Week 1 (August 20-23): Introduction. How high can the Middle Ages go? [Barber 5-23, 375-398]

• Chronological framework: early, high, and late Middle Ages; how to use primary sources [Andrea 1-14]; see also How to Read a Primary Source
•  The (known) world after Y1K; see Ralph Glaber, Miracles of Saint Benoit and  the on-line map

Week 2 (August 26-30): Agriculture and rural society [Barber 24-56]

• Medieval manor: lords and peasants [Andrea 229-238; Atlas 47-48]; see also a description of the Hecham manor (1086), a collection of texts on manorial management and organization (ca. 1275), tables on population in medieval Europe, and the presentation of the archaeological site at Wharram Percy
• Social orders and “feudalism” [Andrea 165-176, 239-246]; see also the introductory essay on feudalism,  the agreement between Count William V of Aquitaine and Hugh IV of Lusignan, and a twelfth-century charter of homage and fealty

Week 3 (September 2-6): The revival of commerce [Barber 57-79]

Monday, September 2: Labor Day (no classes)

• Markets and fairs; see also the grant of market to the bishopric of Osnabruck (952); Heimskringla on fairs, a grant of two fairs at Duisburg (1173), and Humbert de Romans on markets and fairs.
• Long-distance trade and the “commercial revolution” [Atlas 61-62 and 129-132]; see also Innocent III’s license to Venice for trade with the Muslims (1198), privileges granted to Hansa merchants at Novgorod (1229), L�beck and Hamburg treaty (1241), a purchase of shares in a ship (1248), a partnership contract (1248), and an example of purchase on credit (1248)

Week 4 (September 9-13): Urban economy and freedom 

• Medieval cities, urban economy, and guilds [Andrea 246-258 (rules of the Southampton guild of merchants, John of Viterbo, Jews of Speyer); Atlas 151-154, 156-157, and 255-257];  the law of the fullers and weavers of Winchester (1209), the law revision of the garment cutters’ guild of Stendal (1231),  the charter of the shearers of Arras (1236) and  Medieval English Towns
• Urban communities and communes [Andrea 258-259]; see also the suppression of the Etampes commune by Philip II Augustus (1199-1200) , an account of the setting up of self-government in Ipswich (1200), and  Guibert of Nogent on the commune of Laon (1115)

Week 5 (September 16-20): West European Christianity in the High Middle Ages [Barber 155-176]

• The power of the Church: conversion to Christianity and the organization of  parish communities; see  three documents on medieval sacraments, Caesarius of Heisterbach on eucharist as a charm (1220-1235),  the cathedral chapter of Chartres and the riot of 1210
• Popular religion and heresy  [Andrea 209-211, 224-227 (Peter Waldo, David of Augsburg); Atlas 178-180]; see also sermon tales of the Virgin, relics, and devil; Raynaldus on the Cathars, Bernard of Gui’s description of the Cathars, the confession of Agnes Francou, and the Cathar Gospel

Week 6 (September 23-27): Monasticism and the reform of the Church [Barber 83-111, 131-154]

• Monasticism and the friars [Andrea 212-215 (Francis’s testament); Atlas 167-169]; see also the foundation charter of Cluny (910); William of St. Thierry’s description of Clairvaux (1143); and visit the Cistercian abbey of Beaulieu
• Medieval papacy and Inquisition [Andrea 216-224 (canons of Lateran IV); Atlas 174-175 and 268-269]; see also Innocent III’s letters, Bernard of Gui’s description of inquisitorial techniques, and Angelo Clareno on inquisitorial torture

Week 7 (September 30-October 4): Crusades and crusaders [Barber 112-130; 353-372]

• The first three crusades [Andrea 340-360 (Fulk of Chartres, Robert the Monk, Solomon Bar Simson, Usamah bin Munqidh); Atlas 109-119]; see also Odo of Deuil on King Louis VII and the Second Crusade,  Philip K. Hitti on the Assassins, and the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi on Richard the Lionheart’s peace with Saladin (1192)
• The Fourth Crusade [Andrea 361-364 (Geoffroy de Villehardouin, Nicetas Choniates)]; see also Chronica Regiae Coloniensis on the Children’s Crusade
• Crusader states;  see also William of Tyre on Godfrey of Bouillon as King of Jerusalem, Fulk of Chartres on Latins in the East
• October 4: Homecoming (no classes)

Week 8 (October 7-11): Western Christendom and the wider world [Barber 445-461]

• Midterm exam: Monday, October 7, 9:35 to 10:25
• Christians, Muslims, and Mongols [Andrea 364-375 (Joinville, John of Monte Corvino); Atlas 129-131]; see also Marco Polo on the Tartars

Week 9 (October 14-18): The world of thought and art [Barber 399-444]

• From cathedral schools to the twelfth-century Renaissance [Andrea 263-266 (Peter Abelard); Atlas 182-183]; see also Guibert of Nogent’s Autobiography , Roger Bacon on experimental science, and Heloise’s letter to Abelard
• Western medieval art

Week 10 (October 21-25): The community of the realm [Barber 247-274]

• Political centralization and the history of the European monarchies
• France [Barber 271-304; Andrea 305-310, 389-394, 443-448 (Joinville, Catherine of Sienna about Avignon, Philippe de Commynes on Louis XI); Atlas 36-39, 103-105, and 131-133]; see also Richer on Hugh Capet’s election

Week 11 (October 28-November 1): Centralization and war [Barber 275-304]

• England [Andrea 329-334, 336-339 (Magna Charta, Edward’s Summons to Parliament); Atlas 220-221 and 241-243]
• The Hundred Years War [Andrea 397-406, 434-443 (Froissart, Christine of Pisan on Joan, Johann Nider on Joan); Atlas 1201-204 and 231-234]

Week 12 (November 4-8): On the fringes [Barber 305-352]

•  The Iberian kingdoms and Reconquista [Andrea 325-329 (ordinances); Atlas 42-44, 133-135, 224-226, and 240-241]; see maps of the taifa kingdoms, of the Almoravid and Almohad Empires, of the Iberian Peninsula in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, of the kingdom of Aragon, and of the kingdom of Granada; see portrait of Ferdinand III of Castile and read more about the Order of Calatrava
•  East Central Europe and Scandinavia in the High Middle Ages; see maps of Hungary in the eleventh-century and right before the Mongol invasion of 1241; see the royal crown and a portrait of King Ladislas I; visit Esztergom and Szekesfeherva

Week 13 (November 11-15): Monarchs and popes in conflict [Barber 179-205, 229-246]

• October 11: Veteran’s Day (no classes)
• The Empire [Andrea 312-317 and 334-336; Atlas 29-31, 95-97, 123-125, 212-213, and 214-216]; see also the Golden Bull of Charles IV
• Italian city-states: ideals and reality [Andrea 449-453]; see also Giovanni Vilanni, Chronicle of Florence

 Week 14 (November 18-22): Crisis and expansion in the late Middle Ages

• Crisis and expansion [Andrea 380-388, 422-426, 454-463; Atlas 244-246, 260-261, 276-277, and 289-291]; see also Petrarch’s letter to posterity
• Late medieval Church and lay religiosity [Andrea 389-397]
• Great Schism

Week 15 (November 25-29): New horizons

• Early Renaissance [Andrea 417-426]
• November 27-29: Thanksgiving (no classes)

Week 16 (December 2-4): Revision for the Final exam

Final exam: Monday, December 9, 3:00 to 5:00 pm