History of Western Thought, 500-1300

Readings

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	Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. New York, NY: Penguin, 1991. ISBN: 9780140445657. 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