Michael Baizerman Author

 I continue to collect the material for my new project, " The Fright and Thrill of Navigation:  Seafaring in the Medieval and the Renaissance Mediterranean".  Chapter 1 will introduce the topic: I will refer to the two brands of the Mediterranean watercraft, the galley and the round ship; I will speak about their designations, as a warship and as a cargo vessel; I will outline the compromise between speed, cargo capacity and seaworthiness.  I will explain how the galley construction had an impact on its performance at oars and the sail. I will point out that coastal shipping was not the only pattern available for sailing ships, especially if they were sturdy and gigantic. I will name additional types of craft including horse transports that played   a crucial role in military operations on land. I will recognize that sailing in winter and at night were deliberate options for sea captains despite the obvious dangers. I will show how the need for stopovers for ref...

  As I have promised, I returned to the publication of my second project, " The Enchanting Encounter with the East:  Breaking the Ice between the Latin West and the Far." I stopped updating the chapters of my second book in summer 2019 when the Academia site introduced a new outlet, Discussions. This feature exposes articles to a large audience of about 1K people, who might be interested. An additional benefit is a chance to get a response.  I had to take a bite since I felt that I could enhance the readership. I redirected most of my previous articles to Discussions: 14 chapters of my book. Each time I was determined to re-edit the text and offer the readers the most up-to-date version. Then, I uploaded the four chapters of my third project. Now, I returned to complete the circle.  The current paper is titled "Alexander versus Gog-Magog". Here is the abstract:   The paper explores the blending of the Biblical myth of Gog and Magog with the Hellenistic legend of...

  Happy Christmas and New Year for you and your families, As the second year of the coronavirus draws to an end, I am reviewing my work on a new project.  I have made some corrections in Chapter 1, The Galley vs. the Round Ship, to make the comparison between the two breeds of watercraft less straightforward. I also continue collecting material for a second chapter about war galleys. I think it was a good idea to split the narrative into two developments: that of the galley and that of the sailing ship. The description becomes more accurate and the trends more palatable.  I restrict the narrative of galleys to the Mediterranean, excluding the Atlantic and the Baltic Sea.  I try to avoid overloading readers with too many details and focus on the main tendencies. I write for the general public, not for a handful of experts.  I am planning to branch the story of Mediterranean galleys into two channels: about warships and merchantmen. These are two separate developm...

 The present paper completes Unit I of my third project, " Seeking Christians and Spices: The Quest for the Maritime Route to India". You may view the previous chapters on my author's page on the Academia site:  https://www.academia.edu/41214506/How_Wide_Spans_the_Ocean_Sea https://www.academia.edu/42166248/Beyond_the_Pillars_of_Hercules https://www.academia.edu/43517659/The_Rediscovered_Islands_European_Claims_to_the_Canaries The popular trope associates the Late Middle Ages with the incessant strife of antagonistic faiths which took shape of a crusade and a jihad. My research calls this pervasive approach into question due to the presence of the restricted contingents of Latin Europeans on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. Giving an account for this phenomenon requires a new set of arguments. Religious fanaticism was not the only platform to drum up support for achieving one’s goals. The first part of the chapter focuses on the involvement of European mercenarie...

After a short correspondence with the Academia site, I succeeded in uploading a renewed version of my article to Discussions. I consider this paper as a milestone on the road of my writing career.  In August 2020, I learned that Academia launched a new option for its contributors, allowing them to upgrade each paper for Discussions. They send invitations to about 1K participants and all your fans to take part in the evaluation. It exposes your work to both experts and the general public. It attracts criticism and support.  I decided to take all my previous articles through this process to realize my potential on this site. Now, after 16 months, I can report that the number of my readers has increased fivefold. I also had the chance to explain my position to other researchers. This paper is my latest contribution. From now on, I will upload unknown articles, mostly from my manuscript, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East".   The present article looks into the medie...

 First of all, my lecture. Titled "The Place of Geography in the Medieval European Science", it met with moderate success. The audience was familiar, so I did not need to introduce myself. Based on three chapters from Unit I of my manuscript, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East", the lecture was accompanied by numerous illustrations and charts. The meat of the matter was to show that medieval conceptions were scientifically sound, prone to arguments, and in many cases inconclusive, i.e., requiring additional research.  I am so happy to read accounts of maritime journeys for my current project. I have already got acquainted with the diaries of Felix Fabri and Pietro Casola and now I am studying the report submitted by Roberto da Sanseverino. The last one is the most productive since its author has a deep understanding of navigation problems. Besides, the editor, Vidoni, presents and explains entangled issues to my satisfaction. Pietro Casola,  I have other names ...

  I am still reviewing my notes about merchant galleys. I began to understand how things worked in  medieval society and what happened in the Renaissance when a marvelous system of merchant convoys faded. Apart from freight galleys, I check my observations about war fleets, pick up examples to be studied in detail and develop new ways of presenting the facts for further comparison.  I found a serious shortfall in my work: my unfamiliarity with genuine maritime travel accounts about seafaring across the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. I began to trace these materials and their English translations. Meanwhile, I have found Pietro Casola's Traveling to Jerusalem and am going to make good use of it. As far as I understand, Pietro sailed on a pilgrim galley in 1494.  The academia.edu site offered me to be their reviewer. That means that I have to recommend scientific articles and books to be presented on the site. Each researcher receives a list ...