The volume Asinara. Un’isola nel Mediterraneo, edited by Alessandra Cioppi and Maria Elena Seu, researchers at CNR-ISMed, is now available.

The book is the third special edition of the Urbes Rura. Forms, processes, urban and rural mobility in Mediterranean Europe series, and was created as part of the project “Migrations & the Mediterranean. The Sardinia Observatory” by the National Research Council in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (MASAF).

Accompanied by a remarkable collection of photographs, the volume is dedicated to the history of Asinara from its origins to the present day and is part of a broader study of the Mediterranean islands. Known in ancient times as Herculis Insula, Asinara has always been a busy stop on the trade routes of the north-western Mediterranean thanks to its proximity to the main island of Sardinia and its strategic position.

Over the centuries, Romans, Arabs, Genoese, Pisans, Catalans-Aragonese, Spaniards and French have braved its harsh environmental conditions. Its isolated and difficult-to-reach location meant that from 1855, when a penal colony and quarantine station were established on the island, it was precluded from having a normal community and was increasingly transformed into a place of deportation and harsh imprisonment.

For over twenty-five years, Asinara has been one of Italy’s most beautiful national parks and marine protected areas, reflecting its unique ecosystem and precious biodiversity. The island, therefore, is still waiting to be discovered and written about, and this volume offers the opportunity to look at this splendid Mediterranean reality in a different way.