Hi everyone,
In week 5 it's going to be another
bumper discussion! Lectures will be introducing us to the rise of two
important components of late medieval urban life: communes and
universities. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw the foundation of
some of the most famous universities in Europe, for example, these two,
which in some ways still look as though one might bump into a medieval
student around any given corner...
And in tutorials we will be discussing
universities and education in more detail. In particular, we'll use the
story of the two people pictured below
as a juicy entrée into issues related to education at the time. Think
about Abelard's
Historia Calamitatum in light of the questions in
the reading guide. What does his story tell us about intellectual and
philosophical life and thought in twelfth-century France (apart from
some pretty gory things about castration...)? If the extract whets your
appetite, or you just want to know
Heloise's side of the story (!), look for their letters which are published in various editions and
available in the library; or look for the works of Monash's own
Professor Constant Mews, who is a world expert on their correspondence.
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| Abelard & Heloise |
