Medieval History (i) (2006/2007)

Learning outcomes

The concept of the Middle Ages refers to the period between the ancient and modern worlds, from the fifth to fifteenth centuries. During this time, the geographical centres of political and cultural life shifted radically, from the world of the central and eastern Mediterranean to a central and western Europe world that was becoming increasingly oriented toward the Atlantic. During the earlier stages of this long process that saw the elaboration of new political, legal, economic, and cultural structures, the Germanic invasions and the cultural and religious influence of the Christian church can be singled out as having made especially important contributions to the evolution away from Roman imperial forms. Beginning in the XIth and XIIth century, moreover, one can trace the reconstruction of social, political, economic, and cultural institutions, often with significant local variations such as the Italian city-states, communes, and principalities, that eventually led to the formation of stable political forms

Contents of the course: Fundamental aspects of Medieval history.

evaluation of the exercises and oral interview