Corso di laurea in Lettere

Basic module intended as a first-level exam of medieval history. The course intends to give students some tools to understand the medieval millennium, by focusing on its cultures (civic and religious) and institutions.

Students are required to learn the medieval history basic cronology, by understanding the sense of its main cultural, political and institutional events, also in the light of the sources.

Frontal teaching with readings and analysis of sources.

Final oral exam.

Teaching consists in two non separable modules:
1) the first module relates to both the concept of "middle ages" and  some of the greatest historical steps of the medieval millennium, from the 4th c. A.C. to the end of the 15th c.; this part will be presented with the support of the sources (see texts 2 and 3 in the program).
2) the second module is a monographic part devoted to the topic of the emotions and their history in the Medieval west (see text 4).

Required readings (only attending students):

1) Luigi Provero, Massimo Vallerani, Storia medievale, Milano, Le Monnier 2015

2) Stefano Gasparri, Voci dai secoli oscuri. Un percorso nelle fonti dell'alto medioevo, Roma, Carocci 2017

3) Arsenio Frugoni, Arnaldo da Brescia nelle fonti del secolo XII, Torino, Einaudi 1989

4) Damien Boquet, Piroska Nagy, Medioevo sensibile. Una storia delle emozioni (secoli III-XV), Roma, Carocci 2018. 

Not attending students:

1) Chris Wickham, Medieval Europe, New Haven, Yale University Press 2016

2) Miri Rubin, The Middle Ages. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2014

3) Chris Wickham, Sleepwalking into a new world. The emergence of italian city communes in the twelfth century, Princeton & Oxford, Princeton University Press 2015 

International and Erasmus students may take their exam in English. Specific reading lists consisting of articles in English and French will be made available on request from the lecturer.