Mark Cruse (NHC Fellow, 2017–18; 2024–25)

Fellowship Work Summary, 2024–25

Mark Cruse made substantial progress researching his monograph, From Alexander the Great to Tamerlane: World Dominion in the Medieval French Imagination, and completed most of the final chapter, which will appear as an article, “From Khanbaliq to Quebec: Marco Polo’s Description of the World and French Exploration in the Sixteenth Century,” in a special issue of The Medieval Globe edited by Sharon Kinoshita and Mario Klarer (NHC Fellow 1995–96; 2000–01). Additionally, he published an article, titled “The Mongol Archive: Medieval Links between France and Mongolia,” in The Diplomat (March 8, 2025). He revised and proofread two major projects:

• His book, L’Iconographie de l’Epistre Othea de Christine de Pizan (coauthored with Gabriella Parussa; forthcoming with Brepols)
• His chapter, “Plotting Fantastic Spaces: Gothic Architecture in Contemporary Cinema” for Gothic Space: Studies in Celebration of Stephen Murray, edited by Katherine Boivin, Lindsay S. Cook, and Zachary Stewart

He also submitted three major projects for review for publication:

• “The Influence of Marco Polo’s Description of the World on John of Sultaniyeh’s Life of Tamerlane” for a volume celebrating the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death, edited by Christine Gadrat-Ouerfelli
• “The Mongol Archive in Late Medieval France” to History Today
• He also submitted and had accepted a proposal for a special issue of Medievalia et Humanistica titled “Marco Polo’s Textual Universe,” to be coedited with Mario Klarer

His book, The Mongol Archive in Late Medieval France: Texts, Objects, Encounters, 1221–1422, on which he worked while at the NHC in 2017–18, was published by Cornell University Press in February 2025.

Fellowship Work Summary, 2017–18

Mark Cruse made substantial progress on Marco Polo’s “Description of the World” in Manuscript and the Global Middle Ages. Additionally he completed one article and two chapters for other works: “Global Encounters the Emerging World in the Livre des merveilles du monde” (Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France) for a special issue of Mediaevalia, edited by Marilynn Desmond (forthcoming); “Literature and the Performing Arts” for The Cultural History of Color, edited by Carole Biggam and Kirsten Wolf (Bloomsbury Publishing, forthcoming); and “Mongol Courts through Medieval European Eyes” in Courts on the Move: Perspectives from the Global Middle Ages, edited by Claudia Rapp, Ekaterini Mitsiou, Johannes Preisser-Kapeller and Paraskevi Sykopetritou (Vienna University Press, forthcoming).