Beatrice's Last Smile: A History of the Medieval World, 200-1500

3 units

The medieval world, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Americas, lasted from the third to the sixteenth centuries. This course is a sweeping historical narrative framed around holiness. By vividly interweaving stories about men, women, children, gods, angels and demons, it is possible to evoke the reality of holiness in ideas, spaces, buildings, smells, rivers, religion, art, noises, trees, blood, shoes, etc., from one century to another. Students will study the Late Roman Empire, Christianization, paganism, the barbarian invasions, the rise of Islam, the Carolingians, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, and the Crusades, just to name a few. Students will read poets, philosophers, historians and novelists, which are often the only surviving fragments of wills or testimonies.