The Northern Renaissance in Vienna: Imperialism and Orientalism in the Writings of Johannes Cuspinian

My new book project, tentatively titled “The Northern Renaissance in Vienna: Imperialism and Orientalism in the Writings of Johannes Cuspinian,” focuses on Johannes Cuspinian (1473-1529), a German-Austrian Renaissance humanist polymath trained in medicine, who exemplified the connections between medicine and the liberal arts during the Renaissance. As dean of the college of medicine, one-time rector, and later life-long imperial curator for the University of Vienna as well as imperial prefect for the city of Vienna, Cuspinian gained fame for his involvement with medicine, literature, history, and court diplomacy for Habsburg rulers. However, despite Cuspinian’s significant influence, there has been very little scholarship on his life and works. Indeed, Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven, an Austrian historian, art historian and librarian, wrote the only modern biography of Cuspinian in 1959. An important scholarly lacuna I intend to fill is Cuspinian’s influence on shaping Europeans’ understanding of the Ottoman Turks. In this opening session, I will discuss the importance of Cuspinian’s mostly neglected but impactful published writings as well as his extant correspondence with prominent figures concerning the Turks. These textual sources on the Habsburg-Ottoman dynastic imperial conflicts of the sixteenth century offer a valuable venue to examine and expand our understanding of early modern Islamophobia as well as the development of an early modern form Orientalism that stereotyped Turks as barbaric tyrants.