HISTORY 221: THE MEDIEVAL LEGACY

Schedule of Classes and Readings



SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND READINGS FOR SPRING 2004

Note: Primary source readings are preceded in the following syllabus by one of these three adjectives:
     Required: you must read that text and will be held responsible for it on exams
     Recommended: I’d love for you to read it, but won’t test you specifically on it. Use of it on exams will impress me.
     Optional: this text will help your comprehension of the daily topic, but won’t be on the exams
 

UNIT 1: Introduction
January 13:  Course Introduction: Historians and Their Method
January 15: Roman Empire and Its Fall
    Primary Source Readings:
        Required: How to Read Primary Sources
               (http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/221-fa01-primary-source.html)
          Required: Salvian, on Roman decline
                (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salvian1.html)
     Textbook Readings: Hollister/Bennett, 1-16, 31-35, 41-45, 49-55, 86-93

January 20: The Christian Bridge …
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Letter of Pliny to Emp. Trajan (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pliny1.html)
              Required: Excerpts from Theodosian Code (5th century, not 4th, as the on-line text asserts)
                       (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/codex-theod1.html)
              Required: Excerpts from the martyrdom of Perpetua
                        (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua-excerp.html)
              Optional: Humiliation of Theodosius
                        (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/theodoret-ambrose1.html)
     Textbook Readings: Hollister/Bennett, 17-30
January 22: Germanic Successor States
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Tacitus, excerpts from Germania
                        (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tacitus-germania-excerp.html)
              Required: Jordanes on Theodoric the Ostrogoth:
                       http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/jordanes-theodoric1.html
              Required: Letters of Theodoric (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/theodoric1.html)
     Textbook Reading: Hollister/Bennett, 35-40

UNIT 2: Early Middle Ages
January 27: The Franks: Clovis and Kingship
     Primary Sources:
              Required: Clovis Stories: the Vase of Soissons and his Conversion
                       (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gregtours1.html)
              Required: Conversion of Clovis (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/496clovis.html)
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 45, 47-48, 65-74
January 29: The Franks: law and order
     Primary Sources:
              Required: Salic Law (ie., Law of Salian Franks)
                        (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html)
              Optional: Ordeal Formulae: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ordeals1.html
              Optional: 11th-century Judicial Duels:  http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/judicialduels.htm
              Optional: An 11th-century ordeal: http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/ordeals.htm

February 3: Early Medieval Belief: Saints, Miracles, Sacraments
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: The Nicene Creed (http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/church-fathers.htm)
              Required: the Life of St Martin (ideally read it all, but focus on chapters: 1-5, 7, 9-14, 16, 20-27)
                       (http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~eknuth/npnf2-11/sulpitiu/lifeofst.html#tp)
                       (also accessible through: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook3.html#west1 [click on the link to the Life of St Martin of Tours)
February 5: Women in Frankish Society
 (First Essay Due in class)
     Primary Sources:
              Required: Frankish Queens: http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/frankish-queens.htm
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 46-47
     Textbook Reading: 78-82

February 10: Monasticism: rule of Saint Benedict
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Rule of Saint Benedict (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/rul-benedict.html)
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 74-78
February 12: Coming of the Anglo-Saxons, c.400-700
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 82-85

February 17: The Carolingian Franks: Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Einhard, Life of Charlemagne
                       (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/einhard.html)
              Recommended: Summons to military service
                       (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/carol-sum1.html)
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 102-123
February 19:  Viking Assaults
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 125-134
     Optional Reading: Alfred the Great, pp. 1-48, plus maps and genealogies pp. 59-63 (this will help make
               sense of the next reading; but remember it cannot substitute for a close reading of the actual text)

February 24: Alfred the Great
     Primary Source Readings for week:
             Alfred the Great, pp. 65-120, 163-186, 189-191, 193-194
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 134-140
February 26: Alfred’s Heirs
 (Second Essay Due in class)

UNIT 3: the High Middle Ages
March 2: Economic Revival: Agricultural and Urban Renewal
     Primary Sources:
              Required: Demographic Tables (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pop-in-eur.html)
              Required: Handout: Assarting
              Required: Beauvais Dossier (read only Introduction and Documents A and B)
                       (http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/beauvaisdossier.htm)
March 4: Aristocratic Power: Lords, Castles, and Fiefs
     Primary Source Reading:
              Required: Fulbert of Chartres: Letter concerning obligations of lord and vassal
                       (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulbert1.html)
              Required: Agreement Between Hugh of Lusignan and William of Aquitaine
                       (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/agreement.html)
              Required: Norman Noblewomen
                       (http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/normanwomen.htm)
     Textbook Reading: 141-145, 155-159, 160-166, 171-176

March 9-11: NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK

March 16: Rise of Papacy
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Gelasian Doctrine (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gelasius1.html)
              Required: Dictatus Papae (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g7-dictpap.html)
              Required: Henry IV to Gregory VII (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/henry4-to-g7a.html)
              Required: Gregory Deposes Henry IV (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g7-ban1.html)
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 188-210, 215-216, 242-248
March 18: Revival of Kingship, c.1100
     Primary Source Reading:
              Required: Assize of Clarendon: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aclarendon.html

March 23: Crusading
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Capture of Jerusalem (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulk2.html)
     Textbook Reading: 217-219, 227-237
March 25: Law and Society: Courts and Marriage
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Gratian on Marriage (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gratian1.html)
     Textbook Reading: 248-261

March 30: Twelfth Century Renaissance: Abelard and Heloise
      Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Letters of Abelard and Heloise, 57-106
     Textbook:  H/B: 308-321
April 1: Peasantry and Lordship
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Texts on Peasant Life (http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/peasant-life.htm)
              Required: Chretien de Troyes, Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart, first 1/4 (roughly lines 1-1750)
     Textbook Reading: 163-171

April 6: Kingship Restored, c.1200
     Primary Source Reading:
              Required: Magna Carta (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/magnacarta.html)
              Required: Chretien de Troyes, Lancelot, second 1/4 (roughly lines 1751-3600)
     Textbook Reading: 280-289
April 8: Chivalry: Ideal and Reality
 (Third Essay due in class)
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Excerpt from the History of William Marshal (handout)
              Required: Chretien de Troyes, Lancelot, third 1/4 (roughly lines 3601-5400)

April 13: Discussion: Chretien’s Lancelot
     Primary Source Readings:
          Required: Chretien de Troyes, Lancelot, last 1/4 (roughly lines 5400-end, plus afterword)

UNIT 4: Late Middle Ages
April 15: War and the Bubonic Plague
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Froissart, Chronicles, 111-112, 120-146
              Recommended: Boccaccio’s description of the plague
                        (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/boccacio2.html)
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 323-336, 345-349

April 20: Social Unrest
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Froissart, 146-148, 151-161, 211-241
April 22: Religious Ferment
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: Boniface VIII: the bull Unam Sanctam
                       (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/b8-unam.html)
              Required: Froissart, 201-210 (Avignon and Schism)
              Optional: Boniface VIII: Outrage at Anagni
                       (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1303anagni.html)
     Textbook Reading: 336-345

April 27: Governmental Solutions: England
     Primary Source Readings
              Optional: Froissart, 316-327 [background to what follows]
              Required: Froissart, 421-471 [deposition of Richard I]
              Recommended: Growth of Parliamentary Government in England
                        (http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/english-parliament.htm)
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 349-356
April 29: Late Medieval Heroines
     Primary Source Readings:
              Required: The Life and Trial of Joan of Arc (http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/joanofarc.htm)
     Textbook Reading: H/B, 350-351

May 6 (Thursday): FINAL EXAM
 
 


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