When the scientific study of the Black Sea Region began in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries, initially commissioned by adjacent powers such as
the Habsburg and the Russian empires, this terra incognita was not yet
considered part of Europe. The eighteen chapters of this volume show a broad
range of thematic foci and theoretical approaches - the result of the
enormous richness of the European macrocosm and the BSR. The microcosms of
the many different case studies under scrutiny, however, demonstrate the
historical dimension of exchange between the allegedly opposite poles of
East' andWest' and underscore the importance of mutual influences in the
development of Europe and the BSR.