Convivencia is considered a Golden Age of tolerance—an era of peaceful coexistence for muslims, jews, and christians in medieval Spain. Until today this myth has been living on. Under the title “Convivencia. Iberian to Global Dynamics (500–1750)” researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science—including Elena Serrano, Mònica Colominas, and Helge Wendt—together with the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, are researching the history of Convivencia and its function as a role model for present times.

The historians at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science ask about the paths that knowledge takes. “We are interested in how ideas come from one human community to another, be it between societies, over time, or even from the academic or religious elite to the general population,” explains Elena Serrano, who coordinates the overall project.