MedRen 2666 - Magic & Witchcraft

Description: This course will investigate the history of magic and witchcraft from late antiquity up through the eighteenth century, when the Enlightenment supposedly disenchanted the world. We’ll be particularly attentive to three questions: how people thought about magic and what it could (and couldn’t) do, how people who could supposedly cast magic were regarded and treated by those who could not, and how magic relates to the other major ways of understanding the world: religion and science. Most of us probably don’t believe (or at least completely believe) in magic, yet millions of people in the past who were every bit as smart as us did. We’ll try to understand why and how that belief might have made enough sense in their world that some of them turned to magic to improve their lives or harm their enemies and others felt so compelled to oppose magic that they were willing to hunt down and execute those they regarded as witches. Course requirements will include regular short informal writing exercises, some of which will require you to consider the beliefs and practices we’re studying as if they were your own.

Class: 35356
Time: TR 12:45 - 2:05 PM
Room: 1000 Fontana Lab
Instructor: David Brewer (English)

GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course

Required Texts:

Kiekhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781108796897

Copenhaver, Brian P. The Book of Magic: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. London: Penguin Classics, 2017. ISBN: 9780141393148

MedRen 5611 - History of the Book Studies

Description: This course will introduce students to the history of the book in the hand-press period from the 15th to the 18th century. It will consider important theoretical and historical questions related to the effects—religious, scientific, political, cultural, literary, economic, educational, etc.—of the spread of the printed book in early modern England and Europe. Working with materials in OSU’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, students will develop essential skills of descriptive and analytical bibliography (the description of books as physical objects and the analysis of their manufacturing and production). This research will enable students to explore how the material forms of texts both shaped and were shaped by diverse cultural agents, including printers, compositors, proofreaders, pressmen, publishers, booksellers, readers, and collectors, as well as by larger cultural forces, such as censorship, the Stationers’ Company, and international intellectual and trade networks.  This course is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students working in any field.

Required Texts: Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography, 2nd printing (Oak Knoll, 2000); Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, new ed. (Cambridge UP, 2005); Andrew Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (Yale UP, 2010); and many readings on Carmen, which students will be required to download and print.  There will also be several recommended texts.

Class: 35354 (UG), 35355 (G)
Time: WF 2:20 - 3:40 PM
Room: 086 University Hall
Instructor: Alan Farmer (English)

Required Texts:

Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781107632752.

Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to Bibliography. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2000. ISBN: 9781884718137.

Pettegree, Andrew. The Book in the Renaissance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780300178210.

Recommended Texts:

Bowers, Fredson. Principles of Bibliographical Description. 2nd ed. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 1995. ISBN: 9781884718007. 

Tanselle, G. Thomas. Descriptive Bibliography. Charlottesville: Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 2020. ISBN: 9781883631192.

MedRen 5631 - Survey of Latin Literature: Medieval and Renaissance

Description: In this course, students will read widely in all genres of medieval Latin from antiquity to the late Middle Ages. The course aims to increase the student’s reading fluency and to anchor his or her knowledge of Latin grammar and syntax.  

Text:  Keith Sidwell, Reading Medieval Latin

Note: This is a combined section class with LATIN 5018.

Class: MEDREN 35409 (UG section), MEDREN 35410 (Grad section); LATIN 36676 (UG section), LATIN 36677 (Grad section).
Time: TR 11:10 AM - 12:30 PM
Room: 045 Hagerty Hall
Instructor: Frank Coulson (Classics)

MedRen 7899 - Medieval and Renaissance Colloquia

Description: MEDREN 7899 will consist of 1 credit hour per semester for attending CMRS lectures, faculty colloquia and subsequent discussions. This will amount to: 4 1-hour+ lectures by visiting professors and at least 1 internal lecture and subsequent discussion (total 3 hours per event); at least one lunch with visiting faculty member (2 hours); active involvement with the Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Association and its activities; and meetings with the Center director (one hour once per term). With permission of the Director other professional activities (such as attendance at appropriate conferences, on- or off-campus) may be substituted.

Prereq: Grad standing. Repeatable to a maximum of 3 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.

Class: 21417
Time: generally F 4:00-6:00 (in line with scheduled lectures and faculty/student colloquia)
Room: Varies - please consult the CMRS Events page for additional info
Instructor: Christopher Highley (English)