This workshop is dedicated to the study of all aspects of Western Mediterranean culture from 1200 to 1700. The workshop addresses the multiple linguistic, textual, and visual traditions of five regions/countries: France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and North Africa (including parts of the Ottoman Empire). It seeks to foster discussion between medieval and early modern specialists as well as between different disciplines. With a focus during 2009-10 on the theme “The Poetics and the Translation of History and Literature,” the workshop will emphasize the movement and exchange of peoples, ideas, motifs, and goods among the different parts of the region.