MED201: The World of the Middle Ages

Spring 1994/95

Syllabus

Texts identified as xerox will be distributed in class at the beginning of the week.

MED 201 is taught with the aid of a specially designed new computer program called mappamundi, that will 
enable students to use their own computer or the nearest computer cluster to call up the images shown in the 
course for further study and to supplement these visual reminders with verbal explanations and glosses of various 
kinds.  Explanatory material will be distributed at the first meeting.

I.  Points of View

1.	Jan 30		Introduction/Time and Space (with slides)

	Readings	Primary: Bede, Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow; The Voyage of St. 
				Brendan.
			Secondary:  Peters, Europe and the Middle Ages, 88-123;	M. Barber, The Two Cities, 
				421-440.

IN LIEU OF THE FIRST-WEEK PRECEPT, THE CLASS WILL MEET AT
THE SAME HOUR (11:00 A.M.) ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, IN THE
SAME PLACE (MCCORMICK 106) FOR A DEMONSTRATION OF THE 
MAPPAMUNDI PROGRAM.

2.	Feb. 6		Orality and Literacy

	Readings	Primary: The Song of Roland.
			Secondary: M. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 1-21,  224-252.

3.	Feb. 13	The Book (with slides)

	Readings	Primary:  From Eckehart of St. Gall, The Chronicle of St. Gall (xerox); Johannes Hadlaub 
				on the making of the Codex Manesse (xerox); T. G. Frisch, Gothic Art, 128-137 
				(xerox).
			Secondary: M. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 114-144; E. Peters, Europe 
				and the Middle Ages, 169-200.

PRECEPTS IN RARE BOOK ROOM, FIRESTONE!

4.	Feb. 20	Symbols and Images (with slides)

	Readings	Primary: Bestiary, ed. R. Barber, 7-49 (you can also use The Book of Beasts, ed. T. H. 
				White, 7-35); C. Davis-Weyer, Early Medieval Art, 47-49; 164-167 (Gregory the 
				Great; Gilbert Crispin); E. Holt, A Documentary History,  61, 88-91, 120-134.
			Secondary: G. B. Ladner, “Medieval and Modern Understanding of Symbolism”, in 
				Speculum, 54 (1979), 223-256; Umberto Eco, Art and Beauty, 52-64.

			PRECEPTS IN THE INDEX OF CHRISTIAN ART, MCCORMICK!


II.  Cultural Diversity

5.	Feb. 27	The Germanic North (Iceland) (with slides)
	
	Readings	Primary: Eyrbyggja saga; Voluspa (xerox).
			Secondary: P. Foots - D. Wilson, The Viking Achievement, 52-64, 336-347.

6.	Mar. 6		Byzantium and the West (with slides)

			GUEST LECTURES:  S. CURCIC

	Readings	Primary: The Works of Liutprand of Cremona, trans. by F. A. Wright,“Narrative of the 
				Embassy to Constantinople” (xerox); Digenis Akritas.  The Two-Blood Border 
				Lord, VIII, 97-113 (xerox).

			Secondary: Writing in Gold.  Byzantine Society and Its Icons, R. Cormack, 
				chapters 5 and 6.

MIDTERM EXAMS DURING PRECEPTS!
FIRST PAPER DUE!

Midterm Break

7.	Mar. 20	The Jews in Western Europe

			GUEST LECTURES:  M. COHEN

	Readings	Primary:  The Chronicle of Ahimaaz, 60-69 (xerox); R. S. Lopez- I. W. Raymond,
				Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World, 29-33 (routes of Jewish merchants)
				(xerox).
			Secondary:  R. M. Seltzer, Jewish People, Jewish Thought:  The Jewish People in 
				History, 323-372 (chapter 7).

8.	Mar. 27	Islam and Western Europe
			
			GUEST LECTURERS:  A. HAMORI (Cultural Refinement/Books and Learning)

	Readings	Primary: Ibn Hazm, The Ring of the Dove, 21-38, 87-89, 102-109, 230-231, 248-249; 
				Al-Ghazali, Tahafut al-falasifah (“Incoherence of the Philosophers”), 1-3, 13-19; 
				Petrus Alfonsi, Disciplina Clericalis, 124-125 (all in xerox).
			Secondary: The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, vol. 2, 202-218; C. H. Haskins,
				The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, 278-349.

III.  Vernacularization

9.	Apr. 3		Lyric and Musical Drama (with music)

	Readings	Primary:  The Benediktbeuern Passion Play, in D. Bevington, Medieval Drama, 220-223; 
				Adam de la Halle, The Play of Robin and Marion, in R. Axton, Medieval French 
				Plays, 257-301; Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Kalenda maia and Razo, in The Medieval 
				Lyric (ed. M. Switten), Anthology, vol. 1, 106-112 (xerox).  (Musical 
				performances of Robin and Marion and Kalenda maia are on reserve in the Music 
				Library in the Woolworth Center).
			Secondary: Medieval Literature 2;  The European Inheritance, 150-187.

10.	Apr. 10	Arthurian Romance (with slides)

	Readings	Primary:  Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival.
			Secondary: Medieval Literature 2:  The European Inheritance, 41-82.

11.	Apr. 17	Mysticism:  The Women’s Movement

	Readings	Primary:  Mechthild of Magdeburg; Beatrice of Nazareth; Hadewijch of Brabant
			Secondary:  Frances Beer, Women and Mystical Experience in the Middle Ages, chapter 
				1:  Mechthild

12.	Apr. 24	Religious and Secular Iconography (with slides)

	Readings	Primary:  Holt, A Documentary History, 134-150.
			Secondary:  U Eco, Art and Beauty, 92-115.	

SECOND PAPER DUE!