Michael Baizerman Author

  Since the end of March, I have been making progress with my galley proof for "The Enchanting Encounter with the East."  Before making corrections, I checked each unit using my new editorial program. I redesigned many paragraphs, and the list of amendments has topped 70 pages after finishing four units out of six. I imagine my editor will be discontented.  Next week, I will re-edit Unit V, which is the story of Prester John, and if all goes well, I will complete my task by the end of April.  Listeners liked my lecture    "The Saga about Humankind: the View on the Habitable World during the European Middle Ages and the Renaissance." Some of them asked where they could read the book. I directed them to my Academia page,  where they read 18 chapters of my second book (out of 29). The rest I will upload throughout this year.  I will continue to collaborate with the Institute of Integration concerning future lectures.  https://independent.academi...

  About three weeks ago, I uploaded a new version of my article "The Enigma of the Antipodes" for Discussions on academia.edu. This is the concluding chapter of Unit II of my manuscript, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". You may view this extract  https://www.academia.edu/40346434/The_Enigma_of_the_Antipodes as well as enjoy reading the rest of my 20 something papers that represent the three projects.  T he paper explores a strand of medieval geography concerning the Antipodes, the legendary fourth continent of the European Middle Ages. It plunges the readers into a scholastic debate, presenting opposite sides. The arguments become intense and controversial on the eve of the Age of Exploration. This is a famous mappamundi featuring the Sciapod, a fantastic one-legged creature living and breathing in the Antipodes.    Burgo de Osma Mappamundi Courtesy:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mappa_mundi_of_Burgo_de_Osma_Beatus#/media/File:B...

The statue of St. Morris as a black African from the Magdeburg Cathedral  I have added a new chapter to my book, The Enchanting Encounter with the East. The extract belongs to Unit 2, The Saga of All My Sons. The episode delves into the attitude to the race issue in medieval Europe. I show the emergence of the concept which I call the "race fiction", i.e. the superficial and biased approach to differences among people. The literati in the European Middle Ages adopted this outlook from the early church, whose representatives often saw the reality in black and white.   The chapter explains that the color carried many other functions accept the reference to foreign origin and soaring climate. The whiteness was perceived as a sign of superiority, leaving the blackness as a mark of inferior position.  Religion played the major role in people's lives, and any other faith except the Christianity seemed the distortion from the truth. In addition, the Christians i...