70746 - STORIA MEDIEVALE

Learning outcomes

Aim of this discipline is to bring students to the knowledge and comprehension of those political, institutional, social, and cultural phenomena which led to the construction of the special identity of Medieval Europe and of its documental and monumental patrimony.

Students will learn to understand, in its essential lines, the principal political-institutional and socio-cultural processes of the Medieval Age; to critically analyse their impact on European civilization in the long period; to apply these elements to the analysis of written sources and to the problems of the preservation and valorisation of the material (documental, iconographic and monumental) patrimony.

Course contents

Methodology of historical research. The concepts of history, time and space. The tradition. The scientific method. Epistemological approaches: to quantify, to interpret, to narrate. History and memory. The periods: Antiquity, Middle Ages, Modern history. The collections of sources.The cultural heritage: archive, library, museum.

Medieval society, institutions, culture.

Labour, brain-work and technology in the Middle Ages.

Modern Historiography and the sources.The new history.

Medievalism and imaginary Middle Ages.

Case studies: 1)  Artists and artisans. History of art, political iconography and religious mentality in the Late Antiquity and in the Middle Age. The imperial Palace, the papal palace, the bishops's palace. The three magi.The Black Death and the dance of death in the iconography; 2) The colour in The Middle Ages. Technique and symbolism. Lapidaries and bestiaires in the Middle Ages.   

Readings/Bibliography

Part A: 1) an handbook of Medieval history:  for instance M. Montanari, Storia medievale, Roma-Bari, Laterza 

2) One of the following books: a) M. Bloch, Apologia della storia, o mestiere di storico, Torino, Einaudi, 1998; b)  M. Bacci, Investimenti per l'aldilà : arte e raccomandazione dell'anima nel Medioevo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2003; c) M. Pastoureau, Medioevo simbolico, Roma-Bari 2007; d) one of the books  Il colore nel Medioevo. Arte simbolo tecnica, I-IV, Lucca 1996-2009; e) M. Seidel-R. Silva, Potere delle immagini, immagini del potere: Lucca citta imperiale: iconografia politica, Venezia, Marsilio, 2007 (The power of images, the images of power: Lucca as an imperial city: political iconography, Munich 2007) ; f) Ambrogio Lorenzetti : il Buon governo, a cura di E. Castelnuovo, Milano, Electa, 1995; e) J. Baschet, L' iconographie médiévale, Paris, Gallimard, 2008; g)  Arti e storia nel Medioevo, a cura di E. Castelnuovo e G. Sergi, vol. 4: Il Medioevo al passato e al presente, Torino, Einaudi, 2004  (some selected essays); h) A. Caffaro, Scrivere in oro. Ricettari medievali e artigianato (secoli IX-XI), Napoli, Liguori, 2003 with P. Galloni, Il sacro artefice, Roma-Bari 1998.    

 

 

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons with presentation and discussion of historical sources (in Italian translation) and of related literature.

Assessment methods

The test will consist in an oral examination, which will take part after the end of the lessons. It will be divided in 3 principal questions. The partecipation showed by the student during the lessons or during discussion in the forum will be considered for the final mark, as well as partecipation to seminars or conferences and lectures about Middle Ages organized or suggested by the teacher. The student, in order to pass the examination, will have to show to have understood the principal topics of the course, to be able to identify the principal social-economical, cultural and istitutional transformations in Middle Ages and to be able to use in a critical way the sources (at least in italian language) available in the wesite Alma-DLCampus http://campus.cib.unibo.it /   as well as the material indicated by the teacher. 

In order to obtain a high mark, the student will have to demonstrate to have a good knowledge of the specific vocabulary, also latin, to be able to easly move through the different topics and sources using the appropriate links, and confront critically the different saurces concerning the same topic. If the student appears not to be able to move through the principal subjects studied and not to be able to order in time and space the most important historical events, he won't be able to succeed in the examination. The (at least) generical knowledge of the principal subjects, even without the use of an appropriate vocabulary, will be sufficient, and the student will pass. 

The students could write a paper (of approximately ten pages) on a topic agreed with the professor (the paper must be submitted before the exam) and containing also the list of principal sources and bibliography used. The discussion of the paper is one of the three questions that will be examined during the final test.

Teaching tools

Frontal lections with reading and discussion of written sources. Guidance towards a selective use of the web for scientific purposes. The Professor will use different typologies of sources (all translated during classes) partly available on the net (especially at www.retimedievali.it). A guided visit to a library or an archive will provide a more direct approach to the primary sources

Links to further information

http://www.unibo.it/docenti/raffaele.savigni

Office hours

See the website of Raffaele Savigni