation-states that emerged in the early 19th century (1). In addition to such “habitual” movements, there are times, sparked by political crises, wars, and ensuing poverty, which create larger waves of migration. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine scholars migrated to Italy bringing with them the Greek tradition and culture, which subsequently played a key role in shaping the culture of the Renaissance. Later, when the network of the Renaissance city-states started …