| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction (or possibly a rant): what the Middle Ages are not | There is no specific reading for this class session. However, everyone should come with a favorite fictional medieval moment well in mind. Possible sources for such things are the movies, fantasy literature, "historical" romance novels, the theater, New Yorker cartoons, etc. |
| 2 | Disintegration of the Roman Empire |
 Augustine. The City of God. New York, NY: Modern Library, 2000. ISBN: 9780679783190. (Especially Parts One, Three, and Five) |
| 3 | Regularization of Monastic Life |
Rule of St. Benedict. Chapters 1-7, pp. 19-33, 39-40, and 48-51. A version of The Holy Rule of St. Benedict is available through St. Benedict's Abbey, Atchison, Kansas. Dialogues of Gregory I. (In reader) |
| 4 | Conversion of the Franks |
Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks. Translated by Lewis Thorpe. Baltimore, MD: Penguin, 1976. ISBN: 9780140442953. |
| 5 | Conversion of England and the North |
Correspondence of St. Boniface. (In reader) |
| 6 | Persistence of Nordic Paganism |
Beowulf. Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney. New York, NY: Norton, 2001. ISBN: 9780393975802. |
| 7 | The Carolingian Court |
Charlemagne's Courtier: The Complete Einhard. Translated by Paul Edward Dutton. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 1998. ISBN: 9781551111346. (Read in particular "The Life of Charlemagne", "The Charters", and "The Translation and the Miracles.") |
| 8 | Conflict with Byzantium |
"Liuprandus of Cremora." In Embassy to Constantinople. Translated by F. A. Wright. Rutland, VT: C.E. Tuttle Co. , 1993. ISBN: 9780460872355. |
| 9 | Crusading: or the Making of a Saint | "Joinville." In The Life of St. Louis. New York, NY: Sheed and Ward, 1955. |
| 10 | Female Saints: Music and the Visionary |
"Hildegarde of Bingen." In Secrets of God. Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1996. ISBN: 9781570621642. |
| 11 | Love, Logic, and the Politics of the Intellectual life |
Clanchy, M.T. ed. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. New York, NY: Penguin, 2004. ISBN: 9780140448993. |
| 12 | The Wider Medieval World |
Dunn. Ross. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780520243859. |
| 13 | Last Class |