The Association of
Historical Studies «Muda di Levante» was officially
created on the 1st March 2004. The date was chosen according
to the ancient Venetian calendar, which began just on the first
day of March. The idea of creating an association of this kind
was imagined some years before, in 2001: a group of friends,
interested in the history of Venice, used to meet to drink a
“spritz” at sunset in Campo Santa Margherita, one
of the most fashionable Venetian squares. The ancient stones
of the buildings made a contrast with the joyful and madding
young crowd of the campo, usually haunted by students and scholars.
The place was perfect for persons who loved culture and history
but did not want to lose contact with present life.
If now Venice is crowed by students and tourist, once it was
full of merchants and foreigner travellers. If once it was the
necessary link between the Levant and an even further East and
central Europe, now it is the cultural core and meeting point
of a globalized world. Scholars and historians from all over
the world arrive in Venice to study in its libraries and archives.
That group of friends drinking a “spritz” in the
campo decided it was a wonderful idea to create an association
in order to put in contact the Venetian scholars and students
with those who come from abroad.
Moreover, in a period in which, everywhere, historical themes
are more and more used in politics, it is important to have
correct historiographic information and this aim can be reached
only putting together different experiences and different points
of view. The Mediterranean basin, where Europe, Africa and Asia
come into contact, is a privileged subject of study. Different
peoples, different religions and different ideas circulated
in this area in the past centuries; sometimes they clashed but
for the most part they found the way of living in a peaceful
cooperation: hence the idea of periodical meetings with scholars
of different countries.
The name chosen for the Association was «Muda di Levante».
A muda was the convoy of ships which usually left Venice in
spring and came back in autumn; in the most ancient times mudas
sailed only for the Levant but later they reached also Western
ports. They did not bring only merchants and goods but also
knowledge, ideas and culture. They were the necessary link for
those who lived in far off countries but wanted to remain in
contact and cooperate.
Other meetings in Campo Santa Margherita were necessary to gave
a definite shape to the Association and to write its Statute.
