75893 - History of Institutions and Cultural Heritage in the Middle Ages

Learning outcomes

Aim of this discipline is to provide the student with a patrimony of knowledge and abilities, able to lead him to understand (with the help of written sources) the formation of the cultural Heritage and of the monumental and documental patrimony, in Italy, Europe and the Whole Mediterranean area. At the end of the course, students must acquire deep knowledge of the political-institutional processes and of the socio-institutional interactions which shaped medieval Europe in its particular identity and historical memory, and they must be able to apply this knowledge to a specific urban or territorial area or to a specific archival and librarian context and to understand the cultural Heritage of an institution. They must be able to communicate the results of a bibliographical research or of a critical analysis of written sources, and to approach the study of new topics on the basis of the knowledge acquired during the course.

Course contents

Cities and Territories in Italian and European Middle Ages: general characters and regional specificities.

Different typologies of urban settlements: capital cities (urbs regiae), episcopal cities, mercantile settlements (emporia, ), newly founded towns and settlements.

Cities and routes. Towns on the seashore vs. towns on the plains. Cities of Roman or Byzantine origin vs. cities of Lombard or Frank origins. Laic and ecclesiastical elites.

Production centers of culture and documentation: bishops, cathedral chapters. Monasteries, courts, cities.

Written sources: different typologies, and their different methods of construction and use.

The construction of memory by ecclesiastical elites, laic elites, urban elites.

Urban chronicles and Statutes.

The growth (either quantitative and qualitative) of the book and document heritage from High to Low Middle Ages.

From single parchments to notarile registers.

The origin and growth of the main documental repositories. Cathedral schools and Universities.

Case studies: Carolingian Empire, Verona, Ravenna, Lucca, Bologna, Bobbio, Camaldoli.

Urban space, monastic space and the construction of a cultural memory.

The Libri pontificales, the Breviarium Ecclesiae Ravennatis, Caffaro’s Genua Annals, some inventory of books and documents.

Readings/Bibliography

Instructions on writing the essay are posted on the teacher's websiteStudents must prepare a written paper (10-15 pages), on a topic agreed with the teacher, and at least one of these books:

For the Course class "History, preservation and enhancement of artistic and archaeological heritage and landscape" Students:

1) M. Bottazzi, Italia medievale epigrafica, Trieste, Cerm, 2012;

2) F. Bocchi, Per antiche strade: caratteri e aspetti delle città medievali, Roma, Viella, 2013;

3) Gli spazi della vita comunitaria : atti del Convegno internazionale di studio, Roma-Subiaco, 8-10 giugno 2015, a cura di Letizia Ermini Pani, Spoleto 2016(De re monastica, 5).

4) F. Marazzi, Le città dei monaci : storia degli spazi che avvicinano a Dio, Milano, Jaca Book, 2015

5) Dalla RES PUBLICA al Comune. Uomini, istituzioni pietre dal XII al XIII secolo, a cura di A. Calzona e G. M. Cantarella, Verona, Fondazione Alberti-Scripta, 2016

6) Two volumes from the series: "Il Medioevo nelle città italiane", Spoleto, Cisam. E.g.: G. Milani, Bologna, Spoleto 2012; P. Guglielmotti, Genova, Spoleto 2013.

For the Course class LM-5 - Library studies students:

1) Il patrimonio documentario della Chiesa di Lucca: prospettive di ricerca: atti del Convegno internazionale di studi (Lucca, Archivio arcivescovile, 14-15 novembre 2008), a cura di Sergio Pagano e Pierantonio Piatti, Firenze, Sismel, 2010

2) La memoria delle chiese: cancellerie vescovili e culture notarili nell'Italia centro-settentrionale, secoli X-XIII, a cura di P. Cancian, Torino, Scriptorium,1995 e Le scritture del Comune: amministrazione e memoria nelle città dei secoli XII e XIII, a cura di G. Albini, Torino, Scriptorium,1998

3) Le scritture dei monasteri: atti del 2. Seminario internazionale di studio I monasteri nell'Alto Medioevo, Roma 9-10 maggio 2002, a cura di F. De Rubeis e W. Pohl, Roma 2003.

4) Il secolo di Carlo Magno : istituzioni, letterature e cultura del tempo carolingio / a cura di Ileana Pagani e Francesco Santi, Sismel 2016

5) G. Sarti, Un libro ravennate di spiritualità monastica dell’inizio del secolo VIII nell’Archivio Storico Diocesano di Ravenna- Cervia, con un saggio introduttivo di R. Savigni, Ravenna, Longo, 2017 insieme a R. Savigni, “Memoria urbis”: l’immagine di Ravenna nella storiografia di età carolingio-ottoniana, in Ravenna da capitale imperiale a capitale esarcale, Atti del XVII Congresso del Centro di studi sull’Alto Medioevo (Ravenna, 6-12 giugno 2004), Spoleto 2005, pp. 615-701

6) Camaldoli e l'ordine camaldolese dalle origini alla fine del 15. secolo : atti del 1. convegno internazionale di studi in occasione del millenario di Camaldoli (1012-2012) (Monastero di Camaldoli, 31 maggio - 2 giugno 2012), a cura di Cécile Caby e Pierluigi Licciardello, Cesena 2014

7 L' Ordine camaldolese dal Medioevo all'età contemporanea nelle fonti degli archivi di stato italiani : atti della Giornata di studio in occasione del millenario di Camaldoli (1012-2012) : Roma, Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 30 maggio 2014 / a cura di Giuseppe M. Croce, Roma 2016

10) Le fonti per la storia camaldolese nelle biblioteche italiane e nella Biblioteca apostolica Vaticana, atti a cura di Livia Martinoli e Ugo Fossa, Roma 2015

11) R. Witt, L'eccezione italiana. L'intellettuale laico nel Medioevo e l'origine del Rinascimento (800-1300), Roma, Viella, 2017

Students can discuss with the teacher different readings related to their paper argument.

Instructions on writing the essay are posted on the teacher's website.

 

Teaching methods

Analysis of written sources, and discussion of relevant bibliography, with attentions to the content but also to the use of historical methodologies.

Seminar lections, with special attention to the reading, analysis and discussion of different historical sources (narrative, documental, archaeological sources). Sources and bibliography will be made available to students during classes.

Assessment methods

Oral examination with discussion of a written paper. The topic of the paper must be agreed with the teacher, and the paper itself should be submitted at least one week in advance.

The oral examination will be held after the end of the lessons. It will be oral, and made of three principal questions. 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 Alma-DLCampus (http://campus.cib.unibo.it [http://campus.cib.unibo.it/] ).

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).

The paper writing and discussion will be considered as one of the three questions of the final test.

Non-attending students are requested to discuss their program with the professor before the end of the course. They will be required to do some integrative readings (in addition to the general assignments) and their grades will be high only if they will prove their ability to critically discuss the sources and the bibliography used in the paper, as well as their capacity to connect different texts and contexts, and to answer the question with specific vocabulary.

Teaching tools

Databanks, digital libraries, digital archives, online resources (sources, bibliography).

Seminar lections based on the reading and analysis of historical sources (narrative, documental, monumental, iconographical, cartographical sources). Sources will be listed at the beginning of the course.

Guidance towards a selective use of the web for scientific purposes.

Students will be guided towards a direct approach to libraries and archives, with the aim of a better contact of primary sources (edited or not).

Links to further information

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/raffaele.savigni/

Office hours

See the website of Raffaele Savigni