Learning objectives
The purpose of this course is to give knowledges of tools to set and develop an historical research. Meaning and the exegesis of primary sources, to the historiography and the place where primary sources are kept, as archives and libraries. By this way students will be able to work on a medieval research project knowing how to use primary and secondary sources, as well as the problems concerning their use. At the same time, students will learn how to use the library and archive's catalogues (online and not online), as well as the main websites concerning medieval history, connected to national and international universities or research centers (i.e. Reti Medievali, Istituto Datini, The Renaissance Society of America, the Medievalist and so on). By this way students will have the necessary knowledge to find reliable primary and secondary sources for researching about a medieval topic.
Prerequisites
The knowledge of the Medieval History, that means: to know the main political. economic, social, cultural and religious events that occured between 5th and 15th century, as well as the main protagonists of that events.
Course unit content
The course "Violence in the Middle Ages - Violent Middle Ages" has the purpose to study (through primary and secondary sources) the meaning of violence in the Middle Ages, the typologies of violence, and the environment in which it developed. Also it will be analyzed the contemporary idea of a Middle Ages as a violent era, trying to understand when and how this idea has taken place and how it has developed through years.
Full programme
The course "Violence in the Middle Ages - Violent Middle Ages" has the purpose to study (through primary and secondary sources) the meaning of violence in the Middle Ages, the typologies of violence, and the environment in which it developed. Also it will be analyzed the contemporary idea of a Middle Ages as a violent era, trying to understand when and how this idea has taken place and how it has developed through years.
Reference books (before buying them ask to the teacher)
Di Carpegna Falconieri, Medioevo militante. La politica di oggi alle prese con barbari e crociati, Torino, Einaudi, 2011.
Tramontana S., Capire il medioevo. Le fonti e i temi, Roma, Carocci, 2005.
Violenza alle donne. Una prospettiva medievale, a cura di A. Esposito, F. Franceschi, G. Piccinni, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018.
Further books, connected to the course's topic, will be indicated during the course.
Bibliography
Reference books (before buying them ask to the teacher)
Di Carpegna Falconieri, Medioevo militante. La politica di oggi alle prese con barbari e crociati, Torino, Einaudi, 2011.
Tramontana S., Capire il medioevo. Le fonti e i temi, Roma, Carocci, 2005.
Violenza alle donne. Una prospettiva medievale, a cura di A. Esposito, F. Franceschi, G. Piccinni, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018.
Further books, connected to the course's topic, will be indicated during the course.
Teaching methods
To pursue the course's purpose there will be lectures and some works of analysis on primary and secondary sources, together with students. Lessons will be in classroom as well as, when it will possible, in the local libraries and archives to introduce students to the knowledge of the main resources for starting, and building, a research about a topic in medieval history, or about the idea of the Middle Ages, that means a topic on violence during the this era and about the idea of it as a violent time. Students will learn how to use the main resources for building a good bibliography and the typologies of primary sources used for discovered the Middle Ages (and Medievalism).
Assessment methods and criteria
Students have to write a brief critical analysis (25 pages max) of what has been written, in the last decades, about the topic of the course (Violence in the Middle Ages - Violent Middle Ages). Alternatively, students can write a paper, concerning form of violence in the Middle Ages, using both primary and secondary sources (agree with the teacher).
Other information
- - -
