Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of Himself
The word “curiosity” has an opaque history with contradictory attitudes and connotations acquired ever since Antiquity. This poses an interesting problem in the case of Leo Africanus, who never uses the word in his <i>Cosmographia de l’Affrica</i> yet exhibits curiosity at every turn as...
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2025-04-01
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| description | The word “curiosity” has an opaque history with contradictory attitudes and connotations acquired ever since Antiquity. This poses an interesting problem in the case of Leo Africanus, who never uses the word in his <i>Cosmographia de l’Affrica</i> yet exhibits curiosity at every turn as a traveler and a writer. This essay relies on a distinction that Michel Foucault makes regarding types of curiosity: that which produces conventional knowledge (which he rejects) and that which seeks extraordinary knowledge that “enables one to get free of oneself”, resulting in “the knower’s straying afield of himself”. Both as a traveler and a writer, Michel de Montaigne demonstrates that such an attitude was a living reality in sixteenth-century Europe. Montaigne’s many reflections on his “straying afield of himself” provide a bridge to interpreting Leo Africanus’s practices of traveling and writing. Leo’s profession as a diplomat, his economic expertise and his training as an Islamic legal expert all led to his far-reaching journeys, particularly in Islamic Africa but also Asia as of a young age, bringing about his many encounters with historical figures and events while also granting him access to uninhabited nature, as well as every sort of human settlement, from remote villages to great cities. His will to knowledge—curiosity that leads him to ‘stray afield of himself’ by seeking out the unusual and the unknown—proves to be the key to his travel and his writing. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | OA Journals |
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| spelling | doaj-art-bc6d35cd4bc842de92edf1ecbf325c642025-08-20T01:56:24ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872025-04-011459510.3390/h14050095Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of HimselfSteven Hutchinson0University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53703, USAThe word “curiosity” has an opaque history with contradictory attitudes and connotations acquired ever since Antiquity. This poses an interesting problem in the case of Leo Africanus, who never uses the word in his <i>Cosmographia de l’Affrica</i> yet exhibits curiosity at every turn as a traveler and a writer. This essay relies on a distinction that Michel Foucault makes regarding types of curiosity: that which produces conventional knowledge (which he rejects) and that which seeks extraordinary knowledge that “enables one to get free of oneself”, resulting in “the knower’s straying afield of himself”. Both as a traveler and a writer, Michel de Montaigne demonstrates that such an attitude was a living reality in sixteenth-century Europe. Montaigne’s many reflections on his “straying afield of himself” provide a bridge to interpreting Leo Africanus’s practices of traveling and writing. Leo’s profession as a diplomat, his economic expertise and his training as an Islamic legal expert all led to his far-reaching journeys, particularly in Islamic Africa but also Asia as of a young age, bringing about his many encounters with historical figures and events while also granting him access to uninhabited nature, as well as every sort of human settlement, from remote villages to great cities. His will to knowledge—curiosity that leads him to ‘stray afield of himself’ by seeking out the unusual and the unknown—proves to be the key to his travel and his writing.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/14/5/95curiositytravelwritingcitiesknowledgeLeo Africanus |
| spellingShingle | Steven Hutchinson Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of Himself Humanities curiosity travel writing cities knowledge Leo Africanus |
| title | Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of Himself |
| title_full | Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of Himself |
| title_fullStr | Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of Himself |
| title_full_unstemmed | Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of Himself |
| title_short | Leo Africanus Curiously Strays Afield of Himself |
| title_sort | leo africanus curiously strays afield of himself |
| topic | curiosity travel writing cities knowledge Leo Africanus |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/14/5/95 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stevenhutchinson leoafricanuscuriouslystraysafieldofhimself |