Introduction to Medieval History
Code: 100335 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500501 History | FB | 1 |
| 2502758 Humanities | OB | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Vicente Royo Perez
- Email:
- vicent.royo@uab.cat
Teachers
- Nuria Pacheco Catalan
- Ferran Esquilache Marti
- Jaume Oliver Bruy
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
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 (5th -15th 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 main objective of the subject is to provide studets with 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.
The contents of the subject will be sensitive to gender perspective.
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
- Communicating in your mother tongue or other language both in oral and written form by using specific terminology and techniques of Historiography.
- Critically analysing the past, the nature of the historical speech and the social function of historical science.
- Developing the ability of historical analysis and synthesis.
- Drawing up an academic text using the discipline's specific vocabulary.
- Effectively working in teams and respecting different opinions.
- Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
- Identifying the context of the historical processes.
- Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
- Identifying the social and economic tensions that triggered the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period.
- Identifying the specific methods of history and their relationship with the analysis of particular facts.
- Interpreting the plurality and heterogeneity of the cultural development of Humanity.
- Interpreting the regulatory information that is located in the web pages of regulatory institutions.
- Organising and planning the search of historical information.
- Organising and summarising the different explanations about the causes of social change in the different historical stages of the Catalan society.
- Properly using the specific vocabulary of History.
- Reading and interpreting historiographical texts or original documents and transcribing, summarising and cataloguing information from the Middle Ages.
- Recognising the most appropriate bibliographic databases in order to obtain sources of a specific issue.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- Using the characteristic computing resources of the field of History.
- Working in teams respecting the other's points of view.
Content
1. The Middle Ages: concepts, periods, tools.
2. From the disintegration of the Roman Empire to the end of the Carolingian Empire (4th-10th centuries).
3. The Byzantine Empire: from the origins to the Eastern Schism (4th-11th century).
4. Muhammad, Islam and the first Islamic states (7th-10th c.).
5. Feudalism (11th-13th c.).
6. Disintegration and reconstitution of the Byzantine Empire: from the Komnenos dynasty to the Latin Empire (11th-13th c.).
7. The three caliphates: from the fitna to the end of the Abbasid caliphate (10th-13th c.).
8. Crisis and reconstruction of feudal Europe (14th-15th centuries).
9. The end of the Byzantine Empire: from the Palaiologos dynasty to the capture of Constantinople (13th-15th c.).
10. Islam: from the Mongol Empire to reunification under the Turks (13th-15th c.).
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Seminars and other activities guided by lecturers | 15 | 0.6 | 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20 |
| Theoretical classes | 21 | 0.84 | 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorial seasons for the preparation of assignments (oral and written) and for the preparation of theoretical and practical content. | 20 | 0.8 | 3, 8, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Elaboration of essays and commentaries. | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 |
| Individual study | 49 | 1.96 | 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 |
1. Directed activities:
- Theoretical classes led by lecturers.
- Seminars and practical sessions guided by lecturers. Practical work may take place outside the UAB in the form of visits to museums, monuments and landscapes.
- Comprehensive reading of texts and interpretation of maps, graphs, tables and archaeological documents.
2. Supervised activities:
- Guidance tutorials for the preparation of assignments (oral and written) and for the preparation of theoretical and practical content.
3. Autonomous activities:
- Personal study.
- Elaboration of essays and commentaries.
At the beginning of the course, the lecturer will inform students of the schedule of face-to-face tutorials that will take place during the quadrimester, with the aim of guiding students in the preparation of assignments and in the general preparation of the practical and theoretical content of the subject.
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.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay(s) | 40% | 12 | 0.48 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 |
| Syntehsis test 2 | 30% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19 |
| Synthesis test 1 | 30% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19 |
Continuous assesment
The continuous assessment system will be governed by the completion of three activities. The type of test and the percentage that each one represents in the overall assessment is shown below:
- Synthesis test 1: 30%.
- Synthesis test 2: 30%.
- Essay(s): 40%.
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
To pass the subject, an average mark of 5 or higher must be obtained in all the evaluation activities. In addition, to obtain an average, one of the two synthesis tests must be passed with a minimum mark of 5. A minimum mark of 3.5 must also be obtained in the other evaluation tasks. In the case of lower marks, the student will only be able to pass the subject if he/she takes and passes the resit exam.
The student who has failed the two synthesis tests will have to sit the resit exam, whatever the final weighted average.
Any evaluation task not completed or not handed in will be graded as 0 when calculating the average.
Students will be able to access the resit exam provided that the evaluation activities have been handed in or completed within the deadlines established by the subject's lecturers. It will not be possible to submit an exercise for the first time during the resit period.
To participate in the resit process, the student must have been assessed in 2/3 of the evaluable tests.
The resit will consist of a written test based on the whole syllabus, which will take place on the date established by the secretary's officeof the faculty.
The maximum mark for the resitexam will be a 5.
Under no circumstances will the resit exam be considered as an alternative to raise a mark.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 2/3 of the assessment items.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
Those evaluation acts in which there are irregularities (copying, unauthorised use of AI, etc.) will not be recoverable.
In all exercises, spelling, clarity of exposition and correctness of writing will be assessed. Serious faults in these aspects may result in the failure of the subject.
Single assessment
The single assessment system will be governed by the completion of three activities. The type of test and the percentage that each one represents in the overall assessment is shown below:
- Synthesis test 1: 30%.
- Synthesis test 2: 30%.
- Essay(s): 40%.
Lecturers will announce in the first week of class, both in the classroom and through the Virtual Campus, the single date for the completion and delivery of the assessment tests.
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to befollowed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review willtake place.
To pass the subject, an average mark of 5 or higher must be obtained in all the evaluation activities. In addition, to obtain an average, one of the two synthesis tests must be passed with a minimum mark of 5. A minimum mark of 3.5 must also be obtained in the other evaluation tasks. In the case of lower marks, the student will only be able to pass the subject if he/she takes and passes the resit exam.
The student who has failed the two synthesis tests will have to sit the resit exam, whatever the final weighted average.
Any evaluation task not completed or not handed in will be graded as 0 when calculating the average.
Students will be able to access the resit exam provided that the evaluation activities have been handed in or completed within the deadlines established by the subject's lecturers.
The same assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 2/3 of the assessment items.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
Those evaluation acts in which there are irregularities (copying, unauthorised use of AI, etc.) will not be recoverable.
In all exercises, spelling, clarity of exposition and correctness of writingwill be assessed. Serious faults in these aspects may result in the failure of the subject.
Bibliography
Recommended basic bibliography
Baschet, Jérôme: La civilización feudal. Europa del año mil a la colonización de América. Ciudad de México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2010.
Boucheron, Patrick, Denis Menjot i Marc Boone: Historia de la Europa Urbana. II. La ciudad medieval. València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2010.
Contamine, Philippe, Marc Bompaire, Stéphane Lebecq i Jean-Luc Sarrazin: La economía medieval. Madrid: Akal, 2000.
Donado Vara, Julián i Ana Echevarría Arsuaga: Historia Medieval I (siglos V-XII). Madrid: UNED, 2014.
Donado Vara, Julián, Ana Echevarría Arsuaga i Carlos Baquero Goñi: Historia Medieval II (siglos XIII-XV). Madrid: UNED, 2014.
Fiore, Alessio & Alma Poloni: L'economia medievale. Un profilo storico (secoli V-XV). Carocci Editore, 2024.
García de Cortázar y Ruiz de Aguirre i José Ángel Sesma Muñoz: Manual de Historia Medieval. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2008 (quarta reimpressió, 2012).
Heather, Peter J.: Emperadores y bárbaros : el primer milenio de la historia de Europa. Barcelona: Crítica, 2018.
Herrin, Judith: Bizancio: el imperio que hizo posible la Europa Moderna. Barcelona: Editorial Debate, 2022.
Salrach i Marès, Josep Maria: Entre Roma i el Renaixement. Història i textos de l'Occident Medieval. Vic: Eumo, 2002.
Wickham, Chris: Europa en la Edad Media. Una nueva interpretación. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica, 2017.
Wickham, Chris: The Donkey and the Boat. Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
Complementary bibliography (by periods and topics)
Arias Guillén, Fernando: Las cruzadas. La guerra santa cristiana. Madrid: Catarata, 2023.
Bartlett, Robert: La formación de Europa.Conquista, civilización y cambio cultural,950-1350. València: Publicacions Universitat de València, 2003.
Bois, Guy: La gran depresión medieval: siglos XIV-XV. El precedente de una crisis sistémica. València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2001.
Bresh, Henri, Pierre Guichard i Robert Mantran: Europa y el Islam en la Edad Media. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica, 2001.
Calvo Gómez, José Antonio: El clero y los religiosos en la Edad Media. Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, 2017.
Faci Lacasta, Javier: Introducción al mundo bizantino. Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, 1996.
Feller, Laurent: Campesinos y señores en la Edad Media: siglos VIII-XV. València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2015.
García Espada, Antonio: El imperio mongol. Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, 2017.
García Sanjuán, Alejandro: Las sociedades islámicas clásicas (siglos VII-XV). Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, 2022.
Guijarro González, Susana: Enseñanzas, saberes y universidades en la Europa medieval. Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, 2018.
Haywood, John: Los Hombres del Norte: la saga vikinga (793-1241). Barcelona: Ariel, 2016.
Hilton, Rodney: L'alliberament dels serfs. Els moviments camperols medievals i la revolta anglesa de 1381. València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2013.
Kennedy, Hugh: Las grandes conquistasárabes. Barcelona: Grupo Planeta, 2007.
Maalouf, Amin: Las cruzadas vistas por lo árabes. Madrid: Alianza editorial, 1989.
McKiterick, Rosamond: La alta Edad Media. Europa 400-1000. Barcelona: Crítica, 2002.
Morsel, Joseph: La aristocracia medieval: el dominio social en Occidente, siglos V-XV. València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2008.
Mitre Fernández, Emilio: La Iglesia en la Edad Media. Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, 2010.
Sanz Serrano, Rosa: Las migraciones bárbaras y la creación de los primeros reinos de Occidente. Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, 1999.
Toubert, Pierre: Europa en su primer crecimiento. De Carlomagano al año mil. València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2006.
Vinyoles Vidal, Teresa: Història de les dones a la Catalunya medieval. Lleida: Pagès Editors, 2005.
Bibliography for work
Bonnassie, Pierre: Vocabulario básico de la historia medieval. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica, 1983.
Duby, Georges: Atals histórico mundial. Barcelona: Larousse, 2007.
Kinder, Hermann i Werner Hilgemann: Atlas Histórico Mundial. Madrid: Editorial Istmo, 1999, 2 vol.
Le Goff, Jacques i Jean-Claude Schmitt (eds.): Diccionario razonado del Occidente Medieval. Madrid: Ediciones Akal, 2003.
Loyn, Henry Royston. Diccionario Akal de Historia Medieval. Madrid: Akal, 1998.
MacKay, Angus i David Ditchburn (eds). Atlas de Europa Medieval. Madrid: Cátedra, 1999.
Salrach i Marès, Josep Maria: Entre Roma i el Renaixement. Història i textos de l'Occident Medieval. Vic: Eumo, 2002.
How to citeand preparate the bibliography: https://www.uab.cat/web/estudia-iinvestiga/com-citar-i-elaborar-la-bibliografia-1345708785665.html
Software
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Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 2 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 3 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 4 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 2 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 3 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 4 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |