HONS 1102: Colloquium on the Medieval World

Course Schedule

As always, even after the syllabus has been posted, be aware that assignments may change. HONS1102 students are always encouraged to watch the Announcements section of the course’s blackboard site and their emails, and to listen and make note of any changes as they are announced in class.

HONS1102 printable syllabus for Spring 2023

PLEASE NOTE: The schedule information that follows hereafter is “under construction.” In the meantime, refer to the course schedule that is included in the syllabus (which can be accessed by clicking the green link above).

Constantine, councils & creeds

Theodosius presiding over the races in the Hippodrome in Constantinople
Thursday, January 20, 2022

Read before class:

  • Eusebius, Life of Constantine (Readings in World Christian History, hereafter referred to as “WCH” 87-97)
  • Letters of Arius and Alexander (WCH 98-101)
  • Creeds (WCH 101-102)

China: The Period of Division & the development of Buddhism

Buddha from Yungang Cave Northern Wei period, 5th century
Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Read before class:

  • Tao Qian (Norton Anthology of World Literatures, hereafter referred to as “NAWL” 1091-1104)
  • Chinese Buddhism (Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1, hereafter referred to as “SCT” 415-26, 433-34, 404-52, 471-74, 481-82, 485-89)

Augustine

Augustine Lateran Basilica, Rome 6th century
Thursday, January 27, 2022

Read before class:

  • Confessions (NAWL 49-56, 58-62)(3rd ed 49-56, 58-62) (Course Packet, hereafter referred to as “CP”, pp. 1-5)
  • City of God (WCH 195-206, ch. 4, 10, 13, 17, 26, 27) (CP 6-7)
  • Augustine on the Jews (CP 8-9)

Monasticism

St. Catherine's Monastery Mount Sinai, 6th century
Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Read before class:

  • Athanasius, Life of Anthony (WCH 131-44 – intro, ch. 1-5, 8-10, 14, 44-47, 50, 69-73, 81, 87, 93)
  • Basil, Longer Rule (WCH 144-47)
  • Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict (Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, hereafter referred to as “ICCW” 175-89)
  • Selections from the Desert Fathers and the Cistercians (CP 10-12)

Justinian, Orthodoxy, and the Byzantine Empire

Justinian and his court San Vitale, Ravenna
Thursday, February 3, 2022

Read before class:

  • The Council of Chalcedon (WCH 165-71, 175-76)
  • Third Council of Constantinople, Exposition (CP 13-14)
  • Justinian, Corpus Iuris Civilis (CP 15-16)
  • Justinian, Novella VI (CP 17)
  • Justinian, Novella 146 On the Jews (CP 18-19)
  • Agapetus, “Advice to the Emperor Justinian” (CP 20)

The Quran

14th century Quran, Damascus
Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Read before class:

  • Qur’an, Sura 1, 4, 12, 55, 77-107 (Norton Anthology of World Religions: Islam, hereafter referred to as “NAWR- Islam”)

China: Tang Dynasty

Night-Shining White, by Han Gan, c. 750
Thursday, February 10, 2022

Read before class:

  • Han Yu (SCT 568-73, 582-86)
  • The Meditation School of Chinese Buddhism (SCT 491-504)
  • Nestorian Stele and Chinese Christian Sutras (WCH 243-51)
  • Tang Poetry (instructors’ choice from NAWL)

Continuity and Tradition in Judaism and Islam

Talmud Scrolls
Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Read before class:

  • The Babylonian Talmud (CP 21-33)
  • Hadith from Muslim Ibn Al-Hajaj (NAWR-Islam, 170-179)
  • Hadith from Bukhari (CP 34)

First Paper Due


Faith & Philosophy in Islam

Madrasa bun Inania Meknes, Morocco Founded by Abu Inan Faris in 1350
Thursday, February 17, 2022

Read before class:

  • Ibn Rushd, The Decisive Treatise  (NAWR-Islam, 277-85)
  • Al-Ghazali, Deliverance from Error (CP 36-46) (NAWR-Islam, 418-31)

Church & State

Detail from The Coronation of Charlemagne (as depicted by Claudius Jacquand, 19th Century)
Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Read before class:

  • Pope Gelasius, On spiritual and temporal power (CP 47)
  • John of Damascus, On the Divine Images (WCH 291-94, ch. 6. 7, 11, 14)
  • The Iconoclast controversy (CP 48-50)
  • Popes and Carolingian kings (CP 51-52)
  • The Donation of Constantine (CP 53-54)

China: Song Dynasty

Scholar in a Meadow 11th century
Thursday, February 24, 2022

Read before class:

  • Wang Anshi (SCT 609-16)
  • Zhu Xi (SCT 697-702, 706-707, 713-14, 720-22, 725-27, 729-31, 749-51)

War in Islamic & Christian Traditions

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Read before class:

  • Augustine, To Count Boniface; Reply to Faustus the Manichean (CP 55-59)
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (CP 60-65)
  • The Qur’an on warfare (CP 66)
  • Hadith on jihad from the collection of Muslim Ibn Hajjaj (CP 67-70)

 


Christian/Muslim Encounters

The Capture of Constantinople Tintoretto, Ducal Palace, Venice
Thursday, March 3, 2022

Read before class:

  • The Pact of Umar (CP 71)
  • Patriarch Timothy, “Apology before the Caliph Mahdi” (WCH 231-42)
  • Patriarch Nicholas I Mysticus, “Letters to Muslim rulers” (CP 72)
  • Pope Urban II, “Speech at the Council of Clermont” (CP 73-78)
  • Guibert de Nogent, The Deeds of God through the Franks (WCH 324-34)
  • Ibn al-Athir (WCH 334-35)

Spring Break – No class

Tuesday, March 8, 2022


Spring Break – No Class

Thursday, March 10, 2022


Development of Scholastic Method and Universities

Sainte Chapelle, Paris 1250
Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Read before class:

  • Robert De Courcon, “Statutes for the University of Paris” (CP 79-80)
  • Peter Abelard, Sic et Non (CP 81)
  • Domingo Gundisalvo, De divisione philosophiae (CP 82-83)
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (ICCW 203-204 Second Article, 206-207 Fifth Article, 220-23 First, Second, and Third Articles

Midterm Exam

 


God and Philosophy

The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, by Francesco Traini 1340
Thursday, March 17, 2022

Read before class:

  • Anselm, Proslogion (CP 84-85)
  • Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed (CP 86-90)
  • Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles (CP 91-93)
  • Aquinas, Summa Theologica (ICCW 202-203 First Article, 209-14)

The Influence of Aristotle and the development of medieval science

This 16th century miniature depicts a meeting of doctors at the University of Paris.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Read before class:

  • Adelard of Bath, Natural Questions (CP 94-96)
  • Domingo Gundisalvo, De divisione philosophiae (CP 97-100)
  • “Statute of the Faculty of the Arts, 1272” (CP 101)
  • “The Condemnations of 1277” (CP 102)
  • John Buridan, Questions on the Eight Books of the Physics of Aristotle (CP 103-105)
  • John Buridan, Questions on the Four Books On the heavens and the World of Aristotle (CP 106-107)

Second Paper Due


Political Theory

Abu Nasr Al- Farabi monument, Kazakh National State University
Thursday, March 24, 2022

Read before class:

  • Aquinas, On the Governance of Rulers (ICCW 241-55)
  • Dante, De Monarchia (ICCW 302-305, 310-21)
  • Al-Farabi, The Virtuous City (NAWR-Islam 258-65)
  • Ibn Sina, The Book of Healing (NAWR-Islam 267-69, 274-76)

Who's in charge here?

Magna carta cum statutis angliae (Great Charter with English Statutes), early 14th-century
Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Read before class:

  • Charter of Homage and Fealty/The Peace of God (CP 108-109)
  • Pope Gregory VII, “Dictatus Papae” (CP 110)
  • Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV (CP 111-114)
  • Magna Carta (ICCW 416-19, 422, 425-27)
  • Villani, Florentine Chronicle (CP 115-122)

Mendicants, Heretics, Jews

St. Francis preaching to the birds (Giotto, Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi)
Thursday, March 31, 2022

Read before class:

  • Francis of Assisi, Testament, “Canticle of the Sun,” Rule of the Franciscan Order (CP 123-127)
  • Soloman bar Samson (CP 128-130)
  • Pope Innocent III, Constitution for the Jews (CP 131)
  • Pope Innocent III, (ICCW 393-94)
  • Nicetas Choniates on the Fourth Crusade (WCH 335-36)
  • Bernard Gui, Manual of the Inquisitor (ICCW 256-65)

Dante – The Divine Comedy

Dante Aligheri, by Sandro Botticelli, 1495
Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Read before class:

  • Inferno, cantos 1-5, 18-19, 28, 33-34 (NAWL)
  • Courtly love and poetry (CP 132);  (NAWL, selected by instructors)

 


Dante: The Divine Comedy

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Read before class:

  • Inferno, cantos 33-34 (NAWL)
  • Purgatorio, cantos 1,2, 27, 30
  • Paradiso, canto 33

Byzantines, Latins & Muslims

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī
Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Read before class:

  • The Lives of Mar Yahbh-Allaha and Rabban Sawma (WCH 373-78)
  • Sunjata (NAWL Volume C, 12-16, 27-28, 32-35, 50-58)
  • Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah (CP 133-135)
  • Rumi (NAWL 381-86)

Holy Thursday – No classes

Thursday, April 14, 2022


Boccaccio & Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer
Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Read before class:

  • Decameron (NAWL 719-28)
  • The Canterbury Tales (NAWL 772-819)

The Late Middle Ages

Boccaccio and Florentines fleeing the plague, from a 1485 Bruges manuscript
Thursday, April 21, 2022

Read before class:

  • Responses to the Black Death (CP 136-141)
  • John Wycliffe (ICCW 679-81)
  • The Council of Constance (WCH 414-15)

China: Early Ming Dynasty

Empress Xu
Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Read before class:

  • Empress Xu (SCT 831-36)
  • Wang Yangming (SCT 841-55)

Third Paper Due


Renaissance Society and Politics

Detail from the Sistene Chapel, Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam"
Thursday, April 28, 2022

Read before class:

  • Leonardo Bruni , “Panegyric to the City of Florence” (CP 142-143)
  • Petrus Paulus Vergerius, “The New Education” (CP 144-147 )
  • Juan Luis Vives, On Assistance to the Poor (CP 148-150)
  • Christine de Pizan, Book of the City of Ladies (NAWL 893-98, 908-12)

Renaissance Humanism

Pope Sixtus IV appoints Bartolomeo Platina Prefect of the Vatican Library Melozzo da Forli, 1477 Vatican Museums
Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Read before class:

  • Coluccio Salutati, “Letters” (ICCW 565-80)
  • Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , Oration on the Dignity of Man (ICCW 581-87)
  • Juan Luis Vives, A Fable about Man (CP 151-157)
  • Giorgio Vasari, “Michelangelo Buonarroti” (ICCW 592-609)

Exploration, conquest, encounter

Portrait of Hernán Cortés, 17th century, oil on canvas, Museo Naval de Madrid
Thursday, May 5, 2022

Read before class:

  • James I of Aragon (WCH 336-38)
  • Christopher Columbus, “Letter Concerning the First Voyage” (Norton 540-44)
  • Hernan Cortes, “The Second Letter” (Norton, 547-57)
  • The Florentine Codex (Norton 557-63)
  • Inca Garcilaso De La Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru (Norton 574-80)

Machiavelli

Bust of Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy
Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Read before class:

  • The Prince (ICCW 459, 463-79)
  • Discourses on Livy (CP 158)