Experiencing Space

This book analyses the interconnection of space and experience in Roman Antiquity, Byzantium, and the Middle Ages, ca. 100 BCE – 1500 CE.

The joint analysis of these two conceptual spearheads enables a novel analysis of how space affected social frameworks, and how experiences built communities and shaped individual lives over the longue durée. The volume manifests the richness and innovativeness of analysing individual and shared experiences together with space as cultural, political, and social construction, bridging micro and macro levels. Ten high-quality case studies explore experiencing domestic, urban, political, and sacred space. An in-depth introduction explains the main concepts, and an epilogue binds the themes and chapters together. The volume utilizes a wide array of source material and has comprehensive coverage chronologically, geographically, and disciplinarily including several branches of Classical, Byzantine, and Medieval studies.

The volume serves graduate students and scholars of several disciplines and fields: Classics and Ancient History, Medieval History, Byzantine Studies, Archaeology and Art History. It will also be fruitful to scholars of the Modern period whose work touches upon the field of the history of experiences.

Sari Katajala-Peltomaa is currently Professor of Cultural History at the University of Turku, Finland. Her publications include Demonic Possession & Lived Religion in Later Medieval Europe (2020) and Histories of Experience in the World of Lived Religion (2022; ed. with Raisa Toivo).

Saku Pihko has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Council of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences at Tampere University (2024–2025) and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku.

Ville Vuolanto is Senior Lecturer in History and Latin at Tampere University. His publications include Children and Asceticism in Late Antiquity (2015), and co-edited volumes such as A Cultural History of Youth in Antiquity (2023) and Pursuing Hope in the Premodern World (2025).