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Course description and objectives

As the above quote from The Aeneid suggests, since Antiquity the Mediterranean world believed the presence of cities was the surest indicator of a civilization’s vitality.  Through the ages and down to our own time, cities have been considered to embody both the highest form of human social interaction, and, frequently, the sites of our greatest social failures.  From the relatively modest urban centers in the waning days of the Roman Empire arose the cities that propelled the economic and cultural development of Western Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

This class aims to examine the social and cultural milieu of the medieval European city (ca. 300-1500 C.E.) as a barometer of medieval attitudes toward community, space, and cohabitation; governance and social order; commercialization and economic growth; the marginal and dispossessed; law and criminality; social concord and consensus.  Our objectives will be to learn about the development and evolution of the medieval town, to develop the tools of critical historical analysis and interpretation through assessment of  primary and secondary source materials; and to apply those skills through written assignments.

Please also note that this class has a very heavy reading load, and that class participation, including preparation of texts and discussion, form a significant portion of the overall grade.

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Evaluation

Undergraduates will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Active oral participation, regular attendance, and preparation of readings – 30%.  I consider active participation reflecting a close reading of the assigned sources as a critical component to every class I teach.  Students should prepare all assigned readings in advance of the class.  Excellent attendance without oral participation will usually be assessed a grade of “C.”  Sporadic attendance with little or no participation will be assessed a grade of “C-” or lower.  If you have questions or concerns about your participation grade, do not hesitate to see me.
• Interpretive essay (~5 pp.) – 30%. Due January 31.  | Click here for guidelines |
  
• Four response papers (~3 pp. each) – 10% X 4 = 40%.  | Click here for guidelines |
  

Graduate students will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Active class participation (as outlined above), including one required facilitation of group discussion – 30%
• Reading responses (3) - 15% (5% X 3).  See guidelines above.
  
• Historiographical review essay (~15-18 pp.) – 55% | Click here for guidelines |  Due in class Monday, March 16.
  

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Part One.  Image and reality: cities in ancient and early medieval contexts

1/3 (M)  Introduction

1/5 (W)  The City Imagined: Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Readings

• Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (“The Periclean Funeral Oration”) (On-line at http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.2.second.html) NOTE: Scroll down the page until you reach the paragraph begining with "In the same winter the Athenians gave a funeral..." and read until you reach Chap. VII);
• Pausanias (fl. 160 CE), Description of Greece, Book II: Corinth, trans. W. H. S. Jones, Sections 2.1.1-2.7.1 (On-line at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pausanias-bk2.html)
  
• Augustine of Hippo (410 CE), Concerning the City of God against the Pagans, Book/chapter(s) 14.28, 15.1-9 (On-line at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.iv.XIV.28.html  http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.iv.XV.html) [15.1-9];
• Descriptions of medieval cities: London and Milan (in Medieval Towns, #151-153);
• Peruse Maps 1-3 in Medieval Towns, pp. 385-87

Slides

1. Temple of Apollo (Corinth, ca. 540 BCE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00207/00207a.jpg
2. Hephaestion, view from Agora (Athens, ca. 449-430 BCE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00250/00250i.jpg
3. Acropolis, vue from western approach (Athens, ca.  400 BCE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00260/00260c.jpg
4. Agora, plan (Athens, late 5thc BCE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00315/00315b.jpg
5. Agora, reconstruction model (Athens, late 5thc BCE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00315/00315c.jpg
6. Priene, view of town layout (4thc BCE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00335/00335a.jpg
   

1/10 (M)  Rome, Caput mundi ("Head of the world")

Readings

• Strabo, “The Grandeur of Rome” (in Medieval Towns, #1);
• Medieval Towns, #2-3 (pp. 9-12)
  
• Pliny the Elder, Natural History, “The Grandeur of Rome” (On-line at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pliny-natihist-rome.html);
• Ausonius of Bordeaux, Notitia Dignitarum (“A Ranking of Famous Cities”), in From Roman to Merovingian Gaul, ed. A. C. Murray (E-Reserve);
• Richard Krautheimer, Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308 (Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 2-31 (E-Reserve)

Slides

1. Check out the Forma Urbis Romae project, housed at Stanford University
   
2. City plan, Rome (4thc BCE - 1stc CE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00420/00420a.jpg
3. Insula, Ostia (late 1stc - early 2dc CE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00570/00570a.jpg
4. City plan and street view, Pompeii (79 CE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00625/00625e.jpg
5. Forum of Trajan (street level view, ca. 106-113 CE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00660/00660f.jpg
6. Markets of Trajan (100-112 CE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00650/00650c.jpg
7. Basilica of Maxentius (ca. 307-312 CE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00760/00760a.jpg
8. North face, Arch of Constantine (313-315 CE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00780/00780a.jpg
9. Pont du Gard (Nimes, France) aqueduct (1stc BCE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00520/00520a.jpg
10. Aqueduct, Segovia, Spain (1st-2dc CE): http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00530/00530a.jpg
    

1/12 (W) From Ancient to Medieval Town: The Debate on Urban Continuity

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #4-5 (pp. 12-14)
• Henri Pirenne, Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade, trans. Frank Halsey (Princeton University Press, 1925[1952]), ch. 1, "The Mediterranean" (E-reserve)
  
• Wolfgang Liebeschuetz, "The End of the Ancient City," in The City in Late Antiquity, ed. John Rich (Routledge, 1992), pp. 1-36 (E-reserve);
• G. P. Brogiolo, “Ideas of the Town in Italy during the Transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages,” in The Idea and the Ideal of the Town between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, ed. G. P. Brogiolo and B. Ward-Perkins (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 99-126 (E-reserve)

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Part Two.  Towns, fiefs, power, and the growth of civic consciousness

1/17 (M)  NO CLASS: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., DAY OBSERVED

1/19 (W)  The Medieval Town ca. 750-1100

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #6-12, 15, 16 (pp. 15-24, 29-33, 36-37);
• "Declaration of the Count of Toul over the City, 1069" (On-line at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1069Toulgild.html);
• Rudeger Huozmann, Bishop of Speyer, "Grant of Land and Privileges to the Jews" (in Medieval Towns #93);
• Rodney Hilton, English and French Towns in Feudal Society. A Comparative Study (Cambridge University Press, 1992), ch. 2, “The Feudal Presence in Towns” (pp. 25-52) (E-reserve)

1/24 (M)  Urban communities and politics | Reading guide for Galbert of Bruges, The Murder of Charles the Good |

Readings

• Galbert of Bruges, The Murder of Charles the Good (to p. 201);
• David Nicholas, Urban Europe, 1100-1700, ch. 1

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Part Three.  The "commercial revolution" and its consequences

1/31 (M)  Rise of the profit economy: guilds and guild structures

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #57-63 (pp. 137-152);
  
• "The Customs of the Merchant Guild of Saint-Omer," trans. J. S. Ott (E-Reserve);
  
• David Nicholas, Urban Europe, 1100-1700, ch. 2 (to p. 46)

INTERPRETIVE ESSAY DUE IN CLASS

2/2 (W)  Monetization, guilds, and religious responses to commercialization: accommodating profit

Readings

• “The Life of Werimbold of Cambrai (1122),” trans. J Ott (E-Reserve);
• Medieval Towns, #50-54 (pp. 118-132), #100 (pp. 250-51);
• David Nicholas, Urban Europe, 1100-1700, ch. 2 (47-61) and ch. 5 (pp. 119-133, 138-141 only)

2/7 (M)  Conspicuous consumption

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #41, 45, 87, 147-48 (pp. 98-99, 104-6, 219-221, 367-70);
• Richard A. Goldthwaite, Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy, 1300-1600, pp. 1-9, 176-92, 204-14 (E-reserve)
• David Nicholas, Urban Europe, 1100-1700, pp. 141-148
  

2/9 (W) Daily life and social networks

Readings

• Sharon Farmer, Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris, ch. 1;
• David Nicholas, Urban Europe, 1100-1700, pp. 133-136, 148-53
  

2/14 (M) Life on the margins I

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #46, 92, 97, 105-107 (pp. 106-8, 231-33, 242-45, 261-68);
• Bronislaw Geremek, The Margins of Society in Late Medieval Paris, trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 1-5, 167-82, 188-210 (E-reserve);
• Jacques Rossiaud, Medieval Prostitution, trans. Lydia Cochrane (Basil Blackwell, 1990), pp. 3-23, 179-81, 201-4 (E-reserve)
  

2/16 (W) Life on the margins II

Reading

• Sharon Farmer, Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris, finish book
  

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Part Four.  The domestic sphere

2/21 (M)  Family life and networks in medieval cities

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #74-76, 78, 80, and 84 (pp. 182-190, 193-196, 200-1, 209-212)
  
• David Nicholas, The Domestic Life of a Medieval City, pp. 1-4, 175-206 (E-reserve);
• Diane Owen Hughes, “Urban Growth and Family Structure in Medieval Genoa,” Past and Present 66 (Feb. 1975): 3-28 (J-Stor)

2/23 (W)  Women’s experience

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #85-86. 88-91 (pp. 214-218, 222-231);
• Jo Ann McNamara, “City Air Makes Men Free and Women Bound,” in Text and Territory. Geographical Imagination in the European Middle Ages, ed. S. Tomasch and Sealy Gilles (UPenn Press, 1998) (E-reserve);
• Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, “The ‘Cruel Mother’: Maternity, Widowhood and Dowry in Florence in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,” in Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, pp. 117-131 (E-Reserve)
  

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Part Five. Urban space and its functions

2/28 (M) The regulation of urban space

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #137-142, 144 (pp. 349-59, 361-62);
• Francesca Bocchi, “Regulation of the Urban Environment by the Italian Communes,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library of Manchester 72:3 (1990): 63-78 (E-Reserve);
• Kathryn L. Reyerson, "Medieval Walled Space: Urban Development vs. Defense," in City Walls: The Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective, ed. James D. Tracy (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 88-116 (E-reserve);
  
• David Nicholas, Urban Europe, 1100-1700, ch. 3
  

Further (optional) Reading (for strong stomachs!)

• Ernest L. Sabine, “Butchering in Mediaeval London,” Speculum 8:3 (July 1933): 335-353; “Latrines and Cesspools of Mediaeval London,” Speculum 9:3 (July 1934): 303-21; “City Cleaning in Mediaeval London,” Speculum 12:1 (January 1937): 19-43 (All available on J-Stor).

3/2 (W) The political and social dimensions of urban space

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #37, 71, 145 (pp. 86-87, 176-78, 363-64)
• Martha C. Howell, “The Spaces of Late Medieval Urbanity,” in Shaping Urban Identity in Late Medieval Europe, ed. Marc Boone and Peter Stabel, pp. 3-23 (E-reserve)

Activity

• Medieval urban planning exercise
  

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Part Six. Ritual and community

3/7 (M) Daily life, ritual, and spectacle

Readings

• Anonymous, A Parisian Journal, 1405-1449 (E-Reserve);
• Esther Cohen, “To Die a Criminal for the Public Good’: The Execution Ritual in Late Medieval Paris” (E-reserve)

3/9 (W)  Elusive Consensus: Ceremony and Ritual

Readings

• Medieval Towns, #119-122 (pp. 296-308);
• Mervyn James, “Ritual, Drama and Social Body in the Late Medieval English Town,” Past and Present 98 (Feb. 1983): 3-29 (J-Stor);
• Benjamin R. McCree, “Unity or Division? The Social Meaning of Guild Ceremony in Urban Communities,” in City and Spectacle in Medieval Europe, ed. B. Hanawalt and K. Reyerson (UMinn Press, 1994) (E-reserve)

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Part Seven.  Defining the “urban”

3/16 (W)  The great divide? City and countryside

Readings

• Miri Rubin, “Religious Culture in Town and Country: Reflections on a Great Divide,” in Church and City, 1000-1500, ed. D. Abulafia, pp. 3-22 (E-reserve);
• Chiara Frugoni, A Distant City: Images of Urban Experience in the Medieval World, ch. 4 (E-reserve);
• David Nicholas, Urban Europe, 1100-1700, ch. 7

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