MEDIEVAL HISTORY

Academic Year 2019/2020 - 2° Year - Curriculum Educatore sociale di comunita'
Teaching Staff: Emanuele PIAZZA
Credit Value: 6
Taught classes: 36 hours
Term / Semester:

Learning Objectives

MEDIEVAL HISTORY

The course provides students with knowledge to understand the events of the Middle Ages, an age to be considered fundamental for the making of European civilization, and to develop a critical judgment about the themes related to this age. The main aims of the course are: comprehension of the relationship between the principal events of the Middle Ages and their arrangement in the chronological and geographical context; the relationship between political, cultural and religious communities; analysis of some specific issues, such as the relationship and the integration between the European West and the barbarian world, the role of key figures of political and social communities, the transformation of religious sentiment and its impact on urban communities


Course Structure

Formal lectures


Detailed Course Content

The course deals with the main themes of the Middle Ages:

- Early medieval Europe: the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the formation of the Roman-barbarian kingdoms; the conversion to Catholicism of the barbarians; the Carolingian Renaissance; evangelization and integration of peoples in the Early Middle Ages

- High Middle Ages: the religious and political framework of the Church Reform; the Crusades and the ideology of holy war; the social context of communal Italy

- Late Middle Ages: Frederick II, stupor mundi; Sicily in the Middle Ages sources; the relationship between the temporal and spiritual powers


Textbook Information

1) G. Vitolo, Medioevo. I caratteri originali di un’età di transizione, Sansoni, Milano, 2000, pp. 3-179; 228-356; 392-431; 473-487 (o in sostituzione, a scelta dello studente, F. Cardini, M. Montesano, Storia medievale, seconda edizione, Le Monnier Università, Firenze, 2019; alle pp. 3-181; 217-359; 395-435, gli argomenti specificati nella "Programmazione del corso")

2) E. Piazza, Tra l’Etna e Cariddi. La Sicilia nell’immaginario altomedievale, Mario Adda, Bari 2019, pp. 31-117

3) E. Piazza, Re e santi, pagani e missionari. Itinerari di evangelizzazione nell’alto Medioevo (secc. IV-IX), Bonanno, Acireale-Roma, 2013, pp. 11-37; 113-138