Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding
The student will deepen the functioning mechanisms and the structures of the conflict and of the forms of organization of the political life of the Late Middle Ages.
Applying knowledge and understanding:
The students will develop the practice of considering the political, institutional, social and economic relations and the ideologies not as a natural given, but as the result of changes that have taken place in specific contexts, and to apply the notion of context to the analysis of a text, and, more generally, to any social and political phenomenon and to any artistic and cultural form of expression.
Making judgments:
The students will improve their ability to make autonomous judgments through the analysis of complex phenomena, which involve multiple sets of causes and can be understood and explained by the historians through different and sometimes conflicting approaches and interpretations.
Communication skills:
The students will be able to report and discuss the notions learned during the classes and from the texts, with particular attention to the accurate use of language, concepts and categories, and will be able to make an appropriate use of the specific vocabulary of the discipline.
Learning skills:
The students will improve their autonomous learning ability getting used to place in a hierarchy the information gathered during the classes and studying the texts in the syllabus, developing a critical attitude towards the sources.
Prerequisites
A basic knowledge of Latin is necessary. Students are expected to possess a basic knowledge of the main thematic and chronological nodes of the Italian and European medieval history acquired during the first cycle degree.
Course unit content
The rural lordship at the end of the Middle Ages
After a general introduction, original published and unpublished documents will be read and commented on in class, with specific attention to the domination of men in the countryside of northern Italy in the later Middle Ages, to the legitimacy foundations of the lordship and to the forms of exercise of power.
Full programme
It is required the study of the texts read and explained during the classes, which will be uploaded on the e-learning platform Elly
It is also required the study of the following texts:
G. Chittolini, Signorie rurali e feudi alla fine del medioevo, in Storia d’Italia (diretta da G. Galasso), vol. IV, Comuni e signorie: istituzioni, società e lotte per l’egemonia, Torino, UTET 1981, pp. 589-676.
A. Gamberini, La territorialità nel Basso Medioevo: un problema chiuso? Osservazioni a margine della vicenda di Reggio, in Poteri signorili e feudali nelle campagne dell’Italia settentrionale fra Tre e Quattrocento: fondamenti di legittimità e forme di esercizio, a cura di F. Cengarle, G. Chittolini, G.M. Varanini, Firenze 2005, pp. 47-71.
M. Gentile, “Amicizia e fazione. A proposito di un’endiadi ricorrente nel lessico politico lombardo del tardo medioevo,” in Parole e realtà dell’amicizia medievale, a cura di I. Lori Sanfilippo e A. Rigon, Roma, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo 2012, pp, 169-87.
M. Gentile, La formazione del dominio dei Rossi fra XIV e XV secolo, in Le signorie dei Rossi di Parma fra XIV e XVI secolo, a cura di L. Arcangeli e M. Gentile, Firenze, Firenze University Press 2007, pp. 23-55.
M. Gentile, Aristocrazia signorile e costituzione del ducato visconteo-sforzesco: appunti e problemi di ricerca, in Noblesse et États princiers en Italie et en France au XVe siècle, a cura di M. Gentile, P. Savy, Roma 2009, pp. 125-155.
Bibliography
G. Chittolini, Signorie rurali e feudi alla fine del medioevo, in Storia d’Italia (diretta da G. Galasso), vol. IV, Comuni e signorie: istituzioni, società e lotte per l’egemonia, Torino, UTET 1981, pp. 589-676.
A. Gamberini, La territorialità nel Basso Medioevo: un problema chiuso? Osservazioni a margine della vicenda di Reggio, in Poteri signorili e feudali nelle campagne dell’Italia settentrionale fra Tre e Quattrocento: fondamenti di legittimità e forme di esercizio, a cura di F. Cengarle, G. Chittolini, G.M. Varanini, Firenze 2005, pp. 47-71.
M. Gentile, “Amicizia e fazione. A proposito di un’endiadi ricorrente nel lessico politico lombardo del tardo medioevo,” in Parole e realtà dell’amicizia medievale, a cura di I. Lori Sanfilippo e A. Rigon, Roma, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo 2012, pp, 169-87.
M. Gentile, La formazione del dominio dei Rossi fra XIV e XV secolo, in Le signorie dei Rossi di Parma fra XIV e XVI secolo, a cura di L. Arcangeli e M. Gentile, Firenze, Firenze University Press 2007, pp. 23-55.
M. Gentile, Aristocrazia signorile e costituzione del ducato visconteo-sforzesco: appunti e problemi di ricerca, in Noblesse et États princiers en Italie et en France au XVe siècle, a cura di M. Gentile, P. Savy, Roma 2009, pp. 125-155
Teaching methods
Lectures and text readings.
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral examination in Italian.
The examination aims to assess, in particular:
a) The lexical precision in describing specific phenomena of the Late Middle Ages and, more generally, the use of the specific language of the historical disciplines.
b) The adequate ability to study independently, critically revise and conceptualize the contents learned during the course and through the study of the texts
c) The aptitude to link structures and dynamics, and to identify complex causal relationships.
Failure is determined by the inability to understand the basic elements of the course: in particular, by the inability to comment on the facts described by the chronicler placing them in their social, institutional and political context with adequate lexical and conceptual accuracy.
Sufficient performance (18 to 23/30) is determined by the student’s ability to explain and contextualize the concepts and phenomena typical of the High Middle Ages with adequate lexical precision, and by the ability to reprocess the information by making independent judgments.
Medium marks (24 to 27/30) are given to the student who shows a level more than sufficient (24 to 25/30) or good (26 to 27/30) according to the indicators listed above.
Higher scores (28 to 30/30 or 30/30 cum laude) are awarded to students who demonstrate a very good or outstanding level according to the indicators listed above; as well as the ability to articulate complex discourses on specific topics, and the aptitude to formulate personal and original judgments on the phenomena considered.
Other information
Students who cannot attend the classes are strongly advised to get in touch with the Professor to arrange an alternative programme.
2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
