Professor Alfred Andrea

Contact Details

Email: aandrea@uvm.edu

Background

When and where did you initially develop an interest in the history of the crusades and/or the Latin East?

It began in graduate school at Cornell University (1963-1967). My doctoral dissertation subject focused on the schism between the churches of Constantinople and Rome in the age of Innocent III, which naturally led me into the Fourth Crusade and, from there, I moved into the other crusades and the Latin East.

Who or what sparked your enthusiasm for the subject?

My own heritage – I am half Italian, Roman Catholic and half Greek, Greek Orthodox—was the starting point. Over the past 25 years or so, however, my involvement in world history, viz. the attempt at macrohistory, in which we attempt to study the major patterns of human history, has brought me to the study of holy war in a global, multi-cultral context.

Education

Please provide details of your Higher Education, including dates, institution(s) and the name(s) of your research supervisors.

  • AB magna cum laude Boston College (1963) Tutor: William M Daly
  • PhD Cornell University (1969) Dissertation supervisor: Brian Tierney

Career History

Please provide details of your academic career history, including confirmation of your current institutional affiliation and contact details.

  • Vice-President, The World History Association (2008-2009); president-elect for 2010-2011.
  • General Editor, Encyclopedia of World History, 21 vols (ABC-CLIO), 2005-
  • Series Editor, Connections: Key Themes in World History (30-volume series, Prentice Hall), 2004-
  • Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, The University of Louisville, 2002
  • Professor Emeritus, The University of Vermont, 2001-
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dept of History 1996-1998; 1999-2001
  • Interim Chair, 1995-1996
  • Director of Graduate Studies, Dept of History, 1992-1994
  • Professor, University of Vermont, l982-2001
  • Eli Lilly Visiting Professor, The University of Puget Sound, l978-l979
  • Co-Director and Associate Professor, The University of Vermont in Italy, l975 and l976
  • Director, Medieval Renaissance Program, The University of Vermont, l975-l977
  • Associate Professor, The University of Vermont, l975-l982
  • Assistant Professor, The University of Vermont, l969-l975
  • Instructor, The University of Vermont, l967-l969

Influences and Methodologies

What ideas and/or methodologies have informed your approach to your research?

Simple explication of documents is my method. I eschew all theory, believing theory is a barrier to clear thinking. Call me traditional. If anything, I guess I am a Rankean in my approach to historical research, but not his equal, of course.

As noted above, I have for the past 25 years or so, become especially focused on global history, and my crusade work reflects this. Currently I am preparing a book on "Holy War in World History" for the Pearson Prentice Hall series Connections: Key Themes in World History.

Research Outlook

What do you consider to be the most important avenues for future research in the field of crusader studies?

The crusades in a global context, especially the crusading tradition as it influenced Iberian peoples and their actions and policies in the Americas and in the Indian Ocean and beyond.

Research Output

Please provide details of your research output, including publications and other media as appropriate.

  • Encyclopedia of the Crusades (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003), xxiii, 356 pp
  • Contemporary Sources for the Fourth Crusade (Leiden: Brill Academic Publications, 2000), xii, 330 pp Soon to be reissued with additional matter.
  • The Capture of Constantinople: The Hystoria Constantinopolitana of Gunther of Pairis (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), xiv, 198 pp
  •  “Innocent III and the Byzantine Rite: 1198-1216,” Urbs Capta: The Fourth Crusade and Its Consequences, Réalités byzantines, 10 (Paris, 2005), 111-122.
  • “1204 Seen from 2004: Teaching the Fourth Crusade,” World History Bulletin 20, no 1 (Spring 2004): 10-27, passim.
  • "Christendom and the Umma," Crusades: The Illustrated History (London: Duncan Baird, 2004),    10-31.
  • “Innocent III, the Fourth Crusade, and the Coming Apocalypse,” Medieval Crusade (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 2004): 97-106.
  • "A Question of Character: Two Views on Innocent III and the Fourth Crusade," Innocenzo III: Urbs et Orbis, Atti del Congresso Internazionale Roma, 9-15 settembre 1988, 2 vols, ed Andrea Sommerlechner, ed (Rome, 2003), 1:525-585.
  • "The Date of Reg. 6:102: Pope Innocent III's Letter of Advice to the Crusaders," Medieval and Renaissance Venice (Urbana, Il: Univ of Illinois, 1999), pp 109-123.
  • “The Anonymous Chronicler of Halberstadt's Account of the Fourth Crusade: Popular Religiosity in the Early Thirteenth Century," Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 22 (1996): 447-477.
  • "The Sources for the Fourth Crusade," An Appendix to Donald E Queller and Thomas Madden, The Fourth Crusade, 2nd ed (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), pp 299-318.
  • "The Devastatio Constantinopolitana, A Special Perspective on the Fourth Crusade: An Analysis, New Edition, and Translation," Historical Reflections/ Réflexions Historiques: 19 (1993): 107-149.
  • "Boethian Influence on Gunther of Pairis's Historia Constantinopolitana," Carmina Philosophiae 1 (1992): 19-33.
  • "Holy War, Holy Relics, Holy Theft: The Anonymous of Soissons's De terra Iherosoli­mitana: An Analysis, Edition, and Translation" (with Paul I Rachlin),  Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 18 (1992): 147-175.
  • "Adam of Perseigne and the Fourth Crusade," Cîteaux 36 (1985): 21-37.
  • "Cistercian Accounts of the Fourth Crusade: Were They Anti-Venetian?" Analecta Cisterciensia 41 (1985): 3-41.
  • "The Relationship of Sea Travellers and Excommunicated  Captains Under Thirteenth-Century Canon Law," The Mariner's Mirror 68 (l982): 203-209.
  • "Walter, Archdeacon of London, and the Historia Occidentalis of Jacques de Vitry," Church History 50 (l98l): l4l-l5l.
  • "The Historia Constantinopolitana: An Early Thirteenth-Century Cistercian Looks at Byzantium," Analecta Cisterciensia 36 (l980): 269-302.
  • "Latin Evidence for the Accession Date of John X Camaterus, Patriarch of Constantinople," Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Fasc 2 (1973).
  • "Pope Innocent III and the Diversion of the Fourth Crusade Army to Zara," Byzantinoslavica 33 (l972): 6-25.

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