What does Jerusalem have to do with Athens? This was the great question posed in the third century as the new Christian culture moved closer and closer to acceptance within the Roman Empire. Thinkers such as Augustine writing in the later fourth century knew that this question had to be answered and it had to be answered in a positive way so that the centuries of knowledge accrued within the Greek and Roman cultures would not be lost to the newly emerging Christian culture. The elucidation of this very important cultural synthesis is the work of that great generation of the late fourth century: Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome. These men agreed that Western Civilization needed Athens as well as Jerusalem and the synthesis that they discovered governed the next one thousand years of European history. The cultural synthesis created by this last great generation of "Rome" was the synthesis that animated all of Medieval history.
Week 11: "Quid Athenae Hierosolymis?" Thursday January 6, 2011
From 100-1000 AD."Quid Athenae Hierosolymis?"
Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, and Saint Augustine.
The Generation of Midcentury: Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome.MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
REQUIRED READING:
RECOMMENDED READING:
There is one classic biography of Augustine published almost forty years ago and still the best. And even better is a new edition published last year in which the author adds an epilogue in which he discusses recently discovered letters and sermons by Augustine (Yes! It sounds incredible doesn't it that we could still be finding works by Augustine, but that is the nature and excitement of scholarship.)
Week 12: "Eleanor of Aquitaine" Thursday January 13, 2011
The 12th Century and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
The world of Feudalism, the Crusades, and Courtly Love.
"In democracy your vote counts, in Feudalism your count votes."
MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
SLIDES
Angers, the Loire, and Fontevrault.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Amy Kelly, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings, (originally published in 1957, still in print from Harvard University Press, ISBN: 0674242548.) & Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine (1999).
Amy Kelly wrote her great biography of Eleanor more than fifty years ago and I still think it is the best. It is one of the greatest biographies I know and I have read it many times. So if you want to start out with one book about Eleanor read Kelly first. You will enjoy every page. The new biography by Alison Weir is full of new material and a fine work of history and I have benefited from her updating of the Eleanor story. But it is not the sweeping saga that you find in Kelly and I doubt anyone will ever write a better biography of Eleanor.
MOVIES: If you want to enjoy the best motion picture version of Eleanor ever made, rent "Lion in Winter" with Katherine Hepburn at her Academy-Award-winning best, and Peter O'Toole as Henry, Anthony Hopkins as Richard, and a young Timothy Dalton as King Philip of France. The cast is spectacular and Katharine and Peter maneuver and shout as Eleanor and Henry did in real life and it is all so good you can't believe it. But when you watch it, remember that it deals with a moment in Eleanor's long life during which Henry has her locked up so that he won't have to share power with her, so the impression of Eleanor in this movie is of a woman without power, languishing in Henry's luxurious jail. But that condition was only a part of her long life. After Henry is gone from the earth in 1189, Eleanor is back in the driver's seat as her son Richard goes off to Crusade and leaves England in her hands.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED GENERAL BOOK ON MIDDLE AGES: This week we begin studying the period that is known as the "Middle Ages" and I know many of you will want to have some general history of the Middle Ages to give you background beyond that which we have time to study in class. There is such a book and I am happy to tell you that it is available in a nice paperback edition. The chapters on Eleanor and Courtly Love are excellent.
Friedrich Heer, The Medieval World, first published in 1961 and still the best one-volume history of the Middle Ages that I know. Paperback - 384 pages (October 1998, ISBN: 1566491975, $18.95).
Week 13: "Love Hurts" Thursday January 20, 2011
Courtly Love.
Courtly Love Poetry.
The Troubadors.
The South: Bordeaux, Poitiers, Toulouse.
Eleanor and the world of Courtly Love.
Eleanor, Henry, and the Angevin empire.
The Angevins and the "Matter of Britain."
Bernart de Ventadorn (fl. 1150-1180).
REQUIRED READING (will be emailed to you):
Various items that will be sent to you:
1) lyrics of our song we will sing together.
2) Mother Teresa on Love.
3) The Science of Love (Life Magazine).
4) most famous poem of Courtly Love, Bernart de Ventadour.
5) the movie list.
6) Joyce Carol Oates, "Love in the Western World."
The article from the great American novelist on "Love in the Western World" is the best short summary ever written of the unique phenomenon that we study this week: Western ideas of Love.RECOMMENDED READING:
If you want to read more about Courtly Love there is no better place to begin than in C. S. Lewis's brilliant Allegory of Love especially the first chapter. Lewis and the whole circle of Medievalists of whom he was a part (Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers), blazed a trail of research in this field and we are still in their debt.
But the one book that has had a greater influence on our ideas of love in the West than any other book is the brilliant Love in the Western World by Denis de Rougemont. De Rougemont (1906-1985) was one of the most influential European intellectuals of his generation. His book came out first in 1939 and then was revised several times with the 1972 edition being the definitive final edition. This book simply changed the way people thought about Western cultural history. It was of extraordinary importance and is still the beginning point for any study of the unique phenomenon of love in the Western world.
Week 14: "Abelard and Heloise" Thursday January 27, 2011
A Medieval Love Affair.
MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
REQUIRED READING:
"Historia Calamitatum" pp. 3-43.
"Personal Letters" pp. 47-89.
There are two very fine introductory essays at the beginning of this Penguin edition. The translator Betty Radice writes a useful introduction to the collection of letters, and M. T. Clanchy provides an interesting update on the fate of the letters in his "The Letters of Abelard and Heloise in Today's Scholarship."RECOMMENDED READING:
For those of you who get caught up in the drama of Abelard and Heloise and want to read more about their story there is one great classic study from one of the most important French Medieval historians of all time, Etienne Gilson. It is a small, rich book based on lectures Gilson delivered in Paris in 1936 and thanks to the University of Michigan Press it is still in print. Especially interesting is the detailed analysis Gilson provides for our proper understanding of the marriage and why it was a mistake for Abelard in relation to his career as a professor of theology.
Week 15: "Dante and Florence" Thursday February 3, 2011
Dante-Introduction:
1) 13th Century: commerce, urbanization, growth, success.
2) 13th Century Italy: In the Middle of things.
3) Florence: 1250-1300, success, the Florin.
4) Dante 1265-1321.MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
- Chronology: 13th Century
- Dante page
- A List of Cantos in the Inferno
- Summary of the Inferno
- University of Vermont website
SLIDES:
Dante in Florence (Via dei Cerchi, Via del Corso, Via del Proconsolo).
REQUIRED READING:
Make sure you bring your copy of the Divine Comedy, Inferno, to class each week as we now discuss and read passages together. We will begin with the first canto (song) and move on. The Mandelbaum translation is the one we have chosen and it is on the Required Texts page for this class:
RECOMMENDED READING:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: There is a new biography of Dante written by the late R. W. B. Lewis, Dante (ISBN 0670899097) and it is excellent and exactly what many of you will want: a short (200 pages), well-written, inexpensive ($19.95) biography of Dante. It is perfect for our course and although I don't want to make it a required book, I am sure that anyone who buys it will be happy they did.
Week 16: "Dante and the Inferno" Thursday February 10, 2011
Dante and Allegory.
Courtly Love and Dante:
Canto V: Paolo and Francesca.MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
SLIDES:
Dante in exile at Castello Porciano (near town of Stia) in the Casentino.
REQUIRED READING:
Make sure you bring your copy of the Divine Comedy, Inferno, to class each week as we now discuss and read passages together. We will begin with the first canto (song) and move on. The Mandelbaum translation is the one we have chosen and it is on the Required Texts page for this class:
This second week on Dante we will move on to look at Inferno, Cantos II, III, IV, V.
Week 17: "Dante and the Inferno" Thursday February 17, 2011
SLIDES:
Dante in Verona and Ravenna.
REQUIRED READING:
Make sure you bring your copy of the Divine Comedy, Inferno, to class each week as we now discuss and read passages together. We will begin with the first canto (song) and move on. The Mandelbaum translation is the one we have chosen and it is on the Required Texts page for this class:
This third week: Canto XXV, Canto XXVI (Ulysses), Cantos XXX-XXXIV.Cantos XX-XXXIV.
The descent to the heart of evil.
Popes and traitors.
Week 18: "Petrarch" Thursday February 24, 2011
Petrarch and the 14th Century (lecture).
MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
- Chronology: 14th Century
- Petrarch page
- Petrarch photos
- Petarch's poem "Solo e Pensoso."
- Petrarch biography
SLIDES:
Life of Petrarch in Arezzo, Vaucluse, and Arqua (Padova).
REQUIRED READING:
Make sure you read Petrarch's "Letter to Posterity." and bring to class.
Week 19: "Brunelleschi" Thursday March 3, 2011
The Renaissance in Florence.
Brunelleschi and 15th Century Florence.
Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Ghiberti.
Man at the Center of the World.MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
SLIDES:
The Art of the Renaissance.
REQUIRED READING:
No required reading this week.
RECOMMENDED READING:
This is a wonderful book that is perfect for us as we spend a week talking about Brunelleschi and Renaissance Florence. I highly recommend it to you all. And now it is available in paperback ($13.00).
Week 20: "Raphael and Pico" Thursday March 10, 2011
The Renaissance in Florence.
Pico della Mirandola.
Renaissance Optimism.
Man at the Center of the World.MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
SLIDES:
Raphael: The Vatican, The Sala della Segnatura,
Unity of Faith and Reason; Unity of Jerusalem and Athens.
"The School of Athens"(see website).REQUIRED READING:
Pico, "Oration On the Dignity of Man."(website)
RECOMMENDED READING:
The Jones-Penny book is a spectacular book on Raphael now in a quality softcover edition that includes some of the most glorious reproductions of Raphael's paintings you will ever see. So if you are intrigued by Raphael, you may want to own this fabulous book which is a real buy from Amazon. It is a gorgeous book.
Spring Vacation
March 14 to March 25, 2011
Spring Vacation. No class the week of March 14 (Mon.) and March 21 (Mon.).
First class of Spring Quarter is Thursday, March 31, 2011.
