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
Conflict, faction and vendetta in the fifteenth century; the «Cronica gestorum in partibus Lombardie et reliquis Italie» (1476-1484)
After a general introduction, selected passages from the "Cronica gestorum in partibus Lombardie et reliquis Italie" will be read and explained with the aid of the bibliography and other primary sources, with a focus on political conflict and practices such as blood revenge and feud in Late Medieval Italy.
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:
M. Gentile, Fazioni al governo. Politica e società a Parma nel Quattrocento, Roma, Viella 2009
Bibliography
Cronica gestorum in partibus Lombardie et reliquis Italie, a cura di G. Bonazzi, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores II, vol. XXII, parte III, Città di Castello 1904-1910 (scaricabile da https://archive.org/details/cronicagestorum00bonagoog/page/n16/mode/2up)
M. Gentile, Fazioni al governo. Politica e società a Parma nel Quattrocento, Roma, Viella 2009
Teaching methods
Lectures
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.
