ABSTRACT
In the last twenty years, an increasing number of studies have tackled the theme of the perception of the “other” and “otherness” in medieval society. Since the 1980s, medieval historiography has therefore been interfacing with the methodologies implemented by the social sciences in order to study the collective identities and relationships between the formation of traditions and communities. The expression “other world” no longer referred solely to the world of visionaries, to whom Robert Easting dedicated an important study twenty years ago in 1997. Rather, it increasingly became a plural used to indicate the world encountered by travelers, missionaries, and preachers, thus defined as “other,” “foreign,” and “different” but recounted nevertheless. It is now necessary to understand the repercussions of this new experience of the world on preaching in various contexts and uses. My contribution will focus on a few aspects, which are as follows: (a) some parameters (racism and subjectivity) used by current historiography to explore the medieval experience of “otherness”; (b) then I intend to analyze three sermons by Nicholas of Kues, the German philosopher and theologian recognized by historiography as one of the most enlightened intellectuals of the Renaissance humanism.
