MEDREN 2211 Medieval Kyoto Portraits and Landscapes
Spring 2017; Autumn 2019 -- Naomi Fukumori, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Description: Kyoto was the capital of Japan for more than one thousand years. This course will introduce you to seven hundred years in the life of this beautiful city, from the early centuries when the imperial court dominated the cultural and political landscapes, to the medieval years when the warrior class asserted its right to rule and opened the door to new cultural influences. We also will look at the special place that Kyoto occupies today as Japanese cultural heartland.
Required Books
- Kyoto: City of Zen: Visiting the Heritage Sites of Japan's Ancient Capital, Ben Simmons and Judith Clancy (Tuttle, 2013), 9784805309780
- Kyoto: A Cultural History, John Dougill (Oxford UP, 2005), 9780195301380
- Anthology of Japanese Literature: From the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century, Donald Keene (Grove/Atlantic, 1994), 9780802150585
Winter 2012, Spring 2006, Autumn 2015
S. F. Quinn, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Description: Kyoto was Japan’s capital from the 8th to the 19th centuries. Today its many surviving monuments–its shrines, its temples, its gardens–continue to play a part in the lives of residents and to bear witness to enduring cultural values. MRS 211 will introduce you to 500 years in the life of the city, from the flourishing of the imperial court as of ca. 900, to the devastation inflicted by battling warrior clans in the fifteenth century. We will also consider ways in which cultural values and images from this time have contributed to a collective sense of Japanese cultural heritage.
Spring 2004
S. F. Quinn, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Description: Kyoto was the capital of Japan from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries. Today it continues to be the site of many temples, shrines, gardens, and other cultural monuments that bear witness to enduring cultural practices and values. This course proposes to introduce you to roughly 500 years in the life of the city, from around 900, when the imperial court came to flourish, up to the Ônin War in 1467, a prolonged battle between warrior factions that devastated the city. Such a time frame allows us first to explore the culture of the imperial court, whose salons fostered creative productivity on the part of writers and other artists that was to set standards that were emulated for generations. Next it allows us to examine the crumbling of the old aristocratic order in the twelfth century, when a rising warrior class with its own ambitions, values, and aesthetic tastes acquires political and economic control of Japan. Cooperation between members of the court aristocracy and the new military elite led to many of the artistic and cultural achievements that are still widely considered to be at the heart of medieval culture, and Japanese cultural identity in general. The course will conclude by introducing a defining event of Kyoto life that has touched the lives of all its residents since ancient times. This is the Gion Festival, which is celebrated for several weeks every summer.
Course Objectives
MRS 211 is designed both to foster an understanding of the cultural life of Kyoto in medieval times, and to introduce certain cultural values and images from that period that have become part of a shared sense among Japanese of their cultural heritage. What are some of the stories and legends that have most defined the cultural identity of Kyoto? How have they been reinvented over time? What does a selection of enduring monuments in the material culture of the city signify to the people who live among them? Readings and discussions will concentrate on the cultural beliefs and assumptions of people in a very different temporal, spatial, and cultural setting than our own, but, of course, we will also explore what those voices have to say to us in our own contexts today.
MEDREN 2212 Culture of a City-State in the Italian Renaissance
Winter 2012, WInter 2006
Robert Davis, Dept. of History
Description: This course is designed to acquaint you with one of the most peculiar and fascinating cities in the world. We will follow Venice from its earliest beginnings, in a desolate swamp in Italy during the sixth century AD, through its rise to become one of the great world powers by the Middle Ages. We will meet some of the more intriguing explorers, warriors, painters, courtesans, and thinkers that the city has produced, and we will get to know one of the most cosmopolitan communities in all of Renaissance Europe. We will conclude this survey by following Venice into its long decline, as the Venetian Republic lost first its empire and then its independence, emerging finally in our own time as one of the most used – and abused – tourist destinations on the globe.
Course requirements include a half-dozen or so short papers, along with a mid-term and final. Readings: Patricia F. Brown. Art and Life in Renaissance Venice (Prentice Hall, 2005), ISBN-10: 0131344021 ISBN-13: 978-0131344020; Robert Davis & Garry Marvin, Venice, the Tourist Maze (University of California, 2004), ISBN-10: 0520241207, ISBN-13: 978-0520241206; Elizabeth Horodowitch, A Brief History of Venice (Running Press, 2009), ISBN-10: 0762436905 ISBN-13: 978-0762436903
Autumn 2003
Ben David
Description: This course will provide students with a case-study introduction to the Italian Renaissance via the city of Venice.
This course will:
- Approach Venice's beginnings, its rise to mercantile and military prominence, its political and class structure, and its eventual decline in order to set a context for its cultural flowering in art, architecture, music, and literature.
- Focus directly on Venice's role as a gateway between East and West, as well as its influence on the Renaissance in "mainland" Italy.
- Explore Venice's fundamental contributions to modern economic and political practice, including the city's influence on our own Constitution.
MEDREN 2215 Gothic Paris: 1100-1300
Autumn 2013; Autumn 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017
Kristen M. Figg
Description: “By the books that we have, we know the deeds of the ancients, and of centuries past. In our books we learn that Greece had the first age of chivalry. Then that chivalry and learning came to Rome, and now it has come to France.” So says the author of Lancelot, Perceval and Yvain, Chrétien de Troyes, in the 12th Century, that time when Paris became a center of learning, beauty, political power, and commerce. Meet the man behind the first Gothic cathedral, the abbot Suger, whose ideas for attracting pilgrims to the church favored spaces full of light, dazzling color, and miraculous relics. Meet Abelard, the great teacher who first shocked the Parisian university world with his philosophy, then with his secret marriage to his gifted female student, Heloise. Read tales of Courtly Love, King Arthur’s justice, and wayward students. An introduction to the arts, architecture, poetry, history, music, theology, foods, fabrics, and urban geography of the years 1100–1300.
Kristen M. Figg, Autumn 2012:
Description: An introduction to the arts, architecture, poetry, history, music, theology, foods, fashions, and urban geography of Paris in the years 1100-1300, the age of the Gothic cathedrals and the rise of the university. Students will develop an understanding and appreciation of the main currents of medieval culture in Western Europe, learn to recognize the major characteristics of the “Gothic” style in art and architecture, study the formation of the first major Western university, examine the web of economic, commercial, political, and social forces that contribute to the growth of a major city, and read authentic primary texts that will help them gain knowledge of contemporary life and ideology. The course will require regular short quizzes, a take-home midterm, an experiential project, and a final exam. Required Textbooks: Betty Radice, trans., The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Penguin Classics (ISBN 0-14-044287-9); Patricia Terry, trans., The Honeysuckle and the Hazel Tree: Medieval Stories of Men and Women. Univ. of CA Press (ISBN 0-520-08379-2); John W. Baldwin, Paris, 1200. Stanford University Press (ISBN 0-8047-7207-X); Christopher Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral. Thames and Hudson (ISBN 9780500276815).
Winter 2004, Winter 2011, Autumn 2008, Autumn 2007, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2004; Spring 2019
Sarah-Grace Heller, Dept. of French and Italian
Description: Paris became a center for learning, beauty, power, and shopping in the High Middle Ages. Discover the first Gothic cathedrals, Courtly Love, King Arthur’s justice, and the love affair between the philosopher Abelard and his gifted student Heloise in the age of the birth of the university. Explore the streets of Paris and its monuments through readings, films, interactive web maps, and hands-on experiences. Assignments: midterm & final exam (multiple choice), short quizzes, and a short research project on experiencing something related to medieval Paris. Visit the course website.
MEDREN 2217 Shakespeare's London
SAutumn 2011, Autumn 2008, Spring 2004, Spring 2015
Christopher Highley, Department of English
Description: This interdisciplinary course, will explore roughly one and a half centuries of the history, politics, and culture of London, beginning with the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation, moving onto a civil war that saw King Charles I lose his head, and culminating with the devastating plague and Great Fire of London in 1666. We will begin by studying the factors behind London’s phenomenal growth in the sixteenth century, a growth that quickly made London the center of economic and political life in Britain. By reading a range of primary documents including urban surveys, plays, and pamphlets we will consider the opportunities and problems spawned by urbanization (social mobility, poverty, disease) as well as the institutions and structures that regulated the life of the city.
In our tour of this vibrant but lost world we will encounter an extraordinary range of figures: alongside the great and the good like Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Shakespeare, we will also meet prostitutes, vagabonds, and gulls (!). We will become familiar with the layout and buildings of London, its churches and cathedrals, its palaces and thoroughfares, and of course its iconic river Thames. We will linger especially at the theaters, bear gardens, cockpits, and brothels that made up London's burgeoning entertainment industry. Required Texts: Most of the materials will be available on Carmen. Books to buy: Liza Picard, Elizabeth's London, Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday, Thomas Middleton, The Roaring Girl. Assessment: Students will be assessed by a combination of quizzes, examinations, and papers.
Spring 2005, Spring 2003
Luke Wilson, Dept. of English
Description: This interdisciplinary course will explore roughly one and a half centuries of the history, politics, and culture of London, beginning
with the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation and culminating with the restoration of monarchical government and the Great Fire of London in 1666. We will begin by studying the factors behind London's phenomenal growth in the sixteenth century, a growth that quickly made London the center of economic and political life in Britain. By reading a range of primary documents including urban surveys, plays, and pamphlets we will consider the opportunities and problems spawned by urbanization (social mobility, poverty, disease) as well as the
institutions and structures that regulated the life of the city. At the center of our considerations will be the burgeoning entertainment
industry (and especially the public theater) that helped to define London in the eyes of its inhabitants.
MEDREN 2218 Colonial Mexico
Spring 2005
Maureen Ahern, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese
Description: The course will explore Medieval and Renaissance concepts and their interaction with Amerindian cultures that shaped the formation of colonial Mexico (1500-1700). Class discussions and readings will draw on Indigenous and Spanish visual and narrative testimonies of the battle for Mexico/Tenochtitlan; a travel report and early maps of the northern borderlands; the transformation of Iberian saints into Mexican popular cults of Santiago and the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the selected letters, poetry and songs of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, who proclaimed the rights of women to education and culture.
MEDREN 2510 Court of Charlemagne
Spring 2008
Anna Grotans, Dept. of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Description: This interdisciplinary GEC course that aims at illuminating the so-called “Dark Ages” of Europe roughly 1,000 years ago. Our point of departure will be the cultural Renaissance at the court of Charlemagne, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. We will discuss topics such as daily life at court, in the countryside and in monasteries; beliefs, values, pagan and religious cults; military and religoius campaigns; the status of women and minorities; the emergence and implications of literacy; the art of the medieval book; medicine and the development of science and learning; and the later construction of Charlemagne as a national hero for both France and Germany. For evidence we will draw upon a variety of literary and non-fiction texts, art, architecture, music and other cultural artifacts from the period.
This is a GEC arts and hums cultures and ideas course.
MEDREN 2513 Medieval Russia
Spring 2011, Spring 2007, Spring 2004, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2017
Dan Collins, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literature
Description: From insignificant beginnings, Moscow became the center of an empire that, by the end of the 17th c., was the largest country in the world—and still is. We will discuss the emergence of Moscow as a city, state, culture, and world power, and forces that drove its remarkable expansion: desire to preserve and regain the heritage of the conquered Kievan state; imperatives of Eastern Orthodox spirituality; struggles against external enemies such as the Tartars (Mongols); belief in an anointed,autocratic ruler; and ideology of the Third Rome, which reconceived of Moscow as a New Jerusalem. These “national myths” continue to influence Russian culture to this very day.
MEDREN 2514 Baghdad and the Golden Age of Islamic Civilization
Spring 2017 -- Hadi Jorati, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Autumn 2013, Winter 2008, Spring 2005, Spring 2003
Parvaneh Pourshariati, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Description: What do we mean by “The Golden Age of Islamic Civilization”? How did it start, when and why did it end, and who participated in it? What does Baghdad have to do with it? What do algebra and algorithm, alcove and alchemy have in common? How foreign will we be in the world of 1001 Nights? And what does this all have to do with our contemporary civilization? Come share the world of medieval Islamic civilization, in both its courtly and popular dimensions, and get a glimpse of part of our human heritage.
Spring 2012
Bruce Fudge, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Description: This course surveys political, social and intellectual history of the period that is widely regarded as the greatest and most glorious age of Islamic history: the early period of the ‘Abbasid empire. Although the empire ranged wide and far, we focus on the the newly-founded capital of Baghdad and its environs. The main topics of the course are three: (1) the Arab, Persian and Greek heritages that preceded and contributed to the shaping of ‘Abbasid society; (2) the changing and competing visions of what constituted correct Islamic belief and practice; and (3) the courtly and literary culture that coexisted (and often conflicted) with those visions of Islam, exemplified here by the libertine poet Abu Nuwas.
MEDREN 2516 The Medieval Jewish Experience
Autumn 2007, Winter 2006, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2016
Daniel Frank, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Description: This interdisciplinary GEC course surveys ten centuries of medieval Jewish history, literature, religion, and culture from the rise of Islam to the death of the false messiah, Shabbetai Zvi. Students will read a wide range of primary sources in English translation. We will examine the transformation of Jewish culture in Europe and the Middle East and will explore the impact of host societies upon specific Jewish communities.
MEDREN 2520 Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Mediterranean World
Spring 2014, Autumn 2012
Jonathan Burgoyne, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese
Description: This course is designed to introduce students to Mediterranean studies, focusing on medieval and early modern art, literature and culture from the three religious and ethnic communities that shared the Mediterranean world. The course will concentrate on Iberia from approximately 611 AD (the Muslim invasion of Spain) to 1609 (the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain). Required Textbook: The Song of Cid. A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text. Trans. Raffel Burton with intro. by María Rosa Menocal. Penguin Classics, 2009.(ISBN: 0143105655).
MEDREN 2526 - Constantinople: the Imperial Capital of Byzantium
Spring 2014
Anthony Kaldellis, Department of Classics
Description: Washington, D.C., was not the first “imperial” capital designed to evoke the power of ancient Rome. In late antiquity, the Romans themselves had built a New Rome in the East, which was also named Constantinople after its founder, Constantine the Great, the first emperor to convert to Christianity. This city – the Queen of Cities, as it was known – was destined to become the capital of two powerful empires, Byzantium and the Ottoman empire. This course will examine the making of this new Roman capital in the context of late antique history and culture (roughly from 300 to 600 AD). What do “capitals” do in the context of imperial political economies? How do their monuments “speak” to subjects and to posterity? How is history turned into a reservoir of “usable pasts” from which to construct new messages and identities? As we investigate these questions, we will also learn how to handle the different kinds of sources that have survived. Most sessions will combine literary sources, archaeology, art history, and modern scholarship. We will focus on the development of critical skills for analyzing sources and of informed imagination for what our sources do not tell us. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 226 or Classics 2203, 2526, or 226. GE culture and ideas and diversity global studies course. Cross-listed as CLAS 2526.
MEDREN 2610 - Science and Technology in Medieval and Renaissance Culture
Autumn 2017
Sarah Neville, English
Description: The history of science in the medieval and early modern world, including medicine, alchemy, optics, map-making, city-planning, and technology through images, texts, and material culture.
Spring 2014
Karl Whittington, History of Art Department
Description: This course investigates the history of science and technology in Europe between the years 1000 and 1600 – the Middle Ages and Renaissance. We will explore topics such as medicine and anatomy, alchemy, vision and optics, botany, map-making, city planning, and machinery and technology through images, texts, and material culture. How did people before the modern era think that the body worked? What were their conceptions of chemistry and biology? Of the movements of the stars and planets? This G.E.C (Cultures and Ideas) course is ideal for students pursuing majors in both the sciences and the humanities, as it explores their intersection, seeking out the ways that scientific methods and questions are culturally constructed. GE cultures and ideas course.
MEDREN 2618 - Travel and Exploration
Spring 2014; Spring 2019
Lisa Beth Voigt, Dept of Spanish and Portuguese
Description: In this course we will explore narratives of travel and intercultural contact—not only victorious accounts of discovery and conquest, but also tales of failed expeditions, shipwreck, and captivity—produced by some of the main competitors in European imperial expansion: the Portuguese, Spanish and English. We will study the relationship between literature and empire as we examine how such narratives shaped Europeans’ perceptions of their own and other cultures, and how the texts reflect, implement, and/or challenge imperial and colonial discourses. This course examines intercultural contact between Europe (Spain, Portugal, and England) and the 'New Worlds' through early modern narratives of travel, conquest, shipwreck, and captivity. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for Medieval 218. GE culture and ideas and diversity global studies course.
Spring 2016
Jessica Rutherford, Spanish and Portugese Department
Description: Intercultural contact between Europe (Spain, Portugal, and other nations) and the ‘New Worlds’ is explored through early modern narratives of travel, conquest, shipwrecks, and captivity.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for Medieval 218. GE culture and ideas and diversity global studies course.
MEDREN 2666 Magic and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Autumn 2015, Autumn 2013, Spring 2012, WInter 2008, Winter 2007, Autumn 2004, Spring 2015,
Richard Firth Green, Dept. of English, :
Description: In this interdisciplinary course, students will explore the history and culture of witchcraft and magic from ca. 400 to 1700 C.E. within sociological, religious, and intellectual contexts. By the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of the practice, persecution, and social construct of magic and witchcraft in the medieval and early modern periods and its far-reaching impact on society.
Spring 2013, Spring 2006, Winter 2004, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019
Sarah Iles Johnston, Dept. of Greek and Latin, :
Descrption: In this interdisciplinary course, students will explore the history and culture of witchcraft and magic from ca. 400 to 1700 C.E. within sociological, religious, and intellectual contexts. By the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of the practice, persecution, and social construct of magic and witchcraft in the medieval and early modern periods and its far-reaching impact on society.
Autumn 2017, Spring 2018
Kristin Figg
Description:
In this interdisciplinary course, students will explore the history and culture of witchcraft and magic from ca. 400 to 1700 C.E. within sociological, religious, and intellectual contexts. As students gain basic knowledge of the history of witchcraft and magic during these periods (both actual practice and contemporary beliefs about that practice), they will develop some ability to understand why these practices and beliefs developed as they did and what societal and cultural needs drove them.
Readings for the course will be mainly primary materials—that is, treatises, trial transcripts, statutes, and literature from the medieval and early modern periods, as well as some biblical and classical background texts. The main textbook will be The Witchcraft Sourcebook, ed. Brian Levack (Routledge 2004); you will also need copies of Medea and Doctor Faustus (Dover editions, available online). Additional short readings and lecture outlines will be posted on Canvas for you to print before class each day. We will be watching several movies in class, as well as discussing film clips and magic/witchcraft-themed music.
Grades will be based on attendance (10% of your final grade), three multiple choice quizzes (20% each), and a comprehensive final exam (multiple choice and one essay, 30%). Students will also be expected to participate in weekly on-line discussions; the grade for this activity can be used to replace the lowest quiz grade.
Spring 2011, Spring 2003
Sharon Collingwood, Department of Women's Studies
Description: In this interdisciplinary course, students will explore the history and culture of witchcraft and magic from ca. 400 to 1700 C.E. within sociological, religious and intellectual contexts. By the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of the practice, persecution and social construct of magic and witchcraft in the medieval and early modern periods and its far-reaching impact on society.
MEDREN 4217 "Early Modern London: Urban Spaces and Popular Cultures"
Autumn 2016
Chris Highley, Dept. of English
Description: This course will explore roughly one and a half centuries of the history, politics, and culture of London, beginning with the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation, moving onto a civil war that saw King Charles I lose his head, and culminating with the devastating plague and Great Fire of London in 1666. We will begin by studying the factors behind London's phenomenal growth in the sixteenth century, a growth that quickly made the city the center of economic and political life in Britain. By reading a range of primary documents including urban surveys, plays, poems, and pamphlets we will consider the opportunities and problems created by rapid urbanization (social mobility, poverty, disease) as well as the institutions and structures that regulated the life of the city.
In our tour of this vibrant metropolis we will encounter an extraordinary range of figures: alongside the great and the good like Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Shakespeare, we will also meet prostitutes, vagabonds, and gulls (!). We will become familiar with the layout and buildings of London, its churches and cathedrals, its palaces and thoroughfares, and of course its iconic river Thames. We will linger especially at the theaters, bear gardens, cockpits, and brothels that made up London's burgeoning entertainment industry. Students will also read recent scholarship on all aspects of the early modern metropolis.
MEDREN 4504 The Arthurian Legends
Autumn 2013, Spring 2013, Autumn 2008
Ethan Edwin Hugh Knapp, Dept. of English, :
Description: This course will explore the rich tradition of Arthuriana that flourished in the Middle Ages and continues to thrive in modern popular culture. After sampling some of the earliest legends about King Arthur in British histories and saints' lives, we will focus on three major works/authors: the fabulous tales of knights errant by Chrétien de Troyes, known as the “father of Arthurian romance”; Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, a haunting, often bewildering, story of sin and self-discovery centered on the quest for the holy grail; and Malory's epic Morte Darthur, which, more than any single text, has shaped modern conceptions of Arthur. Requirements include 3 exams and an optional extra-credit paper.
Autumn 2011, Winter 2011, Spring 2008, Spring 2007, Winter 2006, Winter 2005, Winter 200, Spring 2015
Karen Winstead, Department of English, :
Description: This course will explore the rich tradition of Arthuriana that flourished in the Middle Ages and continues to thrive in modern popular culture. We will sample a few of the earliest accounts of King Arthur in British histories, then look at the development of some of the most famous Arthurian legends, including the quest for the holy grail and the tragic love stories of Tristan and Isolde and of Lancelot and Guenivere. The authors we will study include Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien de Troyes, and Thomas Malory. We will also consider the incarnation of Arthurian characters and themes in modern literature and film. Requirements: a midterm, a final exam, a final project, and a series of on-line quizzes. Prereq: 10 cr hrs in literature. Not open to students with credit for CompStds 504 or 510
MEDREN 5194 Group Studies
Jonathan Burgoyne, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, Autumn 2011:
Christians, Jews and Muslims in Spain and the Mediterranean World
Description: The course introduces students to Mediterranean studies and three religious communities that shared the Mediterranean world, concentrating on Iberia in a global Mediterranean context. The introduction to Mediterranean Studies will survey various interdisciplinary topics from art history, architecture, music, economics, geography and literature from approximately 587 AD (the conversion of king Recared to Catholicism) to 1609 (the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain).
Lisa Kiser, Dept. of English, Winter 2006:
Nature in the Middle Ages
Description: This course will explore the various ways in which late medieval European literary culture reflected on the natural environment. We will read a variety of romances, allegories, saints' lives, lyrics, and fables to examine how different medieval communities constructed humanity's relationship to the nonhuman natural world. Social practices such as hunting, gardening, and animal domestication will be scrutinized, as well as the use of bestiaries, animal fables, herbal lore and landscape analysis.
MEDREN 5194 - Group Studies: Early Modern Spanish Life Writing and the Picaresque Novel
Elizabeth Davis (Spanish and Portuguese): Autumn 2019
Description: Recent theories of life writing posit a theatrical and discursive construction of the self that takes place in the process of writing the autobiographical text. Some of these features already appear in early modern Lives and in fictional life stories of the period, such as the Spanish picaresque novel. In this course, we will look at early modern life writing, including fictional and non-fictional narratives from Spain and her distant colonies, from the perspective of the aforementioned theories.
MEDREN 5610 Manuscript Studies
Autumn 2012, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2016
Leslie Lockett, Dept. of English, & Eric Johnson, University Libraries
Description: This course will introduce students to the pre-print culture of the European Middle Ages and help them to read and understand handwritten, books, documents, and scrolls produced during the period AD 500–1500. Students will gain hands-on experience with manuscripts in the OSU library collections and will hear guest lectures by experts in special types of manuscripts from different regions of medieval Europe. Requirements for the course include several in-class tests and two research projects. Required Textbook: Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (2008).
MEDREN 5611 History of the Book Studies
Autumn 2013, Autumn 2017
David A Brewer, Dept. of English
Description: This course will be devoted to thinking about books and other printed artifacts from the hand press period (c. 1450-1830) as material objects. You’ll learn how books are made, try your hand at setting type and printing, and think about what we can learn about cultural history if we adopt a book’s eye view and follow its movements, rather than those of the people supposedly in charge of it. We’ll regularly explore the holdings of our rare book library—with lots of hands-on examination—and otherwise try to make this course a very tactile (and olfactory) experience. We judge books by their covers all the time; here’s a chance to learn how to do it with more authority.
Course requirements include regular posing of questions for us to consider in our discussions, active participation in those discussions and in a midterm scavenger hunt, a willingness to be “game” as we explore a wide range of material (not all of which you’ll be able to read—at least in the conventional sense), and a contribution to a collective exhibition at the end of the course.
Spring 2012, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2019
Alan Farmer, Dept. of English
Description: This course will introduce students to the history of the book in the hand-press period from the 15th to the 18th century. We will focus on developing the essential skills of descriptive and analytical bibliography (the description of books as physical objects and the analysis of their manufacturing and production) and consider how the material forms of texts are shaped by non-authorial agents like printers, compositors, proofreaders, pressmen, publishers, booksellers, readers, and collectors. The course will thus involve lots of hands-on research of books in the impressive collections of OSU’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, but we will also consider larger theoretical and historical questions related to the effects—religious, political, cultural, literary, economic, intellectual, etc.—of the spread of the printed book in Renaissance England and Europe. This course is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students working in any field
Required Texts will probably include Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography, 2nd printing (Oak Knoll, 2000) (ISBN 978-1884718137); Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, new ed. (Cambridge UP, 2005) (ISBN 978-0521607742); Andrew Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (Yale UP, 2010) (ISBN 978-0300178210); and readings on Carmen. There will also be several recommended texts.
Assignments: Several bibliographical exercises and a longer paper.
Spring 2008
John King, Dept. of English
Description: This course will be co-taught with Professor James K. Bracken.
Course will study the construction and transmission of books during the era of the hand press (c. 1450 - 1800). Focusing on vernacular traditions in England of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, we shall devote attention to medieval antecedents, books in classical and contemporary languages, parallel developments in Continental Europe, and the transition from making books by hand to industrial manufacture. Topics will include the medieval manuscript tradition, the advent of printing in Europe, the manual construction of books as material objects, book illustration, the marketing of books within the European book trade, reading habits, and censorship. Students will also consider broader cultural issues concerning orality, literacy, visuality, and artifactuality. Students will gain hands-on experience with the rich collections of our Rare Books and Manuscripts Library through frequent book exhibitions, demonstrations, and individual projects.
This course is suitable to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in all fields.
Each student will undertake a research project concerning the "biography" of a notable book in his or her major field (e.g., a Spanish major might scrutinize the printing and publication history of Don Quixote; a philosophy major might study the printing of an important writing by Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Francis Bacon, or John Locke; or a student of art history or biology might consider Vesalius's Anatomy.)
Winter 2005
John King, Dept. of English & Jim Bracken
Descrption: Course will study the construction and transmission of books during the era of the hand press (c. 1450 - 1800). Focusing on vernacular traditions in England of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, we shall devote attention to medieval antecedents, books in classical and contemporary languages, parallel developments in Continental Europe, and the transition from making books by hand to industrial manufacture. Topics will include the medieval manuscript tradition, the advent of printing in Europe, the manual construction of books as material objects, book illustration, the marketing of books within the European book trade, reading habits, and censorship. Students will also consider broader cultural issues concerning orality, literacy, visuality, and artifactuality. Students will gain hands-on experience with
the rich collections of our Rare Books and Manuscripts Library through frequent book exhibitions, demonstrations, and individual projects.
This course is suitable to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in all fields.
Each student will undertake a research project concerning the "biography" of a notable book in his or her major field (e.g., a Spanish major might scrutinize the printing and publication history of Don Quixote; a philosophy major might study the printing of an important writing by Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Francis Bacon, or John Locke; or a student of art history or biology might consider Vesalius's Anatomy.)
MEDREN 5631 Survey of Latin Literature: Medieval and Renaissance
Spring 2014
Richard F. Green, Dept. of English
Description: This course will sample the major genres of medieval and early modern literature in Latin (including epic, romance, drama, satire, saints’ lives, exempla, and historical writing). Some previous knowledge of Latin will be expected, but material will be selected to accord with the general reading-level of the class. Typically, those familiar with classical Latin will find medieval and early-modern Latin syntactically more straightforward, though it has its own distinctive grammar and vocabulary. Assignments: translation tests and one essay.
Textbook: Medieval Latin: Second Edition [Paperback], Ed. K. P. Harrington and Joseph Pucci (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962)--supplemented on occasion with online sources, such as the Latin Library (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/medieval.html).Prereq: Latin 1103, or equiv. Not open to students with credit for Medieval 631.
Spring 2017, Spring 2013, Autumn 2007, Autumn 2004
Frank T. Coulson, Dept. of Classics
Description: This course will introduce the student to the breadth of medieval Latin--from its genesis during the transitional period in late antiquity to its transformation at the hands of Italian humanists in the fourteenth century. We shall read widely in all genres and periods. A firm grounding in Latin grammar and some reading knowledge of Latin is a pre-requisite. The course is aimed particularly at graduate students from other departments who need to improve their reading comprehension in the language. The text used is Keith Sidwell, Reading Medieval Latin.
Spring 2018, Autumn 2017, Winter 2012, Autumn 2005
Leslie Lockett, Dept of English
Description: This survey of medieval Latin verse forms will provide training in a set of skills that are indispensable to all medievalists. Even if you typically focus on historical prose, the visual arts, or music, it is extremely useful to be able to undertake formal analysis and source study of the poetic texts that you will inevitably encounter in your research.
Readings for this course will include medieval Latin poems representing a wide variety of quantitative and rhythmic verse forms, as well as medieval Latin prose discussions of why and how to compose poetry. We will spend time with the sober dactylic hexameters of the biblical epics, the dazzling variety of the meters of Boethius, the experimental rhythms of Augustine’s Psalm Against the Donatists, the octosyllabic verses of Irish monks, the ridiculous mock-liturgical Song of the Ass, and even word games such as acrostics and palindromes, among many other types of poetry.
Description: This section of CMRS 5631 will be an intermediate reading course for students interested in medieval Latin literature and language. We will read a sampling of Latin texts written between late antiquity and c. 1200, with selections taken from biblical and liturgical sources, narrative prose and verse, lyric and satiric poetry, as well as legal documents. While helping students become more confident translators, the course also aims to acquaint them with some of the specialized reference-works and bibliographical resources pertinent to the study of medieval Latin. In addition to the daily homework of reading and translating, requirements for the class include submission of three written translation-passages, an oral report, a final paper or bibliographical project, and a short final exam.
While translation will remain a major component of the preparation for each class meeting, you will also practice scansion and other categories of formal analysis, and you will learn to use research tools that facilitate formal analysis and source study, such as the Hexameter-Lexikon and the Library of Latin Texts. Preparation for each class meeting is extremely important and will include translation, scansion, secondary readings, and other brief assignments in formal analysis and source study. Written work will include two or three brief translation and scansion assignments, a final exam, and a final project consisting of an annotated translation of a verse text. No matter what field of medieval studies your specialty may be, this class will sharpen your skills in close textual analysis and open new avenues of research! You will also come away with a better historical understanding of Latin literacy and education from late antiquity through the late Middle Ages.
Required Books: A medium or large Latin dictionary and a course pack. Additional readings will be posted on Carmen; some of these must be printed and brought to class.
Spring 2011, Autumn 2007, Autuym 2003, Summer 2003, Spring 2015, Spring 2016
Christopher Jones, Department of English
Description: We will read a sampling of Latin texts written between late antiquity and c. 1200 from biblical and liturgical sources, narrative prose and verse, lyric and satiric poetry, as well as legal documents. While helping students become more confident translators, the course also aims to acquaint them with medieval Latin resources. Requirements include daily reading and translation, three written translation-passages, an oral report, a final paper or bibliographical project, and short final exam.
MEDREN 5695 Advanced Seminar
Spring 2018, Autumn 2017 - Arthurian Literature
Description: This course will explore the rich tradition of Arthurian Literature that flourished in the Middle Ages and continues to thrive in modern popular culture. We will sample a few of the earliest accounts of King Arthur in British histories, then look at the development of some of the most famous Arthur legends, including the quest for the holy grail and the tragic love stories of Tristan and Isolde and of Lancelot and Guenivere. Authors to be read will include Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France, and Thomas Malory. We will also consider the incarnation of Arthurian characters and themes in modern literature and film. Requirements will include a midterm, final exam, and research paper.
Ethan Knapp, Dept. of English
Spring 2017 - European Renaissance
Hannibal Hamlin, Dept. of English
Fourteenth-century Italians felt they were living at the dawn of a new era, a rebirth of the glories of Classical Greece and Rome. Classical writings that had been lost for centuries were rediscovered in monastic libraries, and works that had been known were re-edited with more sophisticated historical and philological scholarship. This textual and literary scholarship—Humanism—led to reforms in education that spread across Europe and influenced kings and courtiers as well as scholars. Spurred by technological advances in printing, military armaments, navigation, and finance, Europe experienced a cultural golden age, as the Renaissance moved North and West to France, Spain, the Netherlands, and finally England. But was this really a rebirth or just another stage in developments already underway in the so-called “middle” ages? Was this “renaissance” experienced by everyone—women? common folk? new world peoples”—or was it confined to a privileged few? Was the Protestant Reformation part of the Renaissance or a movement antithetical to it? And how long did it last?
This course will explore these and other questions in the literature and culture of this period, in the writing of early Humanists like Petrarch (who virtually invented love), Lorenzo Valla, and Pico della Mirandola, and in masterpieces like Luis de Camões’s epic of Portuguese exploration, Os Lusiadas, Montaigne’s Essays (the form he invented), Thomas More’s Utopia, and Erasmus’s In Praise of Folly. We will sample stories by Boccaccio, Marguerite de Navarre, Cervantes, poems by Michelangelo, Vittoria Colonna, Pierre de Ronsard, Louise Labé, and Thomas Wyatt, as well as Calderon’s great play, Life is a Dream. We will look at paintings, sculpture, and architecture by Raphael, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, Masaccio, Dürer, and Holbein, and multimedia forms like emblems and hieroglyphs. The Reformation will take us to vernacular Bibles and the debate on free will between Luther and Erasmus.
Evaluation will be based on a final research paper and several short assignments including critical analysis, paintings, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the history of Classical texts.
Spring 2016; Spring 2019
Sam White, Dept. of History
The Little Ice Age
Description: This course will explore the human experience of climatic changes and extremes from the Great Famine of the 1310s to the famous “Year without a Summer” in 1816. We’ll start by examining how scientists and historians have reconstructed past climate, and how they have explained its impact on agriculture, health, and economic and political history. However, the real emphasis of the course will be how ordinary people lived through the Little Ice Age: their perceptions, experiences, and memories of climatic changes and extremes. We’ll approach this topic through case studies of historical events, as well as theater, art, and literature. We’ll draw on examples from across the world over a wide range of time, but with a focus on Europe and particularly England ca.1560-1620. Throughout this course we’ll discuss how past experiences of natural climate change can (and can’t) help us understand the experience of anthropogenic global warming in the present century.
Spring 2013
Sarah-Grace Heller, Dept. of French and Italian
Tristan and Iseut in the Medieval World
Description: The Tristan and Iseut Tradition, East and West. Tristan, nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, wins for his uncle the hand of Iseut (or Isolde) the Blonde of Ireland after slaying a monster, the Morholt. On their way to Mark’s court they fall in love after mistakenly drinking a love potion intended for the bridal couple. So begins one of the greatest love stories in medieval literature. We will compare the extant versions of the story: the 12 th-century Old French fragments of Thomas and Béroul, Gottfried von Strassburg’s magnificently rendered German version (c. 1210), the five Norse adaptations, and the short texts known as the “Folie Tristan” (Madness of Tristan) that invent one more furtive meeting for the tragic lovers, including that by Marie de France, “The Honeysuckle and the Hazeltree.” What made this tale so well popular, so compelling, and also so frequently fragmentary? Why break it open in the middle to add to it, rather than write sequels? We will also examine the first Persian epic romance, Vis and Ramin (c. 1050), now beginning to be recognized as the source for this tale (to which Europeans have long attributed Celtic origins), leading to discussions of intertextuality, re-writing, source texts, and transmission in Medieval Studies.
Assignment: a research paper, workshopped in stages through the semester. Capstone and third writing course for MedRen majors. Open to undergraduate and graduate students.
Texts: 1. Beroul, The Romance of Tristan. Trans. Alan Fedrick. Penguin. ISBN 9780140442304. 2. Gottfried von Strasburg, Tristan with the ‘Tristan’ of Thomas. Trans. Arthur Thomas Hatto. Penguin. ISBN 9780140440980. 3. Fakhraddin Gorgoni, Vis and Ramin. Trans. Dick Davis. Penguin. ISBN 0143105620.
Spring 2012
Jennifer Higginbotham, Dept. of English
Medieval and Renaissance Women
Description: Chaste, silent, and obedient? Not likely! In this class we’ll examine some of the eloquent and defiant literature produced by medieval and Renaissance women. In what ways did they help shape their cultures, and what strategies did they use for self-authorization? At a time when writing was considered the privilege of men, a surprising number of women laid claim to the right to write, producing literary works in a wide variety of genres, including autobiography, religious meditation, letters, short stories, and poetry. Our focus will be on texts written, dictated, inspired or commissioned by women, plus texts written against or forced upon them: texts, in short, that helped shaped the possibilities of pre-modern women’s lives. In the process, we’ll question the traditional division between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in light of women’s cultural history. Readings will include French writings by Marie de France, Abelard and Heloise, Christine de Pizan, and Louise Labe, the work of Italian women humanists and poets, and sonnets by the English aristocrat Mary Wroth and the nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in New Spain. Requirements include enthusiastic class participation, regular discussion postings, an oral presentation, and a final research project. All readings will be available in translation.
Spring 2014, Autumn 2010
Christopher Highley, Department of English
The Literature and History of Early Modern London (1485-1660)
Description: Description: This interdisciplinary course will explore roughly one and a half centuries of the history, politics, and culture of London, beginning with the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation, moving onto a civil war that saw King Charles I lose his head, and culminating with the devastating plague and Great Fire of London in 1666. We will begin by studying the factors behind London's phenomenal growth in the sixteenth century, a growth that quickly made London an unrivalled center of economic and political life in Britain. By reading a range of primary documents including urban surveys, parish registers, plays, and pamphlets we will consider the opportunities and problems spawned by urbanization (social mobility, poverty, disease) as well as the institutions and structures that regulated the life of the city. In our tour of this vibrant world, we will encounter an extraordinary range of figures: alongside the great and the good like monarchs and Lord Mayors, we will also encounter prostitutes, vagabonds, and gallants. We will become familiar with the topography and built environment of London, its churches and cathedrals, its palaces and thoroughfares, and of course its iconic river Thames. We will linger especially over religious controversies, public spectacles, and the burgeoning commerce of theater.. Prereq: 6 credit hours in MEDREN at the 2000 level or above. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs.
Spring 2008
Ethan Knapp, Dept. of English
Description: Medieval allegory was a remarkable literary device, and it was one that produced several of the most exciting works of the period. This course will look at both the theory and practice of medieval allegory, drawing together works from a large time span and diverse traditions. We will be asking several questions about allegory: What is the dividing line between Allegory and literary realism? What is the dividing line between literary Allegory and philosophy? Why was Allegory so attractive in the medieval period? This class will have a midterm, final, and a research paper.
Readings will include: Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio; Bernard Silvestris, Cosmographia; Alan de Lille, Complaint of Nature; De Meun/Lorris, Romance of the Rose; Dante, Divine Comedy; Langland, Piers Plowman.
2 2-hr cl. Prereq: Jr, sr, or grad standing; or permission of instructor
Repeatable to a maximum of 15 cr hrs. GEC third writing course.
Spring 2006, Summer 2004, Summer 2003
Christopher Highley, Department of English
Medieval Allegory
Description: Medieval allegory was a remarkable literary device, and it was one that produced several of the most exciting works of the period. This course will look at both the theory and practice of medieval allegory, drawing
together works from a large time span and diverse traditions. We will be asking several questions about allegory: What is the dividing line between Allegory and literary realism? What is the dividing line between literary Allegory and philosophy? Why was Allegory so attractive in the medieval period? This class will have a midterm, final, and a research paper.
Readings will include: Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio; Bernard Silvestris, Cosmographia; Alan de Lille, Complaint of Nature; De Meun/Lorris,Romance of the Rose; Dante, Divine Comedy; Langland, Piers Plowman.
Spring 2005
Richard Davis, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Medieval Allegory
Description: Medieval allegory was a remarkable literary device, and it was one that produced several of the most exciting works of the period. This course will look at both the theory and practice of medieval allegory, drawing together works from a large time span and diverse traditions. We will be asking several questions about allegory: What is the dividing line between Allegory and literary realism? What is the dividing line between literary Allegory and philosophy? Why was Allegory so attractive in themedieval period? This class will have a midterm, final, and a research paper.
Readings will include: Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio; BernardSilvestris, Cosmographia; Alan de Lille, Complaint of Nature; De Meun/Lorris, Romance of the Rose; Dante, Divine Comedy; Langland, Piers Plowman.
Winter 2004
Karen Winstead, Dept. of English
Medieval Allegory
Description: Medieval allegory was a remarkable literary device, and it was one that produced several of the most exciting works of the period. This course will look at both the theory and practice of medieval allegory, drawing together works from a large time span and diverse traditions. We will be asking several questions about allegory: What is the dividing line between Allegory and literary realism? What is the dividing line between literary Allegory and philosophy? Why was Allegory so attractive in the medieval period? This class will have a midterm, final, and a research paper.
Readings will include: Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio; Bernard Silvestris, Cosmographia; Alan de Lille, Complaint of Nature; De Meun/Lorris, Romance of the Rose; Dante, Divine Comedy; Langland, Piers Plowman.
Spring 2015
Elizabeth Davis, Spanish and Portuguese
Advanced Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Studies: Cervantes and the Mediterranean World
Description: Miguel de Cervantes is known primarily for his masterpiece, Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605 and 1615), which some literary historians consider the first modern novel. Cervantes, however, wrote much more than the Quijote. His works include a pastoral novel (La Galatea, 1585), an important collection of novellas (Exemplary Novels, 1613), a romance beloved by the writer (The Labors of Persiles y Sigismunda), and a number of well known plays. In some ways, Cervantes’s life was as wide-ranging as his work. Striking out on his own down the roads heading south to Seville and east to the Mediterranean ports of the Levant, he was one of the few early modern Spanish writers who made his career mostly away from the Court. In fact, his intimate familiarity with the wide Mediterranean World at large derived primarily from his experience as a soldier and a prisoner. It is well known that Cervantes fought against the Ottoman navy under Don John of Austria at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), and that he wore his wounds from that battle as a badge of honor for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, Cervantes’s renegotiation of Islam in literature occurs first and foremost in the context of Ottoman-controlled Algiers, where the writer himself spent five years as a captive in the Algerian bagnios. This course will focus on the ways in which some of Cervantes’s narrative and dramatic works make visible the tensions and transactions on the waters and the shores of the disputed Mediterranean sea. While a reading knowledge of Spanish is certainly a plus, the Cervantine works and secondary sources for this course are available in English, and the course will be taught entirely in English.
Books ordered for this course:
1. Mediterranean: A Cultural Landscape (Hardback - 1999) by Predrag Matvejevic (Author)
2. Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) Paperback – February 25, 2003by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Author), John Rutherford (Editor, Translator), Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria (Introduction)
3. "The Bagnios of Algiers" and "The Great Sultana": Two Plays of Captivity. Paperback – August 2, 2012 by Miguel de Cervantes (Author), Barbara Fuchs (Translator), Aaron J. Ilika (Translator)
4. The Exemplary Novels: Complete Edition Paperback – September 27, 2013 by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Author), Walter K. Kelly (Translator).
OR:
The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes Paperback – January 10, 2007 by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Author)
5. An Early Modern Dialogue with Islam: Antonio de Sosa's Topography of Algiers (1612) (History Lang and Cult Spanish Portuguese). Paperback – April 15, 2011 by Antonio de Sosa (Author), Maria Antonia Garces (Editor), Diana de Armas Wilson (Translator)
MEDREN 7882 Interdepartmental Studies in the Humanities
Winter 2012
Frank T. Coulson, Dept. of Classics
Palaeography of Gothic Script
Description: Interdisciplinary graduate seminar in palaeography of Gothic script: 1200-1500. Of the multiplicity of book hands which survive in manuscripts, perhaps none was so influential as that referred to as “Gothic.” Yet the script is also fraught with problems: how to account for its genesis in the early thirteenth century out of the legible and clear Caroline minuscule? How to describe the multiplicity of variations in the script (textualis, cursiva, semi-cursiva, hybrida, secretary, bastarda etc.)? How to localize and date regional variations of the script (anglicana, bononiensis, parisiensis)? The publication of Albert Derolez’s The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books has placed the study of the script on a firmer footing. The forthcoming publication of my own Handbook of Latin Palaeography will further serve to incorporate many of the advances made in the last decade.
In this course, students will learn to transcribe, date and localize different types of Gothic script from its genesis around 1225 to the year 1500. We shall examine both textualis and cursive varieties, and we shall look at numerous examples of the script from England, France, Italy and Germany. The final weeks of the course will be taken up with individual research projects selected by the student with a view to publication.
This course should be of great value to all medievalists working in the later Middle Ages. Few universities offer an intensive course in Gothic (in spite of its evident importance)–Toronto does not. Students should leave the course with a relatively secure knowledge of how to date their manuscripts, and an ability to transcribe accurately various types and grades of Gothic. While a previous course in paleography is beneficial, the first class will introduce the background necessary for the seminar. An ability to work with Latin is required.
Winter 2004
Anne Morganstern, Dept. of History of Art
Town, Countryside, and Secular Architecture in Medieval France and Britain
Description: During the 20th century most scholars studying medieval architecture,except those in England, focussed their attention primarily on ecclesiastical buildings. In the latter part of the century, however, this began to change, and architectural historians, historians, and archeologists turned increasingly to towns, country settlements, and secular structures. In America to this day, though, courses in medieval architecture rarely discuss non-ecclesiastical planning and buildings.
This seminar seeks to begin to redress this imbalance. It is conceived as a colloquium-workshop organized around introductory lectures, readings, and student presentations. It will examine towns, country estates, villages, palaces, houses, forts, and castles from the Late Roman, Early Medieval, Anglo-Saxon, Carolingian, Romanesque, Norman, and Gothic periods in France and Britain, and, whenever possible, will try to relate the sites and monuments discussed to their historical and cultural context.
Prior exposure to medieval architecture or planning is not required, but students should be advanced undergraduates or graduate students.
Spring 2004
James Morganstern, Dept. of History of Art
Town, Countryside, and Secular Architecture in Medieval France and Britain
Description: During the 20th century most scholars studying medieval architecture,except those in England, focussed their attention primarily on ecclesiastical buildings. In the latter part of the century, however, this began to change, and architectural historians, historians, and archeologists turned increasingly to towns, country settlements, and secular structures. In America to this day, though, courses in medieval architecture rarely discuss non-ecclesiastical planning and buildings.
This seminar seeks to begin to redress this imbalance. It is conceived as a colloquium-workshop organized around introductory lectures, readings, and student presentations. It will examine towns, country estates, villages, palaces, houses, forts, and castles from the Late Roman, Early Medieval, Anglo-Saxon, Carolingian, Romanesque, Norman, and Gothic periods in France and Britain, and, whenever possible, will try to relate the sites and monuments discussed to their historical and cultural context.
Prior exposure to medieval architecture or planning is not required, but students should beadvanced undergraduates or graduate students.
MEDREN 7899 Medieval and Renaissance Colloquium
Description: 1 credit hour per semester for attending CMRS lectures, faculty colloquia and subsequent discussions. This will amount to: 5 (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 MRGSA 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. Most CMRS Lectures and Faculty Colloquia begin at 3:00pm on Fridays.