Introduction to Medieval Studies Spring 2012 (Greetham)
Learning Goals:
Students will have:
1. Explored the historical and institutional definition(s) and significance of “Medieval Studies” as a discipline.
2. Interrogated the concept of a “Middle Ages” constructed ex post facto.
3. Confronted the interdisciplinary challenges of studying a period before the construction of the current academic disciplines.
4. Brought their specific research experience and interests to bear on these interdisciplinary challenges.
5. Concentrated not only on the general cultural history of the period but also on a series of “focus moments” that can be used to display the interrelationship of various disciplinary positions. Such “moments” may include the Black Death, the invention of printing, East-West relations and the influence of Islam, and the Albigensian heresy/crusade, the Roman inheritance.
6. Be able to make a presentation in their area of interest that will be useful and comprehensible to students from the other disciplines involved.
Syllabus/Working Bibliography
Basic Texts and Reference Works:
A Companion to the Medieval World, ed. Carol Lansing and Edward D. English. Chichester: Blackwell/Wiley 2009. GC Reserve D117.C657 2009.
Oxford Twenty-First Century Approaches to Middle English Literature, ed. Paul Strohm. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. GC Reserve: PR255.094 2007
John Van Engen, ed. The Past and Future of Medieval Studies, Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1994. GC Reserve: CB 351 .P324 1994.
James M. Powell, Medieval Studies: An Introduction. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. 2nd ed. 1992. GC Reserve: D116 .M4 1992.
Le Goff, Jacques. Medieval Civilization. Oxford: Blackwell, 1988. GC Reserve: CB 351 .L413 1988 c.1:1995
Le Goff, Jacques. The Medieval Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. GC Reserve: PQ155.M27 L413 1992.
Course Session Plan:
1. Tues. 31 Jan. Introduction. What is/are medieval studies? Readings from: in Van Engen, “Agenda Paper: The Future of Medieval Studies,” “The Future of Medieval Studies: A Retrospective,” “Bede’s Blush,” “Visions of Medieval Studies”; in Lansing & English: “The Idea of a Middle Ages,” in Bull, Thinking Medieval, “What Are the Middle Ages?”(pdf) and “The Evidence for Medieval History” (pdf).
2. Tues. 7 Feb. Chaucer’s Prologue as Sociology. Texts: Riverside Chaucer: “General Prologue” to Canterbury Tales. Readings from Paul Strohm, Social Chaucer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. GC Reserve: PR 1933.S59 S77 1989; Chaucer’s World, comp. Edith Rickert, ed. Clair C. Olson and Martin M. Crow. New York: Columbia University Press 1948; DA 220.R5; Georges Duby, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2009 GC Reserve: HN 425.D78313.
3. Tues. 14 Feb. What is Medieval History? Readings from John H. Arnold, What Is Medieval History? Malden MA: Polity Press, 2009; readings from George Holmes, Oxford History of Medieval Europe. Oxford, 1992; The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Medieval World. London/New York, 2005; “How the Past Is Remembered: From Antiquity to Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Beyond” and “Saving Medieval History; or, the New Crusade” in Van Engen.
[Tues. 21 Feb. No class. Follow Mon. schedule]
[Tues. 21 Feb. No class. Follow Mon. schedule]
4. Tues. 28 Feb. The Black Death. Readings from John Hatcher, The Black Death. Philadelphia: Perseus, 2008; John Kelly, The Great Mortality. New York: HarperCollins, 2005; David Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
5. Tues. 6 Mar. The Family and Role of Women. Readings from Gies, Women in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper, 1978; Philippe Ariès, Centuries of Childhood. New York: Vintage, 1972; Carol Neel, ed. Medieval Families: Perspectives on Marriage, Household, & Children. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004; Barbara Hanawalt, “Of Good and Ill Repute: Gender and Social Control in Medieval England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998; “Marriage In Medieval Latin Christendom,” “Gender and Sexuality” in Lansing/English
6. Tues. 13 Mar.The Roman inheritance: Readings in Julia M. Smith, Europe After Rome: A New Cultural History 500-1500. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; “The Heritage of the Ancient World” and “The Foundations of the Middle Ages” in Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
7. Tues. 20 Mar. East-West relations. Guest: Dr. Anna Akasoy, Oriental Studies, Oxford. Readings from Robin Cormack, Byzantine Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 (Personal Reserve). Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection. Copenhagen: F. Hendricksens, 2001 (Personal Reserve); Marc Gaborieau et al., The Encyclopedia of Islam. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill (In Reference section); “Muslims in Medieval Europe” in Lansing/English; “Orientalism and Medieval Islamic Studies” and “Byzantium and Modern Medieval Studies” in Van Engen; Mango, Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome. New York: Scribner, 1980; Pedersen, J. The Arabic Book. Trans. G. French. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1984 (also for manuscripts); Venice and the Islamic World 828-1797, New York: Metropolitan Museum/New Haven, Yale University Press, 2006; Vivian D. Mann et al, eds. Convivencia: Jews Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain. New York: Jewish Museum/Braziller, 1992; Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. Maryam D. Ekhtar et al. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011 (Personal Reserve; New Permanent Installation at Metropolitan Museum)
8. Tues. 27 Mar. Manuscripts. Readings from Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca: Cornell, 2007; Bernhard Bischoff, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990; Christopher de Hamel, The British Museum Guide to Manuscript Illumination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001; “Medieval Manuscripts in the Modern Curriculum” and “Diplomatic Sources and Medieval Documentary Practices” in Van Engen; “Manuscript Books” in Greetham, Textual Scholarship; Boyle, Leonard E., Medieval Latin Palaeography: A Bibliographical Introduction. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1984; Braswell, Laurel Nichols, Western Manuscripts from Classical Antiquity to the Renaissance: A Handbook. New York: Garland, 1981; H. S. Bennett, English Books and Readers 1475 to 1557. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1969. Repr. 1989. 2nd ed. 3 vols; Pedersen, J. The Arabic Book. Trans. G. French. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1984 (also for East-West); Trapp, J. B., ed. Manuscripts in the Fifty Years after the Invention of Printing. London: Warburg Institute, 1983; Michelle P. Brown, British Library Guide to Writing and Scripts: History and Techniques. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998; Barbara A. Shailor, The Medieval Book. Toronto: University of Toronto Press/Medieval Academy, 1991; Charlotte Cook Morse, Penelope Doob, Marjorie Curry Woods, eds. The Uses of Manuscripts in Literary Studies. Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 1992; John M. Wasson, Early Drama, Art, and Music Documents: A Paleography Handbook. Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 1993; Charles Johnson and Hilary Jenkinson, English Court Hand A.D. 1066 to 1500. New York: Ungar, 1967. 2 vols.; Christopher de Hamel, Medieval Craftsmen: Scribes and Illuminators. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992; Peter Barber, Diplomacy. London: British Library, 1979.
9. Tues. 3 Apr. The Invention of Printing: Readings from Albert Kapr, Johan Gutenberg: The Man and His Invention. Aldershot/Brookfield: Scolar, 1996 (Z 126 .Z7 K2813 1996); Chaytor, H. J. From Script to Print: An Introduction to Medieval Vernacular Literature. Cambridge: Heffer, 1945 (also for manuscripts); Griffiths, Jeremy and Derek Pearsall. Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375–1475. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989 (also for manuscripts); “Printed Books” in Greetham, Textual Scholarship; Blake, N. F. Caxton: England's First Publisher. New York: Harper & Row, 1976; Butler, Pierce. The Origins of Printing in Europe. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1940; E. P. Goldschmidt, Medieval Texts and their First Appearance in Print. London: Bibliographical Society / Oxford: Oxford UP, 1943. Repr. 1965; Haebler, Konrad. The Study of Incunabula. Trans. Lucy Eugenia Osborne. New York: Grolier, 1933. Repr. Kraus, 1967; Victor Scholderer, Johann Gutenberg: Inventor of Printing. London: British Museum, 1970; Michael Twyman, British Library Guide to Printing: History and Techniques. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.
[Tues. Apr. 10 Spring Recess]
10. Tues. 17 Apr. The Role of Philosophy: “Philosophy and Theology in the Universities” and “Philosophy and Humanism” in Lansing/English; Julius R. Weinberg, A Short History of Medieval Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964; Parts 2 & 3 (“Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy” and “Medieval Christian Philosophy” in Columbia History of Western Philosophy, ed. Richard H. Popkin. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999; Gordon Leff, Medieval Thought. Baltimore: Penguin, 1958.
11. Tues. 24 Apr. The Albigensian Heresy/Crusade. Readings from Stephen O’Shea, The Perfect Heresy. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2000; Sean Martin, The Cathars. Edison, NJ: Chartwell, 2006; Mark Gregory Pegg, A Most Holy War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008; Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. New York; Braziller, 1978.
12. Tues. 1 May. Music: Readings from Albert Seay, Music in the Medieval World. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975. 2nd. ed.; “Inventing a European Music Culture--Then and Now” in Van Engen; Alec Robertson and Denis Stevens, eds. A History of Music/Pelican History of Music, vol. 1 Ancient Forms to Polyphony. London: Cassell/Baltimore: Penguin, 1960; Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music. vol. 1 The earliest notations to the sixteenth century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ( ML160 .T18 200).
13. Tues. 8 May Art History: Readings from “Romanesque and Gothic Architecture” in Lansing/English; Camille, “Art History in the Past and Future of Medieval Studies” in Van Engen; Lawrence Nees, Early Medieval Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002; Roger Stalley, Early Medieval Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999; Nicola Coldstream, Medieval Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002; Veronica Sekules, Medieval Art Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001; Walter S. Gibson, ed. Hieronymus Bosch. New York/Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1972; Demons and Devotion: The hours of Catherine of Cleves: P Morgan Library; The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France: Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Belles Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, New York: The Cloisters/Metropolitan Museum/ Braziller, 1974; The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry. New York: Braziller, 1969; The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, New York: Braziller, 1966; The Grandes Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry. New York: Braziller, 1971; David M. Wilson, The Bayeux Tapestry. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004; see also Islamic Art exhibition and catalogue in “East-West Relations” in Session 7; “The Game of Kings: Medieval Irish Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis” (Exhibition at Cloisters until April 22, 2012).
14. Tues. 15 May Conclusion: Van Engen, “An Afterword on Medieval Studies,” “The Future of the Study of Medieval Christianity” in Van Engen; “Medieval Europe in World History” in Lansing/English; “For an Extended Middle Ages” in Le Goff, Medieval Imagination; “Mentalities, Sensibilities, and Attitudes” in Le Goff, Medieval Civilization; The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages. New York: Metropolitan Museum, 1975.
Final Projects. In discussion in conferences during the course.
