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Medieval Sourcebook: 
Courses Using the Sourcebook

The Medieval Sourcebook is now being used in part as a course book in so many history courses that it has proved impossible to list them all. Those below were current as of 1998: If you want to be added to this listing course, let me know at halsall@fordham.edu

USAGE DESCRIPTIONS

I am using the Sourcebook in my graduate seminar "Women and  Men in the Early Middle Ages" and have recommended it to my undergraduates in "Ancient and Medieval Christianity".  I thought you might also want to know that it has proved particularly useful to a blind student I have in one class who has a doo-dad for bringing the text into verbal form.
Jo Ann McNamara, CUNY/Hunter College and Graduate Center

I am using the Sourcebook in a second and third year medieval European history unit and also in a second and third year unit entitled "Witches, Inyangas and Heretics: Demonisation in Theory and Practice" (which looks at the processes of scapegoating and witch hunting in comparative perspective).   In both units, students are required to develop a long essay topic, which they then have to research through both primary and secondary sources and, as part of the proces, produce an annotated bibliography, and there is a compulsory requirement to locate some sources (whether primary or secondary, but in practice mostly primary) on the Internet.  I give the Sourcebook as a principal source with which to start their explorations and, as an average, most students would cite between three and ten Sourcebook locations.
Dr Joan Wardrop, Senior Lecturer in History/Deputy Head (Graduate Studies)
School of Social Sciences and Asian Languages, Curtin University of Technology
Perth, Western Australia

As you probably know, I am using the Byzantine texts in my upper-level courses in Byzantine History (History 607.01 and 607.02).  Because some students want hard copy versions, I am making these available to those who want them, but for other (more savvy and cost-conscious) students I am making these available through links.  I am also teaching a second-year course on "Greece after the Classical Age: Hellenistic to Modern Perceptions of the Greek Ideal."  And in the end I want to make all this available electronically. It does make a difference and it does have the potential of rejuvenating Byzantine studies in North America, something which certainly needs to be done.
Timothy E. Gregory, Ohio State University

I have used it for a couple of years in my History 550: Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages and History 555: the High and Later Middle Ages. The Source book has served as a supplementary source to this point, but it has become so rich that I have decided that for next term in 555, it will be the sole source of primary documents (except a volume of the Abelard Eloise material). I am currently producing an html syllabus that should make it easy for students. You've caused a small revolution in my courses and my thinking about assignment possibilities and I am extremely grateful.
John Wickstrom/Kalamazoo College
 

I use the Internet Source Book in different ways in different classes. In my freshman class in Western Civilizations, I use specific documents - ten or twelve of them - such as Pliny's "Letter on the Christians", the Gelasian theory etc. I print them out and Xerox them and hand them out. In my Medieval Europe courses at both Moravian College and Lehigh  University - I teach the course at both because Moravian, where I am  tenured, is part of a consortium - I use the Source Book as my basic  source book, although I do supplement it. I do not print out the assigned readings, but provide the URLs on my syllabus.I have to tell you that it has transformed the Medieval Europe course. Students tend to browse the Sourcebook and come up after class with documents they find interesting or (given their perspective) "funny". I think I'll build browsing into the courses this Spring: I may try letting students find materials they think important or useful on a general topic - like law and/or male-female relationships because those are my own  interests - to use as the sources for discussion.
Janet Loengard, Moravian College

I saw your query on Mediev-l for a list of those using the Sourcebook in their classes and thought I'd pass along my great thanks for the service your doing. I've just taken a job at U. of Alaska Anchorage and library resources are far from adequate, so the Sourcebook is now an even more vital part of my own research and classroom work.   I've used the Sourcebook in English 203: British Lit. Survey I; English 315: Survey of Medieval Literature; English 304: Writing by and about Medieval Women; and will be using it in the Spring for English 615: Medieval Drama and next fall in English 424: Chaucer. I find I most often use the Sourcebook to set the historical/cultural context to establish the "textual environment" (to use Paul Strohm's phrase) of the literature, but I have begun to incorporate less widely available literary texts into my classes, especailly some of the OMACL selections.
Dan Kline: Department of English, U. of Alaska Anchorage

I've used texts from your sourcebook for my class this semester entitled "Women's Spirituality in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages".  The students have greatly appreciated the ease and savings that comes with an "on-line" sourcebook; they bring their printouts to class for discussion.  I've found them consistently prepared, and I'm relieved not to have to endure the usual complaints about library reserves policies and expensive sourcebooks.
Nicola Denzey: Dept. of Religion, Bowdoin College
 
I really feel as if I know you, having made such extensive use of your marvellous Internet pages.  I am writing now to tell you that I have just (in the last 5 days) mounted - or started to mount - the webpages for three courses which I am teaching this year: they are all heavily dependent on your material. Thank you very much indeed for all the hard work which has made my undertakings possible
Charlotte Roueche
Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies/ Department of Classics
King's College, London WC2R 2LS

This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.

Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use.

© Paul Halsall, Octoberl 1998
halsall@fordham.edu