Professor Thomas Head
Class meeting: Thursdays, 4:15-6:15
Office hours (Graduate Center 5104): arranged by appointment.
Office hours (Hunter West 1507): Mondays 1:30-3:00 and Wednesdays, 2:30-4:00
E-mail (preferred): thead@shiva.hunter.cuny.edu
Phone: 212-772-5484 (Hunter College office)
Fax: 212-772-5545
Course website: http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/eres (password: charlemagne).
Professor's website: http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~thead/index.htm
February 3. Introduction.
February 10. Late Antiquity: Romanitas.
Peter Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire, (The Curti Lectures for 1988; Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).
Caesarius of Arles, Life, Testament, Letters, trans. William Klingshirn (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1994).
Note: both books are available at Labyrinth and both have been ordered for library reserve.
Recommended for background and/or review: Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981); Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750 (New York: Harcourt, 1971). Both available in Medieval Carrell.
February 17. No class.
February 24. Late antiquity: Germanic
ethnogenesis.
Read one of the following: Neil Christie, The Lombards: The Ancient Langobards (The Peoples of Europe Series; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1995); Peter Heather, The Goths (The Peoples of Europe Series; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1995); E. A. Thompson, The Huns (The Peoples of Europe Series; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1999).
Note: All three books are available from Amazon.com for approximately $22 each; all are listed as "usually shipping in 24 hours." The Goths is already on reserve at the library; the others have been ordered for library reserve.
Guy Halsall, "Movers and Shakers: The Barbarians and the Fall of Rome," Early Medieval Europe 8 (1999), pp. 131-145. Xerox to be distributed.
Excerpts from Jordanes, The History of the Goths. Available on electronic reserve. A few passages from the Latin text will also be made available on electronic reserve.
Recommended: Constantius of Lyon, The Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre in Soldiers of Christ: Saints' Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, eds. Thomas Noble and Thomas Head (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994), pp. 75-106 [available in the Medieval Carrell].
March 2. Late antiquity: conversion
to Christianity.
Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, 200-800 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1997).
Ramsay MacMullen, Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997).
Note: Both books are available (at $29 and $16 respectively) at Amazon.com. They are listed as "usually available in 24 hours." A copy of the Brown book is on reserve in the Library; a second copy will also be placed in the Medieval Carrell. Reviews of both Brown and MacMullen will be made available either in xerox or electronically.
Recommended: Sulpicius Severus, The Life of St. Martin of Tours in Soldiers of Christ: Saints' Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, eds. Thomas Noble and Thomas Head (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994), pp. 1-30 [available in the Medieval Carrell] OR Mark the Deacon, The Life of St. Porphyry of Gaza (available on electronic reserve) OR The Life of St. Genofeva of Paris in (eds.), Sainted Women of the Dark Ages , eds. and trans. Jo Ann McNamara and John Halborg, with E. Gordan Whatley (Durham, 1992), pp. 17-37 [available in the Medieval Carrell]
March 9. The Frankish Kingdoms(1).
Read one of the following three books:
Ian Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751 (London: Longman, 1994). Available at Labyrinth and on order for library reserve.
Patrick Geary, Before France and Germany. The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). Available in the Medieval Carrell and on order for library reserve.
Edward James, The Franks (The Peoples of Europe Series; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988). Available in the Medieval Carrell.
Also read: The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe, eds. Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 1-43 and Peter Lasko, The Kingdom of the Franks, pp. 25-62. Both available in the Medieval Carrell.
March 16. The Frankish Kingdoms(2).
Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks, trans. Lewis Thorpe (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974). Readings to be arranged. Easily available for purchase and also on reserve at the library.
March 23. The Irish Kingdoms.
Read one of the following three books:
Joseph Falaky Nagy, Conversing With Angels and Ancients: Literary Myths of Medieval Ireland (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997). Available at Labyrinth and on order for the library reserve.
T. M. Charles-Edwards, Early Irish and Welsh Kinship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993). On reserve at the library.
Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988). On reserve at the library.
Also read: The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe, eds. Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 169-90. Available in the Medieval Carrell.
March 30. The Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.
Read one of the following three books:
Nicholas Higham, The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997). Available from Labyrinth and on reserve at the library.
Barbara Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England (Routledge, 1997). Availabile as special order through Amazon.com.
Nicholas Howe, Migration and Mythology in Anglo-Saxon England (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989). On reserve at the library.
Also read: The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe, eds. Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 149-68. Available in the Medieval Carrell.
April 6. The Economics of Early Medieval
Europe and the Pirenne Thesis.
Richard Hodges and David Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983). Available from Labyrinth and at the Medival Carrell.
Other short readings will be assigned for reports.
April 13. The Carolingian Empire (1).
Roger Collins, Charlemagne (University of Toronto Press, 1998). Available as special order through Amazon.com.
Paul Dutton (ed.), Carolingian Civilization: A Reader (Broadview Press, 1993), pages to be assigned. Available at Labyrinth and on order for library reserve.
April 19-30. Spring vacation.
May 4. The Carolingian Empire (2).
Janet Nelson, Charles the Bald (Medieval World; Addison-Wesley, 1992). Available at Labyrinth and on reserve at the library.
Paul Dutton (ed.), Carolingian Civilization: A Reader (Broadview Press, 1993), pages to be assigned. Available at Labyrinth and on order for library reserve.
May 11. Theoretical approaches: Literacy.
Rosamond McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Writtern Word (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). Available at Labyrinth and on order for library reserve.
May 18. Theoretical approaches: Power.
Barbara Rosenwein, Negotiating Space: Power, Restraint, and Privileges of Immunity in Early Medieval Europe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999). Available at Labyrinth and on order for library reserve.