Mobility, Coexistence, Negotiation: Architecture and Material Culture in Early Modern Chios

As Postdoctoral Scientific Assistant in the Department of Bianca de Divitiis, he is currently developing the project Mobility, Coexistence, Negotiation: Architecture and Material Culture in Early Modern Chios within the research project Archipelago. Memory, Trade, and Art in the Mediterranean Islands. The project examines early modern Chios (Scio, Sakız) through the interconnected lenses of land use, urban and architectural development, and artisanal and artistic networks within the island's complex ethnoreligious, political, economic, and cultural landscape. Situated at the crossroads of the Aegean archipelago, Anatolia, mainland Greece, and Western Europe, Chios is approached as a laboratory of architectural production, material exchange, and cultural interaction. Particular attention is devoted to patterns of mobility to and from the island, facilitated by a distinctive constellation of consular, mercantile, administrative, and religious networks. Whether Orthodox, Catholic, or Muslim, early modern Chians participated in extensive transregional networks that fostered the formation of a far-reaching diaspora both within and beyond the Ottoman Empire. These networks enabled the circulation not only of commodities such as mastic and silk, but also of specialized knowledge and skills, including gardening, shipbuilding, and the crafts of wood and marble carving. The project investigates how these forms of mobility and exchange shaped the architectural and artistic presence of Chian communities in cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, Aydın, Livorno, Venice, Genoa, and Marseille, and across other insular contexts including Lesbos, Andros, Syros, Tinos, and Crete. Within these dynamic processes of cross-cultural exchange, the project also addresses the reuse of spolia and antiquarian collecting practices, as well as the enduring influence of Byzantine and Genoese traditions on the island's built environment and the transmission of these legacies to the Ottoman capital.