This volume unites a wide range of papers given at the international conference «Italy and Europe¿s Eastern Border. 1204-1669» in Rome in November 2010. Its content reflects the manifold research topics of a European scholarly community united in the joint endeavor to shape new aspects and to promote innovative fields of Mediterranean Studies. Therefore, various approaches to the overall topic can be found in this volume, be it from the viewpoint of war and religion, frontier and border studies, the union of churches, diplomacy, theology, economic history, humanism, diplomatics, historiography, prosopography, or genealogy. This is the first volume of the series «Eastern and Central European Studies» and at the same time an incentive for volumes to follow, which will guide the reader on his journey through space and time to hitherto unknown shores of Eastern European and Mediterranean Studies.

Contents: Emanuel Constantin Antoche : La croisade de 1443 dans les Balkans. Anatomie d¿un échec ¿ Marie-Hélène Blanchet : Image de l¿Union et de la croisade dans le Dialogue avec un moine contre les Latins de Théodore Agallianos (1442) ¿ Anna Calia: The Venetian-Ottoman Peace of 1479 in the Light of Documents from the Venice State Archive ¿ Paolo Cherubini : Un épisode peu connu de la guerre des Balkans (1469) par les Commentarii de Jacques Ammannati ¿ Iulian M. Damian: From the `Italic League¿ to the `Italic Crusade¿: Crusading under Renaissance Popes Nicholas V and Pius II ¿ Claudine Delacroix-Besnier : Rencontres entre théologiens grecs et latins et échanges culturels sous les règnes de Jean VI Cantacuzène et de Jean V Paléologue II ¿ Bernard Doumerc : Le problème des confins en Morée vénitienne à la fin du XVe siècle ¿ Andrea Fara: Italian Merchants in the Kingdom of Hungary in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period (XIIIth¿XVIth Centuries) ¿ Emir O. Filipovi¿: Ardet ante oculos opulentissimum regnum ... Venetian Reports about the Ottoman Conquest of the Bosnian Kingdom, A.D. 1463 ¿ Christian Gastgeber: Griechischer Humanismus in der italienischen Renaissance: Aspekte eines idealisierten Kulturtransfers ¿ Borislav Grgin: Antonio Bonfini on Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia in the Fifteenth Century ¿ Güne¿ I¿iksel : La piraterie abkhaze et la réaction ottomane : une contribution au débat sur la fermeture de la mer Noire ¿ Christian Luca: Some Families of Dragomans from the Italian-Levantine Community of Beyo¿lu (Pera in Constantinople). Employees of the Venetian Embassy at the Porte during the 16th¿17th Centuries ¿ Matteo Magnani: The Crusade of Amadeus VI of Savoy between History and Historiography ¿ ¿erban Marin: A Venetian Chronicler in Crete: the Case of Lorenzo de¿ Monaci and His Possible Byzantine Sources ¿ Gianluca Masi: Scoccibucca (Sko¿ibuha) and Faccenda (Fäenda), Two Families of Shipowners and Merchants in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) between the 16th and 17th Century ¿ Ioan-Aurel Pop/Alexandru Simon: The Venetian and Walachian Roots of the Hungarian-Ottoman Truce of Spring 1468: Notes on Documents from the States Archives of Milan ¿ Ioan-Aurel Pop: Sigismund of Luxemburg and the Patriarchate of Aquileia - between History and Historiography (Based on a Chronicle found in the Correr Library of Venice) ¿ Emmanuelle Pujeau : Malte, clef de l¿Europe en 1565 ? ¿ Benjamin Weber : Union religieuse, unité politique et alliance militaire. Les légats pontificaux en Orient au temps du concile de Florence.

Iulian Mihai Damian (Accademia di Romania, Rome); researcher; main fields of research: late medieval crusading and Franciscan missions in the East.
Ioan-Aurel Pop (Romanian Academy, Center for Transylvanian Studies, Cluj-Napoca); Member of the Romanian Academy; main fields of research: medieval social structures and the relations between the Italian Peninsula and the 'East' in the Late Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Age.
Mihailo St. Popovic (Austrian Academy, Institute for Byzantine Studies, Vienna); researcher; main fields of research: history of Byzantium and South-East Europe, historical geography of the Eastern Mediterranean, HGIS and gender studies.
Alexandru Simon (Romanian Academy, Center for Transylvanian Studies, Cluj-Napoca); researcher; main fields of research: medieval geopolitics and state building in East Central Europe.