Summary The three-volume project Cohesion in Multi-Ethnic Societies in Europe from c. 1000 to the Present explores and seeks to find solutions to a crucial problem facing contemporary Europe: in what circumstances can different ethnic groups co-operate for the common good? They apparently did so in the past, combining to form political societies, medieval and early modern duchies, kingdoms, and empires. But did they maintain their ethnic traditions in this process? Did they pass on elements of their cultural memory when they were not in a dominant position in a given polity? This first volume of the project focuses on the cohesive function of memory, tradition, and identity politics in multi-ethnic societies. Featuring chapters written by authors from Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, it presents sixteen case studies of the co-habitation or co-operation of different ethnic groups from the so-called 'peripheries' of medieval and early modern Europe that resulted in peaceful acculturation or the birth of a new identity on the basis of multi-ethnic political society. The volume suggests that ethnic identities were consciously accepted as one among various forms of identity that were possessed by social groups: they were rarely absolutized, and members of these groups preferred pragmatic approaches in their relations with other ethnicities. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations Preface: Cohesion of Multi-Ethnic Societies in Medieval and Early Modern Europe - PRZEMYS?AW WISZEWSKI Introduction: Multi-Ethnicity and Memory in Medieval and Modern Societies - PRZEMYS?AW WISZEWSKI Part I: Opening a Perspective: Ethnic Diversity and Visions of the Past The Meaning of the Past and the Creation of Early Medieval Ethnic Communities: The Case of Carolingian Italy - ANETA PIENI?DZ Cohesion and Conflict between Ethnic Groups in Medieval Hungary: The Thirteenth Century Gestas of Master P. and Simon of K za - D NIEL BAGI Multi-Ethnicity and Memory in Medieval Transylvania - COSMIN POPA-GORJANU Religion and Ethnicity in the Humanist Historiography of the Czech Region - JAN ZDICHYNEC The Crown of Aragon on the Border: From Conflict to an Ideology of Cohesion in a Multi-Ethnic Society - ISABEL GRIFOLL Multi-Ethnicity or the Network of Local and Regional Identities in Silesian Medieval Historiography - PRZEMYS?AW WISZEWSKI The Portuguese Experience of Multi-Ethnic Sociability in the Atlantic in the Fifteenth Century and the Problem of Implicit Understanding - LU S AD O DA FONSECA Part II: Ethnic Groups within One Political Body Multi-Ethnic Portuguese Society in the Reign of Jo o I (1385-1433): From Administrative Practices to Official Royal Narrative - PAULA PINTO COSTA AND MARIA CRISTINA PIMENTA The Creation and Administration of a Multi-Ethnic State: The Case of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - JURGITA ?IAU?I?NAIT?-VERBICKIEN? Myth as a Means of Coexistence: The Karaite Community of Lithuania from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Centuries - DOVILE TROSKOVAITE Portraying the People and Lands of Eastern Europe in Polish Writings up to the Union of Lublin (1569) - ANDRZEJ PLESZCZY?SKI Value Orientation and the Image of the Orbis Gentium in Medieval East European Societies - ALEKSANDR MUSIN Part III: The Interethnic Exchange of Ideas and the Building of Identities Catalans and Sardinians: Opposing Identity Discourses and Fluctuating Political Relationships from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Centuries - LUCIANO GALLINARI Catalan Identity Discourse in the Late Medieval Mediterranean: Creation and Contrast with Neighbouring Identities - FLOCEL SABAT Three Languages, One Town: Linguistic Aspects of Written Communication between the King and Bohemian Royal Towns in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries - TOM ? VELI?KA Part IV: Multi-Ethnicity in the Twentieth Century Visions of the Past and their Role in Shaping the Polish American Identity, as Seen in Ethnic Festivities - JOANNA WOJDON *** Index