Home - HIS2502 Late Medieval Spring 2012 - CampusGuides at St. John's University

useful links

The Orb

http://www.the-orb.net/

The on-line reference book of medieval studies.

Medieval Internet Sourcebook

http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/sbook.asp

Very full web-site of primary sources - look at the left hand margin.

Primary Sources on the Crusades

http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/primarysources.html

Full and Partial Primary Source accounts

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Required Books

Check these out early second hand on-line for deep discounts - often less than $5 per book - but you must have them on time - NO EXCUSES - we will read them in the order given here.

The Templars - Piers Paul Read

ISBN: 0312555385

Publication Date: 1999

Four Queens - Nancy Goldstone

ISBN: 0143113256

Publication Date: 2008

Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu - Laurence Bergreen

ISBN: 1400078806

Publication Date: 2007

The House of Medici - Christopher Hibbert

ISBN: 0688053390

Publication Date: 2003

1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West - Roger Crowley

ISBN: 1401308506

Publication Date: 2005

The Tudors - G. J. Meyer

ISBN: 0385340779

Publication Date: 2011

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Schedule of Classes

This syllabus was updated 2/15/2012

Jan 24 Introduction

Fri Jan 27 Templars pp.1-83

Fri Feb 3 Templars 83-177

Question: How was Outremer kept, defended and lost? What was the role of the Templars in this to the end of the twelfth century?

Tues Feb 7 Templars pp. 178-246

Question: How did the idea of crusading change in the hundred years between the recapture of Jerusalem in 1187 and the last Frankish presence in the Holy Land in 1291?

Friday 10 Templars pp. 247-323

Question: Write a Book proposal seeking advance funding for a new book on the Templars. A book proposal normally contains a statement of position or argument, intended audience, contribution to te field, layout and chapter by chapter break down.

Tues Feb 14

*****Thurs 16th February Common Hour 1:50-3:15 in DAC 407

“The Emergence of Global Holy War: The Crusades Go Global”

Dr. Alfred J. Andrea, Professor Emeritus, University of Vermont

*********************************************************************************************

Fri Feb 17 Four Queens pp. xiii-116

Question: What was the reality of the relationship between women and power in the thirteenth century? How does Nancy Goldstone's evidence challenge the view of medieval women as merely ornaments of court and pawns in marriage alliances made by men?

Tues Feb 21 Four Queens pp. 117- 201

Question: A continuing debate in history is whether leading men shape their era or if the era shapes the men. Where would you stand on this debate with regards to the leading women of the period discussed by Nancy Goldstone?

Fri Feb 24 Four Queens pp. 205-310 CLASS WILL MEET ON-LINE

Please answer question (task) on the "discussion board - look at tabs above this box - click on the name of the discussion - note it is not threaded. Instructions: please respond to the task below by 3.25 on Friday 2/24 THEN before MIDNIGHT on 2/25 please post a second time with comments on three of your classmates' responses (combine into one post - be specific about what you liked around 150+ words).

Task: The editor of Biographies of the Middle Ages for Children has contacted you and has asked if you could write some of entries for them in super fast time because someone has let them down - they pay 50c a word, so you agree. They are looking for less than 400 words on the following (choose one): Blanche of Castille, Isabella of Angouleme (Henry III's mother), Eleanor of Provence, Marguerite of Provence, Sanchia of Provence. Your target auidience is the bright 13-year-old. Remember to highlight other terms and people that will have dictionary entries. Look at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or the American National Biography for style (through STJ library - find article databases).

Tues Mar 6 Marco Polo pp. 1-91

Question: Bergreen uses the description of the cities that the Venetian merchants travel from and to in the first three years of their jorney almost as if they were characters with stories of their own to tell. What themes connect these stories?

Fri Mar 9 Marco Polo pp. 92-187

Question: What impression does Marco have of the Mongols and the Kublai Khan?

Tues Mar 13 Marco Polo pp. 188-266

Question: In his travels to China and South East Asia Polo is the furtrhest from European experience. What does he like about the East and what does he not? Why?

Fri Mar 16 Marco Polo pp. 267-362

Question: Polo's travels lasted twenty-four years. How did they change the man, and did his legacy change history? When and how?

Project One due

Tues Mar 20th Medici pp. 19-98

1.[Part 1] What opportunities did the Medici family embgrace and what dangers did they face?

Fri Mar 23 Medici pp.101-174

2.[Part Two] Why was Lorenzo considered to be "Magnificent" by his contemporaries, and why might his legacy be considered to be magnificent even today?

Tues Mar 27 Medici pp.177-258

3. [Part Three] What was the Medici family's relationship to the church 1492-1537?

Fri Mar 30 Medici pp. 261-311

4. [Part Four] What are the principle factors involved in the decline and fall of the Medici; is it fair to say they "self-destructed"?

Tues Apr 3 1453 -- pp. 1-94

Whay was it important for the Ottomans to take Constantinople?

Tues Apr 10 1453 – pp. 95-172

What were Mehmet's main advantages in the seige of 1453?

Fri Apr 13 1453—pp.173-266

What was the impact of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453?

Tues Apr 17 Tudors – pp.1-134

Fri Apr 20 Tudors -- pp. 135-245