OVERVIEW

The course aims to provide the tools for a knowledge of the main political-institutional, economic-social and cultural phenomena that characterised the areas of medieval Europe facing the Mediterranean, in relation to the Byzantine and Islamic worlds.

The lectures will mainly stimulate the development of a knowledge of the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. These aspects will be compared with the knowledge acquired in the three-year course on Western Europe, in order to promote a broad, global vision of the history of the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages.

The last part of the course will focus specifically on the economic history of the Mediterranean, the different development and interactions between three economic areas: Latin, Byzantine, and Islamic.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will expand their knowledge in Medieval History (achieved in the three-year degree) and will have a grasp of the problems connected with the development of political, economic and cultural relations in the Mediterranean. They will also study maritime societies in the Middle Ages. Students will get acquainted with sources, research methods and updates in historiography related to specific topics.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students are expected to :

• have acquired specific knowledge of the main events and long-term phenomena that characterised the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages, in order to understand the link between great civilisations
• be familiar with the methodological tools of the discipline, the basic outlines of specific historiography and the sources proposed during the lessons
• write a report on a historiographical essay assigned for reading.

PREREQUISITES

None

TEACHING METHODS

40 hours of lectures on the main topics of the history of the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and seminars on specific themes, also with the use of teaching materials (mainly sources, mostly translated into Italian) provided by the lecturer.

Lectures will be held in-person.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Outlines of Mediterranean History in the Middle Ages; orientation to research and reading of sources

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS:

1) All the following texts:

• M. Gallina, Bisanzio. Storia di un impero (secoli IV-XIII), Roma, Carocci editore, 2016
• M. Tangheroni, Il Mediterraneo bassomedievale, in Storia Medievale, Donzelli, 1998, pp. 463-492
• S. Collavini, L’espansione dell’Occidente nel Mediterraneo, in Storia d'Europa e del Mediterraneo, dir. A. Barbero, IV. Il. Medioevo (secoli V-XV), a c. S. Carocci, 2006, pp. 449

2) one option (on the student's choice) between the following:

• the four following brief essays : S. Gasparri, MERCANTI E SOLDATI, COMACCHIO, CREMONA E IL COMMERCIO SUL PO, cap. 5 del volume  di S. Gasparri, Voci dai secoli oscuri, Roma, 2017; A. Molinari, Riflessioni sulle economie dei secoli X e XI, in Italy and Early Medieval Europe, a cura di R. Balzaretti, J. Barrow, P. Skinner, Oxford, 2018, pp. 155-170; G. Petralia, Le navi e i cavalli: per una rilettura del Mediterraneo pienomedievale, in «Quaderni storici», 103, 2000, pp. 201-222; Ch. Wickham, Prima della crescita: quale società?, in La crescita economica dell’Occidente medievale. Un tema storico non ancora esaurito, a cura di F. Franceschi, Pistoia 2017, pp. 93-109

•  L. Capezzone, Medioevo arabo. Una storia dell’Islam medievale (VII-XV secolo), Milano, Mondadori Università, 2016 (only pp. 1-64, 92-145, 196-208) 

•  A. Cortonesi, L. Palermo, La prima espansione economica europea. Secoli XI-XV, Carocci, 2019 (only 6 chapters on the student's choice)
• C. Mango, La civiltà bizantina, Laterza, 2014 (only the first part, pp. 17-216)

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR NON ATTENDING STUDENTS: 

1) All the following texts:

• M. Gallina, Bisanzio. Storia di un impero (secoli IV-XIII), Roma, Carocci editore, 2016
• M. Tangheroni, Il Mediterraneo bassomedievale, in Storia Medievale, Donzelli, 1998, pp. 463-492
• S. Collavini, L’espansione dell’Occidente nel Mediterraneo, in Storia d'Europa e del Mediterraneo, dir. A. Barbero, IV. Il. Medioevo (secoli V-XV), a c. S. Carocci, 2006, pp. 449

2) TWO options (on the student's choice) between the following:

• the four following brief essays : S. Gasparri, MERCANTI E SOLDATI, COMACCHIO, CREMONA E IL COMMERCIO SUL PO, cap. 5 del volume  di S. Gasparri, Voci dai secoli oscuri, Roma, 2017; A. Molinari, Riflessioni sulle economie dei secoli X e XI, in Italy and Early Medieval Europe, a cura di R. Balzaretti, J. Barrow, P. Skinner, Oxford, 2018, pp. 155-170; G. Petralia, Le navi e i cavalli: per una rilettura del Mediterraneo pienomedievale, in «Quaderni storici», 103, 2000, pp. 201-222; Ch. Wickham, Prima della crescita: quale società?, in La crescita economica dell’Occidente medievale. Un tema storico non ancora esaurito, a cura di F. Franceschi, Pistoia 2017, pp. 93-109

•  L. Capezzone, Medioevo arabo. Una storia dell’Islam medievale (VII-XV secolo), Milano, Mondadori Università, 2016 (only pp. 1-64, 92-145, 196-208) 

•  A. Cortonesi, L. Palermo, La prima espansione economica europea. Secoli XI-XV, Carocci, 2019 (only 6 chapters on the student's choice)
• C. Mango, La civiltà bizantina, Laterza, 2014 (only the first part, pp. 17-216)

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MARIA ELENA CORTESE (President)

PAOLA GUGLIELMOTTI

SANDRA MACCHIAVELLO (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

February 2024

Class schedule

HISTORY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN IN THE MIDDLE AGES (LM)

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

 Oral exam.

Register on line for your final exam. 

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The final examination will consist of an oral interview, which will cover the topics covered in class, including the topics addressed in seminars and exercises, and the textbooks indicated in the Bibliography.

In order to pass the exam, the student will have to demonstrate that he/she understands the main topics covered in the course, that he/she can identify the main socio-economic, cultural and institutional processes of the Middle Ages, and that he/she can critically use, with reference to them, the sources available on the website and the bibliographical material indicated by the lecturer. Assessment will also take into account autonomy of judgment and the ability to express oneself using the specialized vocabulary related to the discipline

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Non-attending students will have to contact the teacher.