HISTORY OF GOVERNMENTS IN THE MIDDLE AGE

The course is part of the core educational activities of the Master's degree programme in Storia dal medioevo all'età contemporanea and in Storia delle arti e conservazione dei beni artistici. The teaching is an introduction to the history of generally less studied European regions of the Middle Ages.

By the end of the course, the students will have gained knowledge of the European frontier-societes and of the evidence necessary for their study. They will also learn how to approach complex and fragmentary societies.

No one, in particular, but students are suggested to attend a class in Medieval History first.

A history of the other Europe, from Ireland to the Danube, between Antiquity and the High Middle Ages. The course will deal with the barbarian societies in the vast region that extended east of the Elbe, into the forests of Central Europe and between the fjords north of Hadrian's Wall. It was a world beyond the frontiers of empires and of Christianity, on which we know very little and which is illuminated only by fragmentary sources of great charm. They are epic writings, ethnographic annotations and the fundamental hagiographies, the lives of the saints who moved in those territories to the extreme limits of the known world. Central will be the analysis of Paganism and the modalities of conversion. A glance will finally be thrown on the modern historiographical debate and the use of the past.

The lecture notes, including literature and sources discussed and read in class.

Furthermore:
Stefano Gasparri e Cristina La Rocca, Tempi barbarici: L’Europa occidentale tra Antichità e Medioevo (300 – 900), Roma 2012, capitoli 2, 3, 6 e 7.
Karol Modzelewski, L’Europa dei barbari: Le culture tribali di fronte alla cultura romano-cristiana, Torino 2008
Modzelewski's book in greatly rich, but controversial too. Its reading should be accompanied by:
A. Barbero, L’Europa dei barbari: Barbero legge Modzelewski, "Storica" 43-45 (2009) 433-48
F. Borri, Review of Modzelewski: http://www.sehepunkte.de/2013/06/20716.html (in inglese)


Students who cannto attend should read the material uploaded in moodle. Moroever, they have to read one of the follwoing texts:
Richard Fletcher, La conversione dell’Europa: Dal paganesimo al cristianesimo 371 – 1386 d.C. (rist.) Milano 2003 (a long, but easy book)
Peter Heather, L'impero e i barbari: Le grandi migrazioni e la nascita dell’Europa, Milano 2010 (this is also a very long text, but easy and pleasant to read)
Alternatives could be discussed with the teacher.

Written and oral. In order to complete the course,it is required to write a paper on a topic agreed with the teacher. This should be presented in class, possibly with a power point. The final proof will be an oral exam on the topics covered in class and on the texts enlisted in the bibliography. The students' partecipation in class will have an important part in the final evaluation.

Lessons will be held as seminars. Students are asked to intervene during the frontal lectures with questions and commentaries as well with the presentation of their homework during the class' final units.

Italian

written and oral