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HIST 5501: Medieval History Proseminar

Spring 2016 Prof. Robert Berkhofer

His 5501-100 (#15266) Office: 4424 Friedmann
T 4:00-6:30pm Phone: 387-5352 (use email!)
Brown 2045 (day one), thereafter Friedmann 4413 Hours: TR 1-2
Web: See GoWMU coursepage [email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An overview of major themes and scholarly debates in medieval history (ca.
400-1500) covering regions including the Mediterranean basin, northern Europe, and adjacent areas. The
course provides a capstone for advanced undergraduates and a foundation for advanced study for
graduate students. This version of the course treats important terms, events, and concepts in medieval
history, through both classic works and cutting-edge scholarship. Weekly meetings will focus on
historical problems which have generated significant debate among historians.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students will gain an understanding of the “Middle Ages” as concept and
field of study within History. They will demonstrate proficiency reading historical interpretations
closely and critically, writing clearly and persuasively, and making effective oral presentations.

REQUIRED BOOKS (for purchase, in paperback unless otherwise noted):

David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2013). ISBN: 978-0199315994.
John Arnold, What is Medieval History? (Malden: Polity Press, 2008). ISBN: 978-0745639338.
Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). ISBN: 978-0691037806.
Marcus Bull, Thinking Medieval (London: Palgrave, 2005). ISBN: 978-1403912954.
Caroline Bynum, Holy Feast, Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988). ISBN: 978-0520063297.
Georges Duby, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1982). ISBN: 978-0226167725.
Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2003). ISBN: 978-0691114811.
Johan Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). ISBN: 978-
0226359946.
LeRoy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error (Paris: Braziller, 2008). ISBN: 978-
0807615980.
Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1993). ISBN: 978-0812213423.
R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992). ISBN: 978-
0300002300.
Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400-1000. (London: Penguin,
2010). ISBN: 978-0807615980.

REQUIRED READINGS (not for purchase; digital or library reserve—ask for password):
Robert Bartlett, “Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity,” Journal of Medieval and Early
Modern Studies 31, no. 1 (2001): 39-56.
Nora Berend, “How Many Medieval Europes? The ‘Pagans’ of Hungary and Regional Diversity and
Christendom” in Peter Linehan and Janet Nelson, ed., The Medieval World (London: Routledge,
2003), 77-92.
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Thomas N. Bisson, “The ‘Feudal Revolution’” Past and Present, no. 142 (1994): 6-42, plus four
responses (Reuter, Wickham, Barthélemy, White) and Bisson’s reply in no. 152 (1996): 196-223
and no. 155 (1997): 177-225.
Peter Brown, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,” Journal of Roman Studies 61
(1971): 81-100 reprinted in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity, 103-152.
Palmira Brummett, “Visions of the Mediterranean: A Classification,” Journal of Medieval and Early
Modern Studies 37, no .1 (2007): 9-55.
Marcia L. Colish, “Haskins’ Renaissance Seventy Years Later: Beyond Anti-Burckhardtianism” Haskins
Society Journal 11 (1998): 1-16.
John D. Cotts, “Introduction: Approaches to Twelfth-Century Europe and Its ‘Renaissance’” in Europe's
Long Twelfth Century: Order, Anxiety and Adaptation, 1095-1229 (London: Palgrave, 2013), 1-13.
David D’Avray, “Symbolism and Medieval Religious Thought” in Linehan and Nelson, The Medieval
World, 267-79.
Jennifer R. Davis and Michael McCormick, “The Early Middle Ages: Europe’s Long Morning” in The
Long Morning of Medieval Europe, ed. Jennifer R. Davis and Michael McCormick (Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2009), 1-10.
Paul Edward Dutton, “KAROLUS MAGNUS or KAROLUS FELIX? The Making of Charlemagne’s
Legend” in Matthew Gabriele and Jace Stuckey, eds., The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle
Ages, 23-40.
Andrew Gillett, “Introduction: Ethnicity, History, Methodology” in A. Gillett, ed., On Barbarian
Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages, 1-18.
Carlo Ginzburg, “The Inquisitor as Anthropologist” in Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method, 156-64.
Walter Goffart, “The Barbarians in Late Antiquity and How They Were Accommodated in the West,” in
Little and Rosenwein, eds., Debating the Middle Ages, 25-44.
Diane Owen Hughes, “From Brideprice to Dowry in Mediterranean Europe,” Journal of Family History
3 (1978):262-96.
Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, “The ‘Cruel Mother’: Maternity, Widowhood, and Dowry in Florence in the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries” in Debating the Middle Ages, 264-76.
Jacques LeGoff, “What Does the Twelfth-Century Renaissance Mean? in Peter Linehan and Janet
Nelson, eds., The Medieval World (London: Routledge, 2003), 635-47.
Jacques Le Goff, “The Autumn of the Middle Ages or the Spring of a New Age?” in The Birth of
Europe, 154-193.
Peter Linehan, “At the Spanish Frontier” in The Medieval World, 37-59.
Thomas F. X. Noble, “Greatness Contested and Confirmed: The Raw Material of the Charlemagne
Legend” in The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages, 3-23.
Heiko Obermann, “Headcurrents of the Reformation: Initia Lutheri – Initia Reformationis,” The Dawn
of the Reformation (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1990), 39-83.
Heiko Obermann, “Introduction: Renaissance and Reformation: Late Middle Ages and Early Modern
Era,” Handbook of European History, 1400-1600, eds. Thomas A Brady, Jr., Heiko A. Oberman,
James D. Tracy (Leiden: Brill, 1994): xiii-xxiv.
Walter Pohl, “Conceptions of Ethnicity in Early Medieval Studies” in Debating the Middle Ages, 15-24.
Jean-Claude Schmitt, “Religion, Folklore, and Society in the Medieval West” in Debating the Middle
Ages, 376-87.
Brent D. Shaw, “Challenging Braudel: A New Vision of the Mediterranean” Journal of Roman
Archaeology 14 (2001): 419-53.
Susan Mosher Stuard, “Burden of Matrimony: Husbanding and Gender in Medieval Italy,” reprinted as
Ch. 17 in Debating the Middle Ages, 290-8.
Note: All “Sources in Context” (listed below) will be available through e-learning or digital reserve.
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COURSE FORMAT: The course will be conducted in weekly seminars, which will include extensive
discussion, student presentations, and instructor-led analysis of primary sources related directly to
context of historical interpretations being analyzed. Various written assignments will culminate in a
historiographic or bibliographic paper, on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the
instructor. Advanced students may include a section on “needs and opportunities” for research, using
primary sources in conjunction with a defined body of scholarship. Discussions will focus on assigned
readings for each week.

GRADE COMPONENTS: Class participation and presentations, 30%; book reviews/précis, 30%; final
paper 40%. You must complete all elements of the course to receive a passing grade. All late
submissions will be penalized, in fairness to students who complete the assignments in a timely fashion.
The grade scale is as follows: 93-100 = A, 87-92 = BA, 83-86 = B, 77-82 = CB, 73-76 = C, 67-72 = DC,
60-67 = D, and less than 60 = F.

PARTICIPATION: Much of your grade will be determined by your efforts in our weekly meetings.
Mere attendance during class hours will not receive credit towards participation, which should instead
be indicated through vocal outbursts giving evidence of cognition; in other words, you must talk about
your ideas, your reflections on the readings, and the comments of others in class. To be an effective
participant, you will need to complete all readings and translations prior to class. A class that only meets
once per week cannot be skipped, if you wish to receive a satisfactory grade. Attendance is mandatory,
absences must be documented and excused (preferably in advance). More than one absence could result
in a lower course grade. Participation will count for 30% of the grade and includes discussions of
“sources in context” and presentations.

BOOK REVIEWS: Students will write three short (3-5 page) analytic book reviews on any works listed
as “recommended readings” under each week and due on the date the work is listed. All students will
write the first review on works in Unit I (weeks 3-5), which will provide early feedback on writing, and
then write two others during Units II and III (weeks 6-12). These reviews will count for 30% of the final
grade. As part of this assignment, students will also deliver an oral report (maximum 10 minutes) on the
book they review in class, explaining its content and relevance to the required reading for that week. I
am willing to discuss possible substitute works for those listed below, but all such works must be
approved in advance. The schedule of works to review will be determined during the second week of
class, so that students may obtain copies of the works well in advance.

HISTORIOGRAPHIC/BIBLIOGRAPHIC PAPER: In consultation with the instructor, students will

prepare a paper, preferably directly related to the main themes of the course. The paper should take the
form of either a historiographic essay (a critical evaluation of the strengths or weaknesses of previous
historical approaches to a topic) or a bibliographical essay (a critical synthesis of standard works on a
given subject) and it should deal with seven to ten items at a minimum. Students may use topics in Unit
III provided by Prof. Berkhofer as starting points or develop their own topic in consultation him. Either
way, students are expected to develop their own bibliography. Students must have met with Prof.
Berkhofer and submitted a proposed topic by week four and must submit and preliminary bibliography
of works being considered by week six. Students preparing for research may write a "needs and
opportunities" section of their paper, which explains possible avenues for future research. Every paper
will have a bibliography of relevant historical works (if about “needs and opportunities,” this will
include primary sources, source editions, and finding aids). The narrative portion should be 15-20 pages
and bibliography as necessary and the paper will be due at the end of the class. This paper will count for
40% of the final grade.
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PAPER SUBMISSION POLICY: You are also responsible for providing an electronic copy of your
final paper in addition to submitting a hard copy (due when you hand it in). This electronic copy must be
readable by MSWord.

Students with Disabilities: You should register your disability with Disabled Student Resources and
Services, (269-387-2116 or www.dsrs.wmich.edu). You should discuss any accommodation with them
and they will give you a card listing the approved accommodation, which you should show to the
instructor. This process should be completed by the end of the second week of class.

Late Work: Make-ups will be given only for valid, university-approved written excuses, at the
instructor's discretion. Unexcused late papers will be penalized two full letter grades per day they are
late (e.g., a "B" paper will become a "D" paper).

Email/IP Policy: Students should use their WMU email address for all correspondence related to this
course. Students will not reproduce any portion of course materials (including notes on lecture) without
the instructor’s express written permission.

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Week 1 (Jan 12): Introduction I – The Middle Ages

Required Reading: Marcus Bull, Thinking Medieval.

In-Class Reading: Various maps of Europe and the Mediterranean for different years from 200-1600 to
see what “stories” they imply, Wikipedia entry on the “Middle Ages.”

Week 2 (Jan 19): Introduction II – Medieval History as discipline in Europe and America

Required Reading: John Arnold, What is Medieval History?

Assignment: Look up one of the “key terms” distributed in class in the following resources: Lexikon des
Mittelsalters (available online through Brepolis), Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. Joseph Strayer,
Dictionnaire encyclopédique du moyen âge, ed. André Vauchez.

Recommended: Le Goff, Jacques, ed. Medieval Callings, Marc Bloch, The Historians’ Craft and
consider reading a medieval history textbook for orientation to key events, places, and terms.

Selection of 2nd and 3rd book review topics completed this week.

Unit I: The Issue of Time - Periods and Periodization of the “Middle Ages.”

Week 3 (Jan 26): Early Middle Ages and “Late Antiquity”

Required Reading: Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome: Europe, 400-1000. Peter Brown, “The
Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,” Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971): 81-100
reprinted in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity, 103-152; Jennifer R. Davis and Michael
McCormick, “The Early Middle Ages: Europe’s Long Morning” in The Long Morning of Medieval
Europe, ed. Jennifer R. Davis and Michael McCormick (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), 1-10.
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Sources in Context: Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of St. Antony of Egypt, trans. David Brakke in
Thomas Head, Medieval Hagiography (New York: Routledge: 2001), 1-30

Recommended: Julia M. H. Smith, Europe after Rome: A New Cultural History, 500-1000, A. H. M.
Jones, The Later Roman Empire, Judith Herrin, The Formation of Christendom, Chris Wickham,
Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800, Michael McCormick, The
Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, AD 300-900, Bryan Ward-Perkins,
The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, Ian Wood, The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages,
Alan Cameron, The Last Pagans of Rome, Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and
Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd ed.

Week 4 (Feb 2): The Central Middle Ages and the “Renaissance of the Twelfth Century”

Required Reading: R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages, Marcia L. Colish, “Haskins’
Renaissance Seventy Years Later: Beyond Anti-Burckhardtianism” Haskins Society Journal 11 (1998):
1-16, Jacques LeGoff, “What Does the Twelfth-Century Renaissance Mean? in Peter Linehan and Janet
Nelson, eds., The Medieval World (London: Routledge, 2003), 635-47, John D. Cotts, “Introduction:
Approaches to Twelfth-Century Europe and Its ‘Renaissance’” in Europe's Long Twelfth Century:
Order, Anxiety and Adaptation, 1095-1229 (London: Palgrave, 2013), 1-13.

Sources in Context: Route of Memorial Roll of Count Guifré of Cerdaña, ed. Jean Dufour, Recueil des
rouleaux des morts: (VIIIe siècle-vers 1536) 1:693-4 and first entry in latin (pp. 139-41).

Recommended Reading: Charles Homer Haskins, Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, Erwin Panofsky,
Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, Christopher Brooke, The Twelfth-Century Renaissance,
Robert L. Benson, Giles Constable and Carol D. Lanham, eds., Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth
Century, R. I. Moore, The First European Revolution, c. 970-1215, Giles Constable, The Reformation of
the Twelfth Century, Thomas N. Bisson, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century, Thomas F. X. Noble and
John Van Engen, eds. European Transformations: The Long Twelfth Century.

Week 5 (Feb 9): The Later Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Reformation, and Early Modern History

Required Reading: Johan Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages, Jacques Le Goff, “The Autumn of
the Middle Ages or the Spring of a New Age?” in The Birth of Europe, 154-193, Heiko Obermann,
Headcurrents of the Reformation: Initia Lutheri – Initia Reformationis,” The Dawn of the Reformation
(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1990), 39-83, “Introduction: Renaissance and Reformation: Late Middle Ages
and Early Modern Era,” Handbook of European History, 1400-1600, eds. Thomas A Brady, Jr., Heiko
A. Oberman, James D. Tracy (Leiden: Brill, 1994): xiii-xxiv.

Sources in Context: Hubert and Jan van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece (completed 1432).

Recommended Reading: Jakob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Frances Oakley,
The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages, Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform (1250-1550): An
Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Lisa Jardine, Worldly
Goods: A New History of the Renaissance, David Nicholas, Urban Europe, 1100-1700. Stephen
Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, John Aberth, From the Brink of the
Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague and Death in the Later Middle Ages. Johannes Fried,
The Middle Ages, Jacques LeGoff, Why Divide History into Periods?

First Book Review assignment completed by this week.

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Unit II: The Issue of Space – Europe and the Mediterranean

Week 6 (Feb 16): The Organizing Sea - The Mediterranean

Required Reading: David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean
(introduction, parts 2-4), Palmira Brummett, “Visions of the Mediterranean: A Classification,” Journal
of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 37, no .1 (2007): 9-55. Brent D. Shaw, “Challenging Braudel: A
New Vision of the Mediterranean” Journal of Roman Archaeology 14 (2001): 419-53.

Sources in Context: Twelfth-century T-O Map based on Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, ch. 15 de
terra et partibus, Hereford Mappa Mundi (1399), and Portolan Map of Europe from Cresques
Abraham’s Catalan Atlas (1375) (BnF Esp. 30).

Recommended: Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II,
Averil Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, 395-700, Peregrine Horden and David
Purcell, The Corrupting Sea: A Study of the Mediterranean, Cyprian Broodbank, The Making of the
Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical
World.

Week 7 (Feb 23): The Organizing Land - Europe

Required Reading: Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural
Change, 950-1350, Nora Berend, “How Many Medieval Europes? The ‘Pagans’ of Hungary and
Regional Diversity and Christendom” in Peter Linehan and Janet Nelson, ed., The Medieval World
(London: Routledge, 2003), 77-92. Peter Linehan, “At the Spanish Frontier” in The Medieval World, 37-
59.

Sources in Context: Urban II’s Declaration of First Crusade , ed. Michael Winterbottom, William of
Malmesbury Gesta Regum Anglorum: Text and Translation (OMT, 1998) 1:598-607 (book 4, c. 346-7).

Paper Topics and Bibliography due this week.

Recommended Reading: Denys Hay, Europe: The Emergence of an Idea, Georges Duby, Early Growth
of the European Economy, Jacques LeGoff, The Birth of Europe, Fernand Braudel, Civilization and
Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol. I: The Structure of Everyday Life, Janet Abu-Lughod, Before
European Hegemony: The World System AD 1250-1350, Michael Mittrauer, Why Europe? The Medieval
Origins of its Special Path, Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture
and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century, Jonathan Riley-Smith, The
Crusades, Christianity and Islam.

Unit III: Selected Problems in Medieval History

Week 8 (Mar 1): Peoples, Ethnicity, and Nations: Imagined Communities?

Required Reading: Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Walter Pohl,
“Conceptions of Ethnicity in Early Medieval Studies” in Little and Rosenwein, eds., Debating the
Middle Ages, 15-24, Walter Goffart, “The Barbarians in Late Antiquity and How They Were
Accommodated in the West,” in Debating the Middle Ages, 25-44, Robert Bartlett, “Medieval and
Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31, no. 1
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(2001): 39-56. Andrew Gillett, “Introduction: Ethnicity, History, Methodology” in A Gillett, ed., On
Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages, 1-18.

Sources in Context: Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, Book 31, c. 1-5 (Description of the Goths
and Huns), trans. C. D. Younge (from Project Gutenberg).

Recommended Reading: Walter Goffart, Barbarians and Romans A. D. 418-584: The Techniques of
Accommodation, Thomas F. X. Noble, ed., From Roman Provinces to Medieval Kingdoms, Susan
Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900-1300, : Joseph Strayer, On the Medieval
Origins of the Modern State, Bernard Guenée, States and Rulers in Later Medieval Europe.

SPRING BREAK

Week 9 (Mar 15): Charlemagne: The Once and Future King?

Required Reading: Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Thomas F. X.
Noble, “Greatness Contested and Confirmed: The Raw Material of the Charlemagne Legend” in
Matthew Gabriele and Jace Stuckey, The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages, 3-23, Paul
Edward Dutton, “KAROLUS MAGNUS or KAROLUS FELIX? The Making of Charlemagne’s
Legend” in Legend of Charlemagne, 23-40.

Sources in Context: Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, c. 21-27, ed.and trans. David Ganz, Two Lives of
Charlemagnem rev ed. (London: Penguin, 2008), 34-7.

Recommended Reading: Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne, Richard Hodges and David
Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe: The Pirenne Thesis in the Light of
Archaeology, Emmett Scott: Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited: The History of a Controversy,
Alessandro Barbaro, Charlemagne: Father of a Continent, Rosamund McKitterick, Charlemagne: The
Formation of an Identity, Eric Goldberg, Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the
German, 817-876, Jennifer R. Davis, Charlemagne’s Practice of Empire, Anne Latowsky, Emperor of
the World: Charlemagne and the Construction of Imperial Authority, 800-1229.

Week 10 (Mar 22): To Be or Not to Be Feudal?

Required Reading: Georges Duby, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined, The “Feudal
Revolution” debate: Thomas N. Bisson, “The ‘Feudal Revolution’” Past and Present, no. 142 (1994): 6-
42, plus four responses (Reuter, Wickham, Barthélemy, White) and Bisson’s reply in no. 152 (1996):
196-223 and no. 155 (1997): 177-225.

Sources in Context: Fulbert of Chartres, Letter to William IX of Aquitaine on fealty (1020); Galbert of
Bruges, The Murder, Betrayal, and Slaughter of the Glorious Charles, Count of Flanders, ed. Jeff Rider
(New Havem: Yale, 2013), 97-8 description of homage to Count William (1127); liege loyalty (1200).

Recommended: Marc Bloch, Feudal Society, Jean-Pierre Poly and Eric Bournazel, The Feudal
Transformation, 900-1200, Guy Bois, The Transformation of the Year One Thousand: The Village of
Lournand from Antiquity to Feudalism, Dominique Barthélemy, The Serf, The Knight, and The
Historian, Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reexamined, Kathleen David,
Periodization and Sovereignty: How Ideas of Feudalism and Secularization Govern the Politics of Time,
Sverre Bagge, Michael Gelting, and Thomas Lindkvist, eds., Feudalism: New Landscapes of Debate.
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Week 11 (Mar 29): Forces Shaping Women’s Lives, Women Shaping History?

Required Reading: Caroline Bynum, Holy Feast, Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to
Medieval Women, Diane Owen Hughes, “From Brideprice to Dowry in Mediterranean Europe,” Journal
of Family History 3 (1978):262-96, Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, “The ‘Cruel Mother’: Maternity,
Widowhood, and Dowry in Florence in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,” reprinted as ch. 15 in
Little and Rosenwein, eds., Debating the Middle Ages, 264-76, Susan Mosher Stuard, “Burden of
Matrimony: Husbanding and Gender in Medieval Italy,” reprinted as Ch. 17 in Little and Rosenwein,
eds, Debating the Middle Ages, 290-8.

Sources in Context: Sarum Missal marriage liturgy, ed. Jacquline Murrary, Love, Marriage, and Family
in the Middle Ages (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001) , no. 34. (ca. 1200-1250)

Recommended Reading: Martha Howell, The Marriage Exchange: Property, Social Place, and Gender
in Cities of the Low Countries, 1300-1550, Susan Mosher Stuard, Women in Medieval History and
Historiography, Nancy Partner, ed., Studying Medieval Women: Sex, Gender, and Feminsim, Pauline
Stafford and Annekke K. Mulder-Bakker, Gendering the Middle Ages: A Gender and History Special
Issue, Charlotte Newman Goody and Amy Livingstone, eds. Writing Womens’ Lives, Valerie Garver,
Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World, Judith Bennett, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in
England: Women’s Work in a Changing World.

Week 12 (Apr 5): Popular Beliefs and Evidence for Them?

Required Reading: LeRoy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, Carlo Ginzburg, “The
Inquisitor as Anthropologist,” in Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method, 156-64, Jean-Claude Schmitt,
“Religion, Folklore, and Society in the Medieval West” in Lester Little and Barbara Rosenwein, eds.,
Debating the Middle Ages, 376-87, David D’Avray, “Symbolism and Medieval Religious Thought” in
Linehan and Nelson, The Medieval World, 267-79.

Sources in Context: Inquisition register of Jacques Fournier, ed. Edward Peters, Heresy and Authority in
Medieval Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980), 251-64. (1318-25)

Recommended Reading: Herbert Grundmann, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages, André
Vauchez, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages, R. I. Moore, Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power
and Deviance in Western Society 950-1250, Brian Stock, The Implications of Literacy, Jean-Claude
Schmitt, The Holy Greyhound: Guinefort, Healer of Children since the Thirteenth Century, Dyan Elliott,
Proving Women: Female Spirituality and Inquisitorial Culture in the Later Middle Ages, Valerie Flint,
The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Eamon
Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580, Gábor Klaniczay, The
Uses of Supernatural Power: The Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early Modern
Europe, Aron Gurevich, Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception.

Unit IV: The Long Shadow of Modernity – The Middle Ages and the Historical Profession

Week 13 (Apr 12): Past and Future of Medieval History

Required Readings: R. W. Southern, “Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing: 4. The
Sense of the Past” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 23 (1973), 243-63, reprinted
in R. J. Bartlett, ed. History and Historians: The Selected Papers of R. W. Southern (London: Blackwell,
2004), 66-86. Jacques LeGoff, Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages, vii-xvi (preface) and 3-28
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“The Several Middle Ages of Jules Michelet.” Paul Freedman and Gabrielle Spiegel, “Medievalisms
Old and New: The Rediscovery of Alterity in North American Medieval Studies,” American Historical
Review 103 (1998): 677-704, Elizabeth A. R. Brown, “On 1500” in Linehan and Nelson, eds., The
Medieval World, 691-710, Alexander Murray, “Should the Middle Ages be Abolished?” Essays in
Medieval Studies 21 (2004):1-22.

Week 14 (April 19): Reports on Final Papers

Students will present for 10 minutes on the arguments of their final papers.

FINAL PAPER DUE