Need more medieval in your life?

Well that was an awesome semester. Thanks everyone! But don't mourn its passing too soon. The internet is a treasure trove of amazing medieval information. Here I'm just highlighting a few places you could go in particular for podcasts (online audio files) about historical topics, including medieval ones, by famous historians from all over the world.

For example, did you know that the BBC History Magazine has a free online section with audio interviews and brief talks? You can hear the latest one, or browse the archive for whatever topic takes your fancy, from the Crusades to WWII: http://www.historyextra.com/podcast-page

If you want a bit more detail, try the online lectures available [on almost any topic] from the Universities of Oxford (http://itunes.ox.ac.uk/) and Cambridge (http://www.cam.ac.uk/video/itunesu.html).

Did you know that our own Clare Monagle is also a podcasting sensation? Check her out on Radio National talking about the medieval concept of 'political theology': http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/politics-and-god/3126076

And if you enjoyed the Robert Bartlett series Inside the Medieval Mind, linked earlier in semester, you could follow up by listening to this interview with him about making the series and what he wanted people to learn.

The end of semester doesn't have to be the end of medieval!

Naturally, there are also other Medieval and Renaissance units you can take here at Monash - just check out the Handbook! In semester 2, look for ATS1317 (Renaissance Europe); ATS2603 (Age of Crusades); and ATS2604 (Arthur: History and Myth). In summer 2012 there will be the exciting travel unit ATS2612 (Renaissance in Florence). And in 2013 look our for ATS3288 (Angels & Demons: Rome, the Papacy and the World); ATS2572 (Crisis and renewal in the late Renaissance); ATS2573 (Relics and legends); and ATS2579 (Witches and depravity).

See you then...
Kathleen

P.S. Comments remain open, so those of you still writing your essays, please feel free to post queries about citation, etc., below.

Test Revision

So I'm just putting this here to provide a space for those who would like to make use of a communal discussion to help them think about the unit and revise for the test on Monday.

God the Geometer, Codex Vindobonensis  2554

Details, in case you missed them, are:

• The test takes place in the lecture slot on Monday 21 May.
• It is expected to take about an hour, but you can take up to two if required. 
• It will follow an essay format.
• It will take the form of a statement you must discuss with reference to primary sources.
• Select primary sources will be provided.
• A mock test is available on Blackboard
• The marking criteria are listed in the Unit Guide
  
• There is no exam in the exam period.
• There is no tutorial in week 12 after the test.
• Please submit outstanding essay hard copies to the SOPHIS essay box (Menzies W604).

It's been a blast, so thanks everyone. And good luck on Monday!

Kathleen

Unit feedback

Dear Students,

You will have received an email from SETU (Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units), inviting you to evaluate ATS 1316. Please do so! We really want to know what you think.

These surveys are taken extremely seriously by the University. They are used when staff members apply for promotion, or for other jobs. They are also used to make changes to the units for next year, drawing on student comments. These blogs, for example, emerged out of comments by students that they sometimes felt disconnected during first year. Hence, we have tried to build community and encourage your readings by running these blogs.

So let us know what you think of the unit. YOU ARE VERY POWERFUL!

Many thanks, Clare

P.S. You will also see a link on the right to a survey specifically asking you about the blog. We are really interested in your feedback on this learning tool in particular. This is separate from the University's SETU feedback.

Thanks!

Kathleen

P.P.S. The Black Death blog follows below!

The Black Death

The Black Death – Ellen Kearney

The essay topic this week asks us to explore whether the Black Death caused economic and social upheaval in Medieval Europe, so it is important to first gain an understanding of what life was like before the Black Death hit in 1348. As discussed in this week’s readings, life had begun to improve for much of Europe from roughly the second half of the 13^th century, with great increases in population, urbanisation and the development of the “proto-renaissance”. Florence and Venice provide us with a great example of two urban centres on the brink of great change. In this era (1250-1350) we see a shift towards a more oligarchy society (with a few attempts made to construct some form of democracy), the formation of specialised guilds and expansion of these two centres to accommodate for their ever-growing populations. Within these urban centres the formation of guilds and the complexity within manufacturing processes opened up pathways for profit, creating an economic and social hierarchy between the wealthy merchants and the subordinate workers.

The readings outlined that this period is often referred to as the ‘early renaissance’ or the ‘proto-renaissance’ with the emergence of new ways of thinking, new “expressive literary language” and the evolution of new architecture.  Giotto di Bondone, Dante Alighieri, Giano Della Bella, Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco Petrarch are highlighted as the founders of renaissance thought at this time, with their ideals providing a basis for the thoughts of their successors in the later renaissance. The creation of new architecture throughout this period helped create a more desirable and stable society.

Striking Italy in 1348 the Black Death had disastrous effects on the European population, which in 1347 was sitting comfortably around 75 million inhabitants, by 1352 had fallen to a mere 50 million. This fall in population resulted in severe labour shortages, subsequently leading to higher wages, resulting economic disruption and the end of feudalism. Socially, smaller communities evaporated, fleeing to cities where disease and plague spread rapidly. Community ideals were lost as many individuals sought to preserve their own lives. There was a resulting impact upon the Church as many prayed for deliverance from the plague, and were forced to question their philosophical ideals.

Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible (1411)

~ ~ ~ 

The movement in ideas and arts that would eventually become known as the Renaissance was interrupted by the arrival of the Black Death in Europe. Now known as the Yersinia pestis, the plague probably assumed all of its known in Europe from the 14^th to 18^th centuries. The most common form of the plague however was the bubonic infection, which was carried fleas, in turn carried by rodents. The plagues septicaemic form entered the bloodstream causing death within hours and the pneumonic form entered the body through the lungs, spread by droplets and would kill a person within days. This from was spread from person to person rather than via fleas.

The Black Death originated in Asia, arriving at Messina in 1347, Sicily, where it was borne by merchant galleys that had traded with Byzantium and Crimea. From here rats carrying the disease came onto Italian soil, traveling throughout the winter of 1347-8, flaring up in the summer, and tens of thousands died, and populations declined by rates of one or two thirds. The plague was worst in urban areas, although it hit the country side hard as well. The rural population had been weakened by waves of famine from 1339-40 and 1356-7. The plague returned in each new generation, although with less force then the first years, carrying off the elderly and the young.

When the plague first struck in 1348, Italy was completely unprepared, and as a result was unable to resist. The physicians trained in theory from Galen and Aristotle, originating from around c.130-c.201 C.E., and were ignorant of infections, contagion and quarantine. With no antidote, doctors would refuse to treat infected people, some thinking that the plague was a result of poisoned air, recommending moderate habits, filtered air and closed windows.

There was an upheaval to their lives, as they were unable to live as they used to. Shown by the interruption of their progression towards the renaissance, they became less focused on this and more on survival, as the plague left a swathe of dead across Europe. Fathers would abandon their sick sons, and bodies went unburied, as the church was unable to help. In some places the members of the church had fled with the rest of the population, and in others they had helped care for the sick. This brought the plague to them, and in many cases heavily reduced the population of its members.

--Callon

[Editor's note: Matthew's contribution to come...]

The Crusades and Christian Love

This week’s topic is the idea of Crusading as an Act of love. Pretty much right away the phrase “Crusading as an act of love” doesn’t quite add up. These violent wars do not conjure up ideas of love. But in this week’s readings Jonathan Riley-Smith explains to us how they were viewed as an act of love by Christendom and those who preached for the Crusades. The love of their neighbours, the fellow Christians of Jerusalem and the Byzantine Empire, of Christ, and even of their enemies were all ideas, showing crusading as being an act of christianly love and are espoused by Riley-Smith in the first reading. 

These ideas are not so hard to reconcile with the ideas of the Crusades. As the Crusades show us brave Christians going to the Holy Land to liberate their fellow Christians out of love. Of defending the realm of Christendom out of love, as Cardinal Odo of Chateauroux preached to his audience. “It is a clear sign that a man burns  with love of God and zeal for God when he leaves country, possessions, house, children and wife, going overseas in the service of Jesus Christ” There is no doubt that the Crusades were not only regarded as holy missions, but also as acts of love.

The issue therefore comes when discussing the Fourth Crusade. A topic that is dealt with in the readings of this week, the Fourth Crusade in which the heavily in debt crusaders sacked the Christian city of Zara and then sacked the great capital of the Christian (Eastern Orthodox) Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. This desecration of Constantinople goes against the ideas of Christian love guiding the crusades, of love of their Christian neighbours and the rescuing of the holy land. In this case, they were attacking the very Christian neighbours of the Byzantine Empire that they were meant to be liberating from the Muslim Threat.

As for those who preached the Crusades as being acts of love, such as Pope Innocent III. He was infuriated, ashamed and quick to rebuke the actions of the Crusaders against Constantinople. He was shocked at the actions of them, against those whom he saw as still being Christian. This was not the act of love that he had preached for. However, his reaction was short lived, as eventually, when the Crusaders returned bearing riches and holy treasures as well as the changing of many formerly Eastern Orthodox areas to Western Catholic under the authority of the Pope he quickly rescinded the excommunication of the Crusaders. 

--Jake

[Editor's note: Greg's contribution to follow...]