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Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on two fundamental questions: how did the late medieval Christian conceive the ocean; and what is the weight of this "worldliness" in the direct and daily contact with the oceanic element, especially on the southwest coast of Christendom.

Paper long abstract:

During medieval times two conceptions of the ocean prevailed - successively - in Portuguese territory (and also on the Mediterranean coast of Europe). The first is directly inherited from medieval writers, in particular from St. Isidore of Seville, and in accordance with the more continental and rural view of medieval Europe. It is a coherent conception of the world and of society, which tends to eliminate - or reduce to the maximum - the aquatic element, in which predominates the identification of the zone of Europe with that of Christianity, of the East with the Mythical origins and Africa with that of the enemies of the Church.

The second, tendentially urban and mercantile, became preponderant especially in southern Christendom - and therefore appears as closer to the classical and Muslim heritage. This second conception accompanied the European recovery of the urban world and the general reconquest to the Muslim power of the coastal regions and their maritime areas, both in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic.

In Portugal, when came the turning centuries of the Middle Ages to the Modern era, the second conception, more positive and open, prevailed. However, always penetrated by elements of the continental and more adverse to the sea view (examples are mermaids, sea monsters and the notion of abyss). It is not, therefore, a watertight conception. Instead, we are faced with a symbiosis of perspectives, which made the positive view of the ocean gradually undergo a structuring transformation...