Biography

Professor of Early Modern History of the Mediterranean

I am a historian of the early modern Ottoman empire and its connections with the early modern world. My current research explores intersections between the intellectual life of the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Italy, with a particular interest in antiquarianism, cartography, cosmography, and other forms of early modern science. I also have a deep interest in the history of travel literature and ethnographic writing, early modern diplomacy, and the history of maritime technology, as well as the comparative study of early modern empires and early modern slavery. In addition to my teaching and research, I am currently serving as an executive board member of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, and on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Renaissance Quarterly, Medieval Encounters, and Arabic Humanities. Since 2011, I have also served as executive editor of the Journal of Early Modern History.

Supervisees

• Ela Bozok
• Fabian Riesinger
• Halit Serkan Simen
• Klaudia Ewelina Kuchno
• Konstantinos Poulios
• Matteo Calcagni
• Matthias Ebejer
• Natalia Woszczyk
• Siga Maguiraga
• Takuya Shimada
• Thomas Dumont
• Tunahan Durmaz
• Vuk Uskokovic
• Yunus Dogan

Fields of expertise

• Cultural history
• Europe in the world
• Global history
• Colonialism
• Diplomatic History
• Early modern history
• Renaissance
• 16th century (Sixteenth century)
• 17th century (Seventeenth century)
• 18th century (Eighteenth century)
• Intellectual history
• History of medicine
• History of science
• Visual history
• European borderlands
• Islamic world
• Environmental history
• Ottoman Empire
• Modern history
• Indian Ocean history
• Mediterranean

Recent research output

• CASALE, Giancarlo (2022), Mehmed the Conqueror between Sulh-i Kull and Prisca theologia, Article

• CASALE, Giancarlo (ed/s), (2021), Prisoner of the infidels : the memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in seventeenth-century Europe : Osman of Timişoara; edited, translated, and introduced by Giancarlo Casale, Book

• CASALE, Giancarlo (2020), Le conquiste di Cortés al palazzo Topkapı : una microstoria globale ?, Contribution to book

• CASALE, Giancarlo (2020), Invented tradition and the Ottoman worldview, Article

• CASALE, Giancarlo (2018), Vespucci and the Ottomans: new worlds for all? : a description of the Americas in Seydi Ali Reis’s book of the surrounding sea, Contribution to book

• CASALE, Giancarlo (2019), Did Alexander the Great discover America? : debating space and time in Renaissance Istanbul, Article