Europe Without Organs? Opicinus de Canistris and the New Anomos of the Earth

The on-going crisis of identity of Europe is related to deep transformations of European borders. Today’s borders no longer lie at the limits of territorial order. We live in turbulent times of shifting and metamorphosing of the European borders. In this critical context, new geopolitical imaginaries of Europe are much needed. We argue that, in our situation, an analogous representational crisis of Europe which arose at the end of the Middle Ages is worth examining. The collapse of medieval vision of the world, in which “res publica christiana” played the crucial part, was followed by the revolution in the mapping of space with portolans, scientific cartography and secularization of knowledge. One of the most imaginative and confusing cartographer of the passage from political theology of papacy and empire to modern territorial state system was the 14th-century priest Opicinus de Canistris. Our theoretical attempt is a part of renewed interest in Opicinus’ work (K. Whittington, V. Morse). We propose the analysis of his maps in the light of medieval theories of political body. Rapid social changes enabled Opicinus to combine theological and secular arguments in order to represent deterritorialization of Europe (as understood by Deleuze and Guattari). Opicinus experienced new possibilities of mapping space before Eurocentric reterritorialization of the globe took place (as described by Carl Schmitt in The Nomos of the Earth). His discovery of forces of immanence and free flows of desire may be of actual relevance today, when spatial order of Europe passes through profound transformations of unknown destination. The Deleuzian reading of Opicinus’ body-worlds could contribute to deepening our imagination into cartography of the anomos, of autonomous and mobile force of migrants who cease to be organized by the paradigm of inhospitable European sovereignty.This work was published in a book funded by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UIDB/04041/2020 (Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo)