28955 - History of Medieval Europe (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student acquires the knowledge helpful to orient himself in the history of Europe and Mediterranean basin and the critical skills useful to operate in complex theoretical frameworks, even in terms of historical memory in contemporary culture. The student will be able also to face usefully the connections of historical studies with other human sciences.

Course contents

Structures and frames of medieval Europe

The course provides a number of lectures about the historical European framework of the IV-XV centuries, structured according to thematic frames.

First of all, we will discuss the methodological bases of contemporary historiography and than we will address the renewed interpretations deriving from it, expecially the transformation of the Roman world and the problem of the cultural construction of identities, subjective, social and collective.

We will also address the different forms of government institutions and the evolution of ecclesiastical structures and forms of religiosity, focusing on the one hand to their ritual and symbolic aspects and other, to the economic and social concreteness of their action.

Readings/Bibliography

All students, attending and not attending, have to study:

Introduzione alla storia medievale, a cura di G. Albertoni e T. Lazzari, Bologna, Il Mulino 2015.

The written part of the exam will be based on this text.

For the oral part of the exam:

Attending students will discuss lecture notes and documents and texts uploaded on AlmaDL.

Non-attending students will discuss the contents of a book, to be chosen in the following list:

• P. Brown, Il riscatto dell'anima. Aldilà e ricchezza nel primo cristianesimo occidentale, Torino, Einaudi, 2016.
• P. Geary, Il mito delle nazioni. Le origini medievali dell'Europa, Carocci 2010.
• Tesori. Forme di accumulazione della ricchezza nell'alto medioevo (secoli V-XI) , a cura di S. Gelichi e C. La Rocca, Viella 2004.
• G. Albertoni, Vassalli, feudi, feudalesimo, Roma, Carocci, 2015.
• Cittadinanze medievali. Dinamiche di appartenenza a un corpo comunitario, a cura di S. Menzinger, Roma, Viella, 2017
• G. Todeschini, Visibilmente crudeli. Malviventi, persone sospette e gente qualunque dal Medioevo all'età moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007.

Teaching methods

Lectures. An active participation of students is required.

Assessment methods

The exam is composed by a written test, followed by an oral discussion: the two tests may be sustained in the same session or, student choice, in different sessions.

To gain access to oral discussion, student must have passed the written exams with a score of minimum 18/30.

The written test is intended to verify the acquired knowledge of the handbook and includes six open questions, requiring short and synthetic answers, evaluated each by a score from 0 to 5. The maximum possible result is 30/30.

The oral examination is a free conversation about the course topics intended to verify the full understanding of the notes, the readings and the documents of the lessons.

For not attending students, it will be aimed to assess the acquired knowledge of the chosen book.
The maximum score given in the oral test is to 30/30.

In the assessment of both the written and the oral test, will be taken into account: the property of language, the acquired knowledge, the full understanding of the issues discussed and the ability to propose connections between the various themes.

The final mark of the exam will be the average between the result of the written test and the result of the oral examination. At the discretion of the teacher, she can add the mention of praise.

Teaching tools

The repository of University will be used for the distribution of learning materials: power points of the lesson contents, pdf files of sources and recommended readings.

Office hours

See the website of Tiziana Lazzari