MEDIEVAL HISTORY

The course provides students with knowledge to understand pregnant events and problems of the Middle Ages, an age to be considered fundamental for the making of European civilization. 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 analysis of some specific issues, such as the relationship and the integration between the European West and the barbarian world, the evolution of political and cultural structures and the role of key figures in society, the formation and evolution of cultural values, the transformation of religious sentiment and its impact on urban communities.

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.

1) G. Vitolo, Medioevo. I caratteri originali di un’età di transizione, Sansoni, Milano, 2000, pp. 3-179; 228-356; 392-430; 473-487

2) E. Piazza, Re e santi, pagani e missionari. Itinerari di evangelizzazione nell’alto Medioevo (secc. IV-IX), Bonanno, Acireale-Roma, 2013