(Un-)sichere Häfen. Häfen als Hotspots maritimer Risiken und Risikokommunikation im Mittelmeerraum des 15. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

Although authors of contemporary portolanos define the late medieval port by virtue of its capacity to shelter ships from the dangers of the sea it cannot simply be characterized as a safe space. Unique evidence from 15th-century Venice gives a deep glimpse at the complex intersections of spaces of danger, security and risk in the late medieval Mediterranean and beyond and highlights the late medieval ports as hotspots of maritime risk and risk communication. It was here, where ships usually wrecked and were seized and where maritime hazard was observed and conceptualized either as risk or danger allowing the contemporaries different strategies to cope with it.