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 cultural heritage.

Students will learn to understand the principal political-institutional and socio-cultural processes of the Medieval Age; to critically analyze 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 valorization of the material (documental, iconographic and monumental) patrimony.

Course contents

 

First module (30 hrs, prof. Raffaele Savigni:

1) (2 hrs) Methodology of historical research. The concepts of source and document. Schools of historiography. The problem of periodization. The main collections of sources.The "new History".

2) (18 hrs) General lineaments of the history of the Middle Ages: institutions, society, culture. The end of the ancient world. The Christianization of the Empire and the Migrations of nomadic peoples. The Early Middle Ages. Processes of enculturation and emergence of the Roman-Germanic kingdoms.  

The Lombards and the Franks: society, institutions, mentality.

Western Europe, Byzantium and Islam. The Cult of images and Ionoclasm.The emergence of ethnic and cultural identities in medieval Europe: the heritage of antiquity, Christianization, Germanic cultures.

The Carolingian and Ottonian Empire.Feudalism and Seigniory. The Chivalry. The rural society.

Universalism and particularism in medieval society. The individual and the community.

Papacy and Empire.Ecclesiastical institutions and Church reform.

Christianity and the Islamic world. Pilgrimages, Missions, holy Wars and the Crusades (outline).

Climate and history. Climate change in the Middle Ages.

The transmission of knowledge: encyclopedias, lapidaries and bestiaries.

Case studies (10 h): Political and Religious Iconography.  Ravenna mosaics. The statues of Theoderic and their reuse. The image controversy. The representation of the Magi and the Afterlife. The floor mosaic of Otranto cathedral. The Bayeux tapestry. The "Liber Floridus". The frescoes of the Camposanto of Pisa.

B - second learning module (26 h) taught by Elisa Tosi Brandi

The second learning module focuses on the analysis of some fundamental themes of the late medieval civilization (14 h):

• Western European kingdoms and the formation of the Modern state. Regional states in Italy.
• The Papacy and the Empire.
• Urban society: social-economic and political-institutional dynamics. Comune and Signoria.
• The 14^th century.
• Geographical discoveries and commercial routes. Humanism and Renaissance.

The main body investigates a specific theme to introduce the students to the medieval towns in late medieval, particularly on (8 h):

• The representation of the city: the fresco cycle painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico (1338-1339).
• Good government vs bad government.
• Urban economy: trades and guilds; workshops and craftsmen

The last part concerns the methodology of medieval historical sources with a focus on the material culture, particularly on:“The daily life in late medieval towns: people, home, objects” (4 h).

 

Readings/Bibliography

Students must study for section A (prof. R. Savigni):

1) Medieval history handbook of A. Zorzi, Manuale di storia medievale, Torino, Utet, 2016 or L. Tanzini-F.P. Tocco, Un Medioevo mediterraneo. Mille anni tra Oriente e Occidente, Roma, Carocci, 2020.

2) the sources and teaching materials uploaded to "Virtual";

3) ) C. Ferrari, La statua di Teoderico ad Aquisgrana: storia, arte e memoria tra antichità e Medioevo, in "Reti medievali Rivista" 23/2 (2022) (in open access: http://www.serena.unina.it/index.php/rm/article/view/9383/9986) and Piero Piccinini, Immagini d'autorità a Ravenna, in Storia di Ravenna, II/2, Venezia, Marsilio, 1992, pp. 31-78.

  B - second learning module (26 h) taught by Elisa Tosi Brandi

In addition to the medieval history handbook A. Zorzi, Manuale di storia medievale, Torino, Utet, 2016, students are required to know:

C. Frugoni, Paradiso vista Inferno. Buon governo e tirannide nel Medioevo di Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Bologna, il Mulino, 2019.

The students will present, before the exam, a paper (approximately ten pages) on a topic agreed with the professors.

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons during which various historical sources will be presented and discussed (sources will be made available in Italian translation, by the teacher or on the web), together with the related literature.

Assessment methods

At the beginning of the course there will be an entrance test to verify the initial knowledge and skills of the students attending. An intermediate test, given after half of course, will allow the learning process to be monitored.

The final exam will take place after the end of the lessons with both teachers. It will be oral, and made of three principal questions.The students will present, before the exam, a paper (approximately ten pages) on a topic agreed with the professor. The paper must be submitted before the exam, and should contain a list of the principal sources and bibliography used. The paper discussion will be considered as one of the three questions of the final test. Instructions on writing the essay are posted on the teacher's website (https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/raffaele.savigni/contenuti-utili).

The final evaluation will be determined also by class participation, i.e. by interventions and questions of the student during the lessons, as well as attendance to seminars, conferences, and lectures about Middle Ages organized or suggested by the teacher.

The student, to pass the examination, must prove his knowledge of the principal topics of the course, his ability to identify the principal socio-economic, cultural and institutional processes of the Middle Ages, and his awareness of the characteristics of a number of medieval sources, that he has to use and discuss critically (at least in their Italian translation). The list of sources, provided in class by the teacher, is available at https://iol.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=23553 .

To obtain high marks, students should demonstrate good knowledge of specific vocabulary (in Latin too, if necessary); ability to easily move through different topics and sources, and to connect them logically; ability to critically compare different sources on the same topic.

Students unable to describe the principal topics, or to correctly place in space and time major historical events, will not pass the examination.

Minimum requirement to pass the exam is the generic knowledge of principal topics (even without use of appropriate vocabulary).

Teaching tools

During frontal lessons, students will be guided by the teacher through the reading and discussion of written sources, and towards a selective use of the web for scientific purposes.

The teacher will use different sources from different typologies (all of them will be translated during classes), part of which are available on the net.

Open access online portals:

Reti medievali: http://www.rm.unina.it/

Power point presentations.

Students who are affected by learning disability (DSA) and in need of special strategies to compensate it, are kindly requested to contact the Teacher, in order to be referred to the colleagues in charge and get proper advice and instructions.

Office hours

See the website of Raffaele Savigni

See the website of Elisa Tosi Brandi