The Late Sixteenth-Century Ship in the Adriatic as a Cultural System

The theme of this volume is to explore and record the variety of contacts and modes of cultural (and artistic) exchange in the late medieval and early modern periods, primarily facilitated by the medium of water (rivers, seas, etc.). In this sense, the ship is without a doubt the most compelling agent of cross-cultural exchange in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean. As I will show, the ship is a system consisting of a carefully designed physical space and natural elements, together with social, emotional, and (cross)cultural components that interact and intersect on board. By exploring the ship as a complex and mobile microcultural system, this essay aims to propose a new avenue for inquiry into cross-cultural exchanges in the history of art and architecture, cultural history, and the history of emotions in the Renaissance Mediterranean.