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2022/2023

Introduction to Medieval History

Code: 100335 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500501 History FB 1 1
2502758 Humanities OB 2 2

Contact

Name:
Antoni Virgili Colet
Email:
antoni.virgili@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Teachers

Ramon Sarobe Huesca
Albert Trilla Vilaró
Jesus Brufal Sucarrat
Jaime Oliver Bruy

Prerequisites

None

Objectives and Contextualisation

The subject covers the different periods, as well as the main processes and events that took place during the Middle Ages (5 -15 centuries). The content is discussed from the Historical Science (social, political, th th economic, ideological and cultural point of view) and from a theoretical and practical activity.

The subject's main objective is to provide the resources needed to acquire an elemental knowledge about the historical framework of the Middle Ages. This information will be useful to understand properly other subjects set in the degree.

Competences

    History
  • Contextualizing the historical processes and analysing them from a critical perspective.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
    Humanities
  • Critically analysing the contemporary culture.
  • Critically analysing today's culture and its historical conditions.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Identifying the historical processes of contemporary culture.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Communicating in your mother tongue or other language both in oral and written form by using specific terminology and techniques of Historiography.
  2. Critically analysing the past, the nature of the historical speech and the social function of historical science.
  3. Developing the ability of historical analysis and synthesis.
  4. Drawing up an academic text using the discipline's specific vocabulary.
  5. Effectively working in teams and respecting different opinions.
  6. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  7. Identifying the context of the historical processes.
  8. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  9. Identifying the social and economic tensions that triggered the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period.
  10. Identifying the specific methods of history and their relationship with the analysis of particular facts.
  11. Interpreting the plurality and heterogeneity of the cultural development of Humanity.
  12. Interpreting the regulatory information that is located in the web pages of regulatory institutions.
  13. Organising and planning the search of historical information.
  14. Organising and summarising the different explanations about the causes of social change in the different historical stages of the Catalan society.
  15. Properly using the specific vocabulary of History.
  16. Reading and interpreting historiographical texts or original documents and transcribing, summarising and cataloguing information from the Middle Ages.
  17. Recognising the most appropriate bibliographic databases in order to obtain sources of a specific issue.
  18. Solving problems autonomously.
  19. Using the characteristic computing resources of the field of History.
  20. Working in teams respecting the other's points of view.

Content

0. Middle Ages and feudalism. Concepts; periods. An approach to the tools used to study and analyse the Medieval History: written records and archaeological materials.

1. Late Roman Empire - Early Middle Ages (4th -7th centuries). Colonat, Christianity and migrations. Germanic th th states.

2. From the Eastern Empire to the Byzantine Empire (6th -13th centuries): between Justinian and the Crusades.

3. Muhammad, the Islam and the Islamic states (6th -10th centuries): from Mecca to Baghdad.

4. The Carolingians (8th -10th centuries): formation, organization and the end of the empire. The Scandinavian th th people in the Christian Europe.

5. The feudal system: duty and the lord-vassal relationship.

6. The Feudal Church (11th -13th ): Reform, Peace and Truce, Investiture Controversy and Crusades.

7. Feudal Monarchies (11th -13th ): Capets, Plantagenets and Staufens.

8. Eastern Europe (10th -14th): Bishoprics and States.

9. Cities under the Feudal System (12th -15th ): Crafts, Guilds, Trade, Finances and Universities.

10. Famine, Plagues and War: The Gothic Period (14th -15th ).

11. Islamic States (10th -15th ): The Three Caliphates, the Mongol Empire and its division.

12. Byzantium (13th -15th ): from the Latin Empire to the Fall of Constantinople.

Methodology

- Master classes

- Seminars and other activities guided by the professor

- Collaborative Work.

- Comprehension and interpretation of different materials, such cartography, graphics, tables and archaeological evidences

- Elaboration of reviews, essays and comments

- Individual study 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Master clases 35 1.4 2, 7, 10, 8, 12, 16, 13, 17, 15
Seminars and other activities guided by the professor.. 15 0.6 4, 8, 16, 13, 6, 15, 19
Type: Supervised      
Comprehension and interpretation of different materials (i.e. mapping, graphics, tables or archaeological evidences). 20 0.8 8, 16, 13, 17, 15, 19
Type: Autonomous      
Elaboration of reviews, essays and comments. 30 1.2 3, 4, 13, 15, 19
Individual study 25 1 8, 16, 13, 15, 19

Assessment

50% 2 exams: 25 % everyone

30% essay about secundary sources

20% essay about practical comments or alternative activity decided by the teachers

In order to succeed the subject, it is mandatory to pass at least one of the exams.

The exercises cannot be submitted for the first time during the revaluation period.

In the event that the student commits any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment exercise, it will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. In the event of several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.

Students can attend a review of each exercise or test.

In the event that the tests cannot be carried out in person, their format will be adapted (maintaining the weighting) to the possibilities offered by the UAB’s virtual tools. Homework, activities and class participation will be done through forums, wikis and / or exercise discussions through Moodle, Teams, etc. Teachers will ensure that the student can access it or offer alternative means at their disposal.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Essay. 30% 10 0.4 2, 4, 8, 16, 13, 14, 17, 5, 20, 15, 19
Exams 50% 5 0.2 2, 18, 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 8, 9, 12, 11, 16, 13, 14, 6, 17, 5, 15, 19
Written papers: practical comments 20% 10 0.4 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 8, 16, 13, 15, 19

Bibliography

Reference books

García de Cortázar, J. A.; Sesma, J. A.: Manual de Historia Medieval. Alianza Editorial, 2012

Salrach, J.M., Entre Roma i el Renaixement. Història i textos de l’Occident Medieval, Eumo, Vic, 2002.

Contamine, Bompaire i altres.  La economía medieval. Akal. Madrid, 2000.

Baschet, J. La civilización feudal. Europa del año mil a la colonización de América. Fondo de Cultura Económica. USA 2010.

Wickham, Chris. Europa en la Edad Media. Una nueva interpretación. Ed. Crítica, Barcelona, 2017.

Donado Vara, J. - Echevarría Arsuaga, A. Historia Medieval I (siglos V-XII), UNED, Madrid, 2014

Donado Vara, J. - Echevarría Arsuaga, A. - Baquero Goñi, C. Historia Medieval II (siglos XIII-XV), UNED, Madrid, 2014

 

General Books (by periods and topics)

Faci, J.  Introducción al mundo Bizantino. Ed. Síntesis, 1996.

Bresh, H.; Guichard, P.; Mantran R.: Europa y el Islam en la Edad Media. Ed. Crítica, Barcelona, 2001

Toubert; P: Europa en su primer crecimiento. De Carlomagano al año mil. Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2006

Bartlett, R.: La formación de Europa. Conquista, civilización y cambio cultural, 950-1350. Publicacions Universitat de València, 2003.

G. Bois: La gran depresión medieval: siglos XIV-XV: el precedente de unacrisis sistémica. Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2001

Rosa Sanz Serrano, Las migraciones bárbaras y la creación de los primeros reinos de Occidente, Madrid, Editorial Síntesis, 1999.

John Haywood, Los Hombres del Norte, Ariel, 2016.

Laurent Feller,Campesinos y señores en la Edad Media, Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2015.
 
Hugh Kennedy, Las grandes conquistas árabes, Grupo Planeta, 2007.
 
Amin Maalouf, Las cruzadas vistas por lo árabes, Alianza editorial, 1989.
 
José Maria Monsalvo, Las ciudades europeas del medievo, Editorial Síntesis, 1997.
 
Emilio Mitre, La Iglesia en la Edad Media, Editorial Síntesis, 2010.
 
Rodney Hilton, L’alliberament dels serfs. Els moviments camperols medievals i la revolta anglesa de 1381, Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2013.
 
Teresa Vinyoles, Història de les dones a la Catalunya medieval, Pagès Editors, 2005. 
 

Support bookws

Kinder-Hilgemann. Atlas Histórico Mundial, ed. Istmo, 2 vols.

Bonnassie, P. Vocabulario básico de la historia medieval, ed. Crítica

Loyn, H. R. Diccionario Akal de Historia Medieval. Akal, Madrid, 1998

MacKay-Ditchburn (eds). Atlas de Europa Medieval, ed. Cátedra.

Salrach, J.M., Entre Roma i el Renaixement. Història i textos de l’Occident Medieval, Eumo, Vic, 2002.

 

Software

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