Center for Medieval Studies

	The Center for Medieval Studies
	Home · Graduate · Undergraduate · Courses · Fellows· Faculty · Students · Conferences · Lectures · Publications · Links
	Courses in the Undergraduate Program (not all will be offered every year): Courses Offered Every Year: MVG 2005 – Medieval Traveler This course examines what medieval explorers, crusaders, pilgrims and merchants wrote and thought about the Asians, Africans, Arabs and Native North Americans they met during their travels. Some of the accounts students might read include those by Marco Polo, an Italian who went to China, Arabia and Persia; Ibn Battuta, a Muslim who traveled to Africa; Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew who roamed all over Egypt and the Middle East; and Erik the Red, a Viking who sailed to Greenland and North America. Also examined is how medieval travelers’ perceptions of the people they met were influenced by their reading of the mythical books of the ancient Greeks (the equivalent of modern science fiction), which described the peoples of unknown lands as bizarre and monstrous. Finally, the course will explore the mythical dimension of medieval travel accounts, in which journeys to strange lands were viewed as mystical quests that could transform both individual travelers and the society they represent. This course also fulfills the Global Studies requirement of the core curriculum. ENU 1200 – Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton HSU 1300 – Intro to Medieval History LAU 1001 – Intro to Latin I LAU 1501 – Intermediate Latin I RSU 2610 – Early Christian Writings RSU 2720 – Byzantine Christianity Other Courses (offered in the last four years): MVU 1210 – Literature and Society: Gods, Heroes and Monsters This course offers an introduction to the literature of the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons. The readings, all in modern English translations, will deal with the popular themes of the period: the passions of gods, heroes, kings, queens, saints, and monsters. Texts can include the myths of Snorri’s Edda; the Poetic Edda, and The Saga of the Volsungs (Sigurd the Dragon Slayer); the famous heroic epic Beowulf; the Vinland Sagas, which give an account of the Norse discovery of America, and various other works of poetry and prose from medieval England, Iceland, and Scandinavia. We will also read some contemporary critical works, and if there is class interest, a modern novel such as Tolkein’s The Hobbit. There will be several short papers and a final exam. MVU 1210 – Literature and society: The Seven Deadly Sins MVU 3102 – Medieval Women Writers In the literature of the medieval era, a popular literary character named the Wife of Bath asked what the historical record would have shown had women written more texts. Like the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who created the Wife of Bath, we will ask similar questions in this course, exploring the ways in which the works of medieval women writers influenced themselves, their society, and continue to affect our world today. These medieval texts offer a range of experiences and authors, from the love poetry of Christine de Pizan, to Margery Kempe’s mystical union with the divine, to Heloise’s illicit letters to Abelard. Whether writing for themselves or for others, these women left behind a lively and intriguing account of female experience in the Middle Ages, demonstrating an intense interest in politics, the arts, philosophy and spirituality. MVU 2998 – Study Tour: Medieval Spain [insert link to description on web] The Camino de Santiago is the traditional pilgrimage route from France across northwestern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, the legendary burial site of St. James. One of the great medieval pilgrimages and the greatest surviving itinerary for medieval monuments and landscapes, it has enjoyed a remarkable revival in recent years, attracting European Union sponsorship, the attention of media stars and hundreds of thousands of walkers and pilgrims. In this two-week study tour, participants will walk the route, meeting each day for lectures and discussion of the medieval and pre-modern monuments along the route. The group will gather periodically during the spring semester to discuss reading assignments and prepare for the walk. A journal is required at the end of the course. MVU 4001 – Vikings and Values This seminar uses the lives of the Viking Kings of Norway to explore the dynamics of leading and following. By exploring medieval ideals of kingship and their roots in mythology and Judeo-Christian tradition, as well as archetypal images of political leadership, the course promotes reflection on leadership and parallels in contemporary society. MVV 4002 – The Liberal Arts and Life This course enters into the millennia-long debates about the proper curriculum in education. It will engage such question as: How ought the human being to be educated? What constitutes a liberal education? Is an education in the liberal arts of value? This course is designed to help students reflect back over their own education, what they have read and studied, why they have done so, and what they have come to value in it. The course is also meant to help students see that what they read makes all the difference in who they are – you are what you read. Readings include selections from Plato, Aristotle, Hugh of St. Victor, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Roger Bacon, Francis Bacon, Milton and Rousseau, as well as modern commentators such as Alan Bloom, Henri Marrou, Werner Jaeger and James Schall. AHRU 2320 – Medieval Art AHRU 2340 – Early Medieval Art AHRU 2345 – Gothic Art AHLU 2350 – Byzantine and Western Art AHLU 2355 – Celtic Art AHRU 2460 – Architecture 1300-1750 AHRU 3350 – Age of Cathedrals ENRU 1250 – Tradition of Story-Telling ENRU 3010 – English Literature: Beowulf to 1660 ENRU 3100 - Medieval Literature ENRU 3102 – Medieval Drama ENLU 3103 – Early English Drama ENLU 3107 – Chaucer ENRU 3109 – Arthurian Literature ENRU 3111 – Medieval Romance ENRU 3113 – Intro to Old English ENRU 3115 – Medieval Women Writers ENRU 3119 – Love in the Middle Ages ENRU 3120 – Chaucer and Company ENRU 3121 – Medieval Animals ENRU 3124 – Mystics and Martyrs ENRU 3125 – Beowulf in Old English ENRU 3126 – Love and Violence: Arthurian Legends ENRU 3127 – Dreams in the Middle Ages ENRU 3129 – Death in the Middle Ages ENRU 3809 – Mothers/Daughters ENRU 3834 – History of the English Language ENRU 4042 – Anglo-Saxon Culture ENRU 4130 – Death in the Middle Ages FRRU 3100 – Medieval French Literature FRRU 3150 – Miracles, Saints, and Sinners in Medieval France GERU 3101 – Courtly Epic and Lyric Poetry HSLU 1300 – Introduction to Medieval History HSRU 3014 – Medieval Feud, Ordeal and Law HSRU 3018 – Medieval Nobility: Love and War HSRU 3208 – The Medieval Other HSRU 3202 – Medieval Universities HSRU 3207 – Late Medieval Religion and Society HSEU 3210 – Medieval Church and State HSRU 3211 – Medieval Sin, Sinners and Outcasts HSLU 3260 – Medieval Ireland to 1691 HSRU 3270 – The Crusades HSRU 3275 – Medieval Conversion to Islam HSLU 3301 – Women in the Middle Ages HSRU 3305 – Medieval Warfare HSRU 3307 – Medieval Urban History HSLU 3321 – The Renaissance HSLU 3410 – English History to 1485 HSRU 4100 – Medieval Political Ideologies HSLU 4301 – Seminar: 12th Century Renaissance ITRU 3011 – Dante and His Age ITRU 3012 – Medieval Storytelling ITRU 3021 – Vice and Virtue in Medieval Italian Literature LARU 2001 – Latin Language and Literature LALU 3050 – Cicero’s Orations LARU 3061 – Christian Latin MURU 2056 – The Mass and its Music MURU 3110 – Music Before 1600 PHLV 3186-01 – Evil, Vice and Sin PHLV 3186-02 – War and Peace: Just War Theory PHEU 3301 – The Problem of God PHRU 3307 – Faith and Rationality PHEU 3552 – Medieval Philosophy PHRU 3557 – Confessions of Augustine PHEU 3558 – The Philosophy of Augustine PHRU 3565 – Four Medieval Thinkers PHRU 3910 – Shakespeare and Aquinas RSRU 2610 – Early Christian Writings RSEU 2715 – Medieval Theology Texts RSRU 2730 – Divine Comedy Texts RSRU 2734 – St. Augustine of Hippo RSRG 2777 – Classic Islamic Texts RSRU 3000 – Classic Christian Texts RSRU 3551 – Cappadocian Theology RSRU 3614 – Monks, Nuns and the Desert RSLG 3814 – Islamic Mysticism Graduate Courses Open to Undergraduates (offered in the last four years): MVGA 5024 – Medieval Political Thought An investigation of the major political theories of the Middle Ages from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West until the eve of the Protestant Reformation. Students will read the classic texts of this era, such as Augustine's City of God, Aquinas's On Kingship,* andMarsilius of Padua's The Defender of the Peace, as well as several medieval Islamic and Judaic texts (Al Farabi, Averroes, Maimonides). Special attention will be given to different theories of kingship and of the basis of political authority and the relationship between papacy and empire. MVGA 5039 - Late Antique Cultures An overview of late antique material and textual culture, covering the third through the seventh centuries. Organized chronologically and thematically, the course addresses issues such as the transition from Roman to medieval economies, the transformation of cities, the rise of the institutional church and the development of Christian art and architecture, and the beginnings of monasticism. Readings will reflect the intersection of text and material culture represented by the disciplinary perspectives of the instructors, an archeologist and an historian, and the discussions will stress interdisciplinary solutions to methodological problems and historiographic debates. MVGA 5042 – The Gothic Cathedral and its Audience This seminar will examine gothic cathedrals in relation to their varied medieval audiences and will explore modern historiography on the gothic era and its artistic production. We will consider the cathedral as a multi-media arena where architects and engineers innovated techniques to create soaring structures, where stained-glass painters conveyed sacred stories as well as political and social ideologies in sparkling colors, where luxury tapestries and reliquaries contributed to the spectacle of the liturgy. We will also consider the gothic cathedral in relation to its original political and social contexts, exploring, for example, the ways sculpted façade programs often were geared at quelling social unrest in addition to conveying tenets of church dogma. Finally, we will also consider the way nineteenth-century and later thinkers used the gothic cathedral to advance romantic and nationalist agendas. Focus will be on cathedrals in northern Europe, primarily France, Germany and England. MVGA 5043 – In and Out in the Middle Ages Beginning in the twelfth century, church leaders spearheaded campaigns to order and regulate earthly society in accord with divine principles. One aspect of this program was determining which populations lay outside the Christian fold. For reasons both spiritual and social, theologians and lawmakers condemned Jews, heretics, Muslims, sodomites, lepers and prostitutes as “non-Christian” and inaugurated persecutions and social restraint of these groups. Art created in the high Middle Ages manifests visually many of the prevailing anxieties about such “outsiders.” Across Europe and in the Latin communities established in the Middle East, sculpture, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts and other artworks feature representations of nefarious figures who threaten the coherence of the Christian community. Alternately, some visual programs present idealized figurations of Virtues, Vices and other abstractions intended to admonish viewers and present models for upright behavior. In this seminar we will examine images that project fantasies about groups considered non-Christian. We will explore how patrons favored certain themes demonizing their perceived enemies as well as public responses to such fictions. Students will pursue independent research projects focusing on a single site or coherent group of objects and the way their visual programs alternately forged stereotypes, re-inscribed fears or subverted dominant ideologies. MVGA 5048 – Medieval Art and Ideas: The Implications of the Shift from the Romanesque to the Gothic The shift from the Romanesque to the quintessentially medieval style known as the “Gothic” is among the more dramatic in the history of Western art. This course will examine the extraordinary artistic developments of this pivotal period, while also investigating the intellectual sources that inspired these developments. In the pursuit of this goal, students will first be introduced to those basic Christian doctrines (concerning Christ, Mary and the Eucharist) that are necessary to understanding the art of the Middle Ages. Then students will examine how Christian thought was dramatically transformed by the rediscovery of the Greek philosophical heritage, found above all in the works of Aristotle. This “new theology” of the universities seems to have changed for generations (perhaps even through the Baroque) the way painting, sculpture and architecture was done. The course will thus revisit the thesis of the art historian, Erwin Panofsky, who argued that Gothic architecture reflects scholastic thought. Students will explore the possibility of extending Panofsky’s thesis to sculpture and painting. In short, the class will examine the West’s extraordinary turn to realism and naturalism in art in the later Middle Ages and ask whether scholasticism helped make possible this change by its appropriation of the newly re-discovered philosophy of the ancients and the Arabs. MVGA 5049 – Inventing Christian Art This course surveys the origins of Christian visual culture and its historiography, from the 2nd through the 6th centuries AD. It will inquire how Christians crafted their own visual and material culture from classical traditions, addressing questions such as the use of imperial iconography, the changing nature of Roman viewing, the problem of late antique style, and the creation of a Christian architecture and urbanism. We will examine the ways in which visual culture shaped a new idea of Christian community, even as it maintained a constant dialogue with a still largely non-Christian world. The course will also critically examine the various theoretical models used to understand these problems, and the ways in which scholars have themselves invented Christian art as part of larger historiographic projects. MVGA 5063 – Dante and the Medieval Tradition A study of Dante’s humanism. This course will consider Dante’s poetic engagement with medieval philosophy and theology. We will study his treatment of his sources, especially such figures as Augustine, Boethius, Dionysius, Bonaventure, and Aquinas, and such schools as the Victorines and Chartres. The course will examine Dante’s own contributions to medieval thought and to the formation of a humanistic perspective that uses poetry to fashion an approach to moral thought superior to its usual academic presentation. MVGA 5070 – Manuscript Culture In the age before print, every book was a unique production, hand-crafted to suit the needs and expectations of its audience. Beyond the texts therein, the scripts, images and material qualities of the medieval manuscript provide a window onto the social and cultural history of the Middle Ages. In this course we will examine manuscript culture from the second through the fifteenth centuries, with particular attention to illuminated manuscripts. Issues examined will include: the transition from roll to codex format in the early Christian period; the place of illuminated manuscripts in monastic culture and Christian proselytizing; the enthusiasm for secular romances in the twelfth century; the later development of the Book of Hours and its role in lay devotion in the fifteenth century; the place of reading in female religious and social life. The course will include visits to local manuscript libraries including the New York Public Library and the Rare Book and Manuscript Collection of Columbia University. MVGA 5078 – Medieval Books and Readers The handwritten sources of the medieval period, whether charters or codices, records, chronicles, treatises, Bibles or many other genres and types, are fundamental materials for medieval studies. Using examples from a range of documentary and literary sources, with presentations and discussions by guests and visitors to the class, the course will consider the purposes, preparation, transmission and preservation of written sources from the period. The emphasis will be on how such materials can be used for medieval studies and the tools important for their study. MVGA 5079 – Medieval Manuscripts, Music and Liturgy Monks, nuns, canons and friars spent many hours each day in the performance of the medieval liturgy; their liturgies shaped their corporate identity and their personal spiritual life. The complex group of manuscripts that were written for use in celebrating Mass and chanting the Divine Office were essential to performing the liturgy correctly. These liturgical books were meticulously prepared and treated with great care by the participants. By the later middle ages the development of the four-line musical staff meant that these choir books had to be very large in order to be seen correctly by those who sang from them; they also often included illuminated initials and other artistic decoration. The course will discuss the shape of the medieval liturgy, the importance of music as a vehicle for prayer, the role of the choir books in liturgical performance, the compositions of the books and their relationship to each other. Students will learn how to sing some of the chants, how to analyze the music of the pieces, how to understand the structure of an individual feast and how to understand the composition of the books as a whole. In addition, we will discuss the monastic and cathedral liturgies, including the important role of the mendicant orders, found in the thirteenth century, in the organization and dissemination of the Masses and offices of saints’ Feasts. MVGA 5085 – Art, Politics and Religion in Early Humanism This course is directed to students with interests in literature, art history, humanities, history and religion. It will illustrate the main traits of the humanist movement from the early days of the Florentine Republic until the end of the XVth century. This period witnessed one of the major changes in mentality in the history of thought, and prepared the grounds for the development of modern civilization. At the core of the humanist movement was a changed perception of the place and function of human beings in the cosmos. A new faith in the human capacity to shape the world in the image of an ideal Christian model led to a reevaluation of human ingenuity and the arts. In particular, we will discuss the theories on the ideal state; the debate on the arts; and the seeds of religious reformation movements. Readings will include authors such as Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch, Coluccio, Salutati, Poggio Bracciolini, Lorenzo Valla, and Erasmus. MVGA 5200 – Medieval Iberian Literature and Society The religious, linguistic and political pluralism of medieval Iberian society is reflected in its literature, rhetoric and social accommodations. Despite debates about the role of pluralism in forming Iberian identities, pluralism provides models—whether of convivencia or conflict—that now dominate discussions of western medieval culture in general. In the course, Iberian pluralism will be considered through discussion of works and studies on the literature and societies of the Iberian peninsula from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries. MVGA 5212 – Women’s Voices in Medieval France In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will explore a variety of different texts by and about medieval French women of diverse social milieus: those penned by the Italian-born Christine de Pizan, a member of the French royal circle; those concerning the rural maid and French national savior, Joan of Arc; and those recording the religious, fantastical, and/or mythical experience of woman of 12-15th c. France. Readings will include a selection of historical, political, literary, polemic, and/or religious texts, film, and contemporary scholarship. MVGA 5300 – Epic and Romance in Medieval Spain and France The French and Iberian languages, taken together, probably account for the largest extant body of medieval epic literature, a genre pursued in some but not all medieval languages. The romance, a genre original to the middle ages and appearing first in French, arose in response to the complexities of the court societies in which it takes its form. As vehicles that transmit historicizing and nationalizing impulses, along with the aspirations of groups jockeying for hegemonic control, epic and romance furnish fruitful areas for continuing graduate study: first, in Spanish history and culture by itself; second, in comparative, cross-cultural investigation. The course will also explore the role of epics as bearers of the values and agendas that underlay historical events. The Castilian Poem of My Cid, for example, originally proposed a political project that applied to an emerging Castilian nobility, but the text lent itself to later refashioning by Alfonso X for his nationalizing enterprise, the Estoria de España. French epics devoted to Roland and Charlemagne, William of Orange, and the rebellious Raoul de Cambrai will be explored for their representations of political and social issues (11th -13th), including Christian-Muslim relations; they also point to frequent conflicts between king and nobility, and between nobles themselves. To flesh out their contribution further, epics will be read along with passages from chronicles and hagiographic texts. As for romances, Spanish readings include selections from the Book of the Knight Zifar, Ramon Lull’s Christian chivalric romance Blanquerna, and Diego de San Pedro’s Prison of Love, which will be analyzed with the Castilian law code called the Siete Partidas and Lull’s Book of Chivalry. French readings will include Chrétien de Troyes’s Erec and Enide and Yvain, both of which mark a new departure in thinking about the place and duties of a nobility eager for exclusivizing self-definition and resentful of a rising merchant group. Other romances will be chosen from among the “antique romances”, based on classical sources but relevant to the twelfth century and the later (and gendered) “anti-courtly” narrative poems of Christine de Pizan. All texts will be read in English translations. ENGA 5101 – The History of the English Language Our language has changed dramatically in the twelve hundred years of its recorded history. We would not recognize speech (Old English) of the first Germanic peoples who migrated to post-Roman Britain in the fifth century; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (Middle English) might seem to be written in a foreign language; even Shakespeare’s (Early Modern) English requires special efforts. Today, in different parts of the world, of our country, even of the city, we encounter surprisingly different varieties of English. In this course we will look at the English of these earlier periods as well as the English of our own time with a twofold goal: to gain an understanding of the sounds, words, and structure of English, and to consider the phenomenon of how and why a language changes (or doesn’t). This course will introduce students into the study of language and linguistics; no previous knowledge if presumed. The course fulfills the New York State requirement for English teaching certification. ENGA 5202 – Anglo-Saxon Identities This single-semester course will study literary and cultural issues while actively learning enough Old English to read in the original with pleasure. It will look at selected texts from among the magnificent poetry and prose composed in England before the Norman conquest and consider such issues as: who are the Anglo-Saxons, what models of human conduct and achievement are valued in Old English texts, what ethical and religious dilemmas are engaged, what modes of literary composition, delivery and reception prevail. Longer texts will be read partly in translation, partly in Old English. The course is open to final year undergraduates and graduate students wishing to begin study of Old English. ENGA 5210 – Introduction to Old Norse Language and Literature The course will involve both an introduction to Old Norse language, and the study of representative works from a variety of genres: historical prose, saga prose, and hagiography, as well as eddic poetry (wisdom, myth, legend) and the encomiastic poetry of the skalds. Readings will be partly in Old Norse, partly in translation. We will attempt to situate the texts in their medieval cultural context (analogues in English, French, German, and Latin literature), and we will spend some time on Old Norse palaeography and codicology so that students can better appreciate their material context. There is no prerequisite for the course and no prior knowledge is assumed, but students should be aware that the course will involve language study. ENGA 5217 – Medieval Rhetoric We will explore the Christianization of the classical rhetorical tradition in the West, reading translations of medieval treatises on rhetoric and translations of works that exemplify medieval rhetorical theory in practice; we will also read secondary works that analyze and contextualize those older texts, demonstrating their importance in shaping the medieval world view. ENGA 5264 – Chaucer This course will examine Chaucer's major works -- The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde -- as well as two of his dream visions, The Book of the Duchess and the Legend of Good Women. We will have two main objectives: to explore the range and subtlety of Chaucer’s writing and to ask what it means to read Chaucer historically. Our weekly readings will consist of Chaucer’s poetry and writings by his contemporaries. We will also investigate theoretical and critical texts that address the challenges of historical criticism. These readings will be organized around topics that have caused heated debates among Chaucerians: the world of the court and its politics, religious belief, the position of women, the usefulness of both psychoanalytic and post-colonial theories. No prior knowledge of Middle English is assumed, but if you have not read Chaucer before, it is recommended that you read through The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. Course requirements include weekly responses, an oral presentation, and a seminar paper. PHGA 5003 - Natural Law Ethics A study of the natural law tradition in ethics: its origins in classical philosophy, its integration with Christian thought in the Middle Ages, and its application to selected contemporary problems. The course includes a treatment of the historical origins of the theory of natural law, with special emphasis on the relevant texts of Thomas Aquinas from the Summa Theologiae. Among the topics treated will be the relation of morality to positive law and to divine law, the nature and limits of authority, the common good, the nature of the human person, virtue and vice, and such principles as subsidiary double effect, and finality. PHGA 5010 – Intro to St. Thomas This course will be a general introduction to Aquinas’ political thinking. We shall pay special attention to his philosophy of God. We shall also turn to what he says about questions such as the scope of human knowledge, the nature of the human being, and the nature and significance of human action. As well as being expository, the course will consider the cogency of Aquinas position on various topics. It will also try to relate what Aquinas says to what other philosophers, especially modern philosophers, have had to say. The course will not presuppose any previous detailed knowledge of Aquinas on the part of students. PHGA 5012 – Intro to St. Augustine This seminar is going to provide a survey of the main works and themes of St. Augustine’s philosophy and theology. Topics will include faith and reason; divine ideas; time, eternity and creation; the theology of the Holy Trinity; the nature of the soul; skepticism; divine foreknowledge and predestination and human free will; the problem of evil; original sin and divine grace; happiness; the human history as the history of salvation. These topics will be approached by studying relevant sections from Augustine’s major works. Each work and each doctrine will be considered both from a philosophical point of view and in the context of Augustine’s own evolution. Special attention will be devoted to Augustine’s attitude towards ancient thought (Neo-Platonism, Skepticism, Stoicism). Also, his influence on later thought will be occasionally considered. Students will have to take part in the discussion and write two term papers. RSGA 5300 - History of Christianity I This course treats the history of Christian doctrine and theology from the end of the New Testament era to 1500. Lectures concentrate on three doctrines: the Trinity (4th century), the Person of Christ (5th century), and the presence of Christ in the Eucharist (9th to 13th centuries). Students also read 8 to 10 short books and report on them in writing; typical subjects are the history of biblical interpretation, the Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine, Anselm, Scholasticism, a survey of medieval theology, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. The course ends with a final examination..
	Last modified: Feb 25, 2008 Copyright © 2008 Fordham University. All rights reserved.