66782 - History of Medieval Europe (LM)

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Docente: Paolo Pirillo
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: M-STO/01
  • Language: Italian

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will know the essential characteristics of the political-institutional and socio-economic history of mediaeval Europe, with the help of various testimonies . Students will gain skills methodology in organizing autonomous research.

Course contents

The course aims to offer a picture of the religious, cultural and social motivations of the pilgrimages to the Holy Land after the end of the Crusader presence (1291). The lessons are organised in the reading and analysing of some published memories written by pilgrims in the 14th and 15th centuries. Their commentary will be a pretext to get to know the religious and devotional, but also ideal, symbolic and cultural sensibilities at the origin of this phenomenon that would have driven men and women of the Middle Ages on the long journey to Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

Readings/Bibliography

Reference text for the course is: Franco Cardini, In Terrasanta. Pellegrini italiani tra Medioevo e prima età moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2005 (Storica paperbacks)

Teaching methods

Lectures. Seminars and critical analysis of documents. In the "Materiali per il Corso" there are some files (pdf) containing the basic text of a pilgrimage diary to the Holy Land which will serve as a reference for all the lessons.

Assessment methods

This exam is an oral exam through which the critical and methodological abilities acquired by the student during the course will be evaluated; the student will be invited to discuss the issues addressed during the course. The following abilities will be evaluated positively: a student's ability to familiarize him/herself with bibliographical material and sources with the aim of selecting information from the literature that can be used to illustrate aspects and areas of culture pertaining to the discipline. The ability to reach a critical and systematic vision of the discipline and the ability to demonstrate the possession of a descriptive command and of appropriate field-specific language will be rewarded with a mark of excellence.

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Pirillo