12180 - History of Medieval Historiography (1)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the programme, the student will have achieved a general vision of Medieval historiography between the 5th and the 14th century, in compliance with formal typology and contents. He will have achieved a direct knowledge of texts through reading and analysis of original sources. He will be able to identify and use the main bibliographic resources; he will be capable of understanding the prevailing models in the interpretation of events and the connections among the various stages of the building of historical memory and the evolution of political-institutional outlines in the different fields of textual production. He will be able to place in a diachronically and general framework the Medieval historiographical practice in its political and ideological dimension.

Course contents

The basic part of the course will be focused on the medieval historical practice, on the textual typologies, on the political and ideological patterns of the medieval historical production, on the historian's power to create, re-create and invent past history.

Part of the course will be focused on Italian city Historiography between the 13th and 14th century

Readings/Bibliography

ATTENDING STUDENTS:

• B. Smalley, Storici nel Medioevo, Napoli 1979
• L'invenzione della tradizione, a c. d. E. J. Hobsbawm-T. Ranger, Torino 2002, pp. 3-17

• M. Zabbia, Sulla scrittura della storia in Italia (secoli XIII-XV), Reti Medievali Rivista, 19, 1 (2018)<http://www.retimedievali.it>

• F. Delle Donne, Da Valla a Facio, dalla prassi alla teorizzazione retorica della scrittura storica, Reti Medievali Rivista, 19, 1 (2018)<http://www.retimedievali.it

 

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

• B. Smalley, Storici nel Medioevo, Napoli 1979
• L'invenzione della tradizione, a c.di E. J. Hobsbawm.T. Ranger, Torino 2002, pp. 3-98

• R. W. Southern, La tradizione della storiografia medievale, Bologna 2002
• M. Zabbia, Sulla scrittura della storia in Italia (secoli XIII-XV), Reti Medievali Rivista, 19, 1 (2018)<http://www.retimedievali.it>
• F. Delle Donne, Da Valla a Facio, dalla prassi alla teorizzazione retorica della scrittura storica, Reti Medievali Rivista, 19, 1 (2018)<http://www.retimedievali.it>

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Teaching methods

Frontal lectures.

Assessment methods

The final exam will be an oral one, with questions aimed to verify the student's knowledge of the themes discussing during frontal lectures (only for attending students) as well as those treated in the program's texts.

NB In the event that the course is also a C.I. module, the final mark will be calculated on the average of the results obtained on the individual modules.

Non-attending students will have to take an oral final exam about the themes treated in the program's texts.

The assessment will concentrate particularly on the skill displayed by the student in handling the sources and material in the exam bibliography and his ability to find and use information and examples to illustrate and correlate the various themes and problems addressed in the course.

The assessment will thus examine the student's:

- factual knowledge of the subject;
- ability to summarise and analyse themes and concepts;
- familiarity with the terminology associated with the subject and his ability to use it effectively.

Top marks will be awarded to a student displaying an overall understanding of the topics discussed during the lectures, combined with a critical approach to the material and a confident and effective use of the appropriate terminology.
Average marks will be awarded to a student who has memorized the main points of the material and is able to summarise them satisfactorily and provide an effective critical commentary, while failing to display a complete command of the appropriate terminology.
A student will be deemed to have failed the exam if he displays significant errors in his understanding and failure to grasp the overall outlines of the subject, together with a poor command of the appropriate terminology.

Teaching tools

We will use power point slides with images and maps. Various examples of historical sources will be used and discussed.

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Roversi Monaco