HIST 415-01, The Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Fall 2009

Abstract

This seminar explores the wide range of intellectual, political, institutional, spiritual, and cultural developments of Western Europe between the late eleventh century and the early thirteenth century, a period commonly referred to by medievalists as the “renaissance of the twelfth century.” These developments include the study of the liberal arts in cathedral schools and the first universities, the growth of cities, the centralization of political authority in France and England, the rise of papal power, the spiritual renewal associated with new monastic orders, and the music and poetry of the traveling Minstrels of France and Germany that embodied the twelfth-century spirit of chivalry and courtly love. Many individual authors and texts will be read and discussed, such as the letters of Abelard and Heloise, the defense of liberal arts penned by John of Salisbury, and the mystical writings of Hildegard of Bingen. The overall attitude towards learning during this period is perhaps best exemplified in the memorable phrase of Bernard of Chartres, who described the scholars of his generation as being “like dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants: we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature.”