12848 - Economic and Social History of the Middle Ages (1)

Course contents

Clerics, warriors and peasants: the social order and its representation in the Middle Ages (IX-XII)

The social order of the central Middle Ages and its representation will be the main topics for the course. This analysis will intertwine with the data that the reconstruction provides us with current historiography. Will then be considered the salient features of the structure of kinship, personal onomastics, and the role of women in those centuries. Are then described the main forms of social life in the countryside, villages and monasteries, and the peculiarities of urban society. Will always be kept in mind the relations of production in the countryside and their evolution during the period covered and the forms of trade and markets.

Readings/Bibliography

All students will study:
B. Andreolli - M. Montanari, L'azienda curtense in Italia, Bologna, Clueb, 1982.
T. Lazzari, Le donne nell'alto medioevo, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2010.
Will be based on two texts written test.

For the oral exam:
attending students should study lecture notes and a dossier of readings which will be shown in class.
students not attending should study two texts chosen among those mentioned in this list:

• A. Cortonesi, G. Pasquali, G. Piccinni, Uomini e campagne nell'Italia medievale, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2002.
• Curtis e signoria rurale: interferenze fra due strutture medievali, a cura di G. Sergi, Torino 1994 [scaricabile gratuitamente all'url: http://centri.univr.it/rm/biblioteca/scaffale/volumi.htm#Giuseppe%20Sergi
• G. Duby, Il cavaliere, la donna, il prete, Laterza, 1982
• G. Duby, Lo specchio del feudalesimo. Sacerdoti, guerrieri e lavoratori, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1998
• G. Duby, Il potere delle donne nel Medioevo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2008.
• G. Duby, Medioevo maschio. Amore e matrimonio, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2002
• V. Fumagalli, Paesaggi della paura. Vita e natura nel Medioevo, Bologna, Il Mulino,
• P. Galloni, Il cervo e il lupo. Caccia e cultura nobiliare nel Medioevo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1993.
• D. Herlihy, La famiglia nel Medioevo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1999.
• O.G. Oexle, Paradigmi del sociale. Adalberone di Laon e la società tripartita del Medioevo, a cura di R. delle Donne, Salerno, Carlone Editore, 2000, ed. orig. Die funktionale Dreiteilung der ‘Gesellschaft' bei Adalbero von Laon. Deutungsschemata der sozialen Wirklichkeit im früheren Mittelalter, in «Frühmittelalterliche Studien», 12 (1978), pp. 1-54.
• Gherardo Ortalli, Lupi genti culture, Torino, Einaudi, 1997. 

Teaching methods

Lectures

Assessment methods

Written test in preliminary oral examination

Teaching tools

Will be made use of video projections of maps and iconographic sources.
Written sources will be distributed in photocopy.

Office hours

See the website of Tiziana Lazzari