Medieval Studies
Faculty of the Committee on Medieval Studies
Michael McCormick, Professor of History (Chair)
Thomas N. Bisson, Henry Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History
Charles Donahue, Jr., Professor of Law (Law School)
Daniel G. Donoghue, Professor of English and American Literature and Language
John Duffy, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine Philology and Literature
Michael S. Flier, Oleksandr Potebnja Professor of Ukrainian Philology
Patrick K. Ford, Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures
Thomas Forrest Kelly, Professor of Music
Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Professor of the Practice in Latin and Romance Languages (Divinity School)
Angeliki E. Laiou, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History (on leave fall term)
Francisco Márquez, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures
Roy Mottahedeh, Gurney Professor of History (on leave fall term)
John E. Murdoch, Professor of the History of Science
Derek A. Pearsall, Gurney Professor of English Literature (on leave spring term)
Bernard Septimus, Jacob E. Safra Professor of Jewish History and Sephardic Civilization
Christine Smith, Professor of Architectural History (Design School)
R. J. Tarrant, Harvard College Professor and Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature
Alfred Thomas, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities
Jan Ziolkowski, Professor of Medieval Latin and Comparative Literature
Other Faculty Offering Instruction in Medieval Studies
Roger E. Stoddard, Senior Lecturer on English
The standing committee on Medieval Studies exists in order to promote and coordinate work on medieval subjects throughout the University, including Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., and I Tatti in Florence as well as the various faculties and departments in Cambridge. Working in cooperation with the student-faculty Medieval Society, it sponsors events and activities of interest to medievalists. Among its most important activities are the frequent meetings of the Medieval Studies seminar (Monday afternoons), the sporadic Special Seminars in Medieval Studies, and fostering the Medieval Studies Library in Widener. No degree specifically in medieval studies is offered either on the undergraduate or on the graduate level, although it is possible to develop within many departmental programs an individual program emphasizing the medieval aspects of the field. A graduate student who wishes to follow an interdisciplinary doctoral program is required to enter and to work for at least a year in one of the regular departmental programs for the Ph.D. After a year, it is recommended that the student contact the chair of the Committee on Medieval Studies for guidance as to the alternatives available in medieval studies. With the assistance of the Committee on Medieval Studies, the student may petition the Dean of the Graduate School for permission to work under the guidance of a specially appointed Ad Hoc Committee in a specific area of Medieval Studies. If this petition is approved, the Ad Hoc Committee will supervise the graduate student’s program through the completion of the doctorate. Specific questions concerning Medieval Studies on either the undergraduate or the graduate level and requests for the pamphlet on Medieval Studies and the annual list of courses on medieval topics should be addressed to the Chairman of the Committee, Robinson Hall 202. For more information and to receive the MSC’s email on its frequent activities, contact medieval@fas.harvard.edu.
For Undergraduates and Graduates
Medieval Studies 101 (formerly History 2277). The Auxiliary Disciplines of Medieval History: Proseminar
Catalog Number: 3759
Michael McCormick
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Familiarizes new scholars in art history, history, literature, and music with the research tools, techniques, and concepts required for advanced study of medieval evidence. “Medieval” ranges from Diocletian to the Renaissance, focusing on the Latin West but not neglecting Byzantium. Topics include general heuristics, hagiography, late and medieval Latin philology, late antique studies, numismatics, diplomatic, codicology, and an initiation to Latin paleography, from the 6th to the 17th century.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Medieval Studies 103. Research Methods in Late Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Catalog Number: 4215
James Hankins
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Introduction to manuscript research, paleography, codicology, and source criticism.
[Medieval Studies 105. Production of Manuscripts and Printed Books Before 1600]
Catalog Number: 3251
Roger E. Stoddard and assistant
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
An examination of the physical structure and means of production of early manuscripts and printed books based on examples in the Houghton Library.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[Medieval Studies 117. Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England]
Catalog Number: 5468
Charles Donahue, Jr. (Law School)
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged. Offered concurrently, but with a separate section, in the Law School.
A survey of the ideas and events that shaped the structure of English law and governance from the Anglo-Saxon invasions to the Reformation Parliament. Topics include the formation of the kingdom of England, the emergence of institutions of royal governance, the relations between church and state, the development of Parliament, and the various institutional reactions to political conflict and social change.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01. Normally alternates with History 1133.
Medieval Studies 119. Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval Continental Europe
Catalog Number: 4410
Charles Donahue, Jr. (Law School)
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 10, plus one section on F. to be arranged. Offered concurrently, but with a separate section, in the Law School. EXAM GROUP: 3
A survey of the main outlines of continental European legal history from the fall of the Roman Empire to the “rise of absolutism” at the beginning of the 17th century. Focuses on the main expressions of European legal culture over this long period of time: the “barbarian law codes” (6th–10th centuries), the revival of the academic study of Roman and canon law (11th–13th centuries), the customary law (13th–16th centuries), the schools of academic law (14th–17th centuries: the “commentators,” the “humanists,” the “natural law school”), the tentative moves toward codification (13th–17th centuries). In each period an effort is made to relate the types of law produced to the social, political, and religious history of the period.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Cross-listed Courses
Ancient Near East 121. History of the Study of the Hebrew Bible: From the Renaissance to the Present: Seminar
Arabic 245r. Classical Arabic Literature: Seminar
Celtic 112. Performance and Medieval Celtic Literature
[Celtic 114. Early Irish Historical Tales]
Celtic 138r. The Mabinogi
Celtic 150. Celtic Paganism
[Celtic 184. Early Irish Literature]
Celtic 200. Introduction to Old Irish
Celtic 201. Continuing Old Irish
[Celtic 204r. Readings in Early Irish Poetry]
[Celtic 205r. Readings in Early Irish Prose]
Celtic 208. Early Irish Society
Celtic 226r. Readings in Middle Welsh
[Celtic 227. Welsh Bardic Poetry: Seminar]
Celtic 230r. Sources for Medieval Welsh Culture and Society
[Classics 244. Greek Epigraphy]
[Classics 277. Greek Palaeography]
[Classics 281. Memory and Mnemonics in the Latin Tradition]
*English 90op. Poems of the Pearl Manuscript
English 101. The History and Structure of the English Language
English 102c. Anglo-Saxon Language and Culture: The Millennium
English 103. Anglo-Saxon Language and Culture: King Alfred
English 117. Medieval Drama: History and Performance
*English 200b. Beowulf
*English 212. Alliterative Poetry in Middle English
*English 296. Descriptive and Analytical Bibliography: Seminar
*English 300hf. Old and Middle English: Doctoral Conference
*Folklore and Mythology 103. Oral Literature
[*Folklore and Mythology 166. Witchcraft and Hostile Magic in the Later Middle Ages: Conference Course]
[Foreign Cultures 28. The Religion and Culture of Islam]
French 70a. Introduction to French Literature I: The Beginnings of Literary Space
[French 102. Introduction to Medieval Literature and Old French]
French 109. Representations of Death and Mourning in French Medieval Literature
[German 101. Introduction to Medieval Literature and Culture]
[Germanic Philology 200. Introduction to Middle High German]
[Germanic Philology 225. History of the German Language]
[Historical Study B-11. The Crusades]
[Historical Study B-13. Charlemagne and the Birth of Medieval Civilization]
Historical Study B-18. The Protestant Reformation
History 10a. Western Societies, Politics, and Cultures: From Antiquity to 1650
*History 90a. Major Themes in Medieval History
*History 90b. Major Themes in Early Modern European History
History 1111. World of Late Antiquity
[History 1133. Medieval England (ca. 871–1485)]
History 1136. Romanesque Southern France (800-1250)
History 1141. Medieval Thought: Conference Course
History 1150. The Jews in Muslim and Christian Spain
History 1166. The West European Family, 1300–1700: Conference Course
[History 1211a. Byzantine Civilization 330–1000]
[History 1211b. Byzantine Civilization 900–1453]
History 1212. The Imperial System: Byzantine Society and Civilization, 8thc.-1204: Conference Course
[History 1353 (formerly History 1251 and 1551). Medieval and Early Modern Russia]
[History 1877a. History of the Near East, 600–1055]
[History 1878a. Ottoman State and Society I (1300–1550)]
History 2101. Medieval Societies and Cultures: Proseminar
[History 2122. Early Medieval History: Seminar: Communications in the Early Medieval Mediterranean]
*History 2124. Medieval History: Seminar
History 2126. Medieval Law
History 2271r. Topics in Byzantine History: Seminar
*History 2353 (formerly History 2251). Topics in Pre-Petrine History: Seminar
History 2902. Studies in Tudor and Stuart History
[History of Art and Architecture 14e. Introduction to Western Medieval Art and Architecture]
[History of Art and Architecture 140r. Byzantine Art]
[History of Art and Architecture 149. Art Criticism and Censorship in the Middle Ages]
[History of Art and Architecture 149x. Antique Figures in Medieval Landscapes]
[History of Art and Architecture 246y. Tomb Sculpture and Gothic Courtly Imagery: A Walk with Madness, Love, and Death]
History of Art and Architecture 283. Early and Medieval Chinese Mortuary Art
History of Science 106. History of Ancient Science
[History of Science 107. History of Medieval Science]
*History of Science 206r. Ancient Science: Seminar
*History of Science 207r. Medieval Science: Seminar
*History of Science 298r. The Establishment of Medieval Latin Scientific and Philosophical Texts: Seminar
[Italian 120a. Dante’s Inferno]
[Italian 120b. Dante’s Purgatorio]
[Italian 120c. Dante’s Paradiso]
[Italian 135. Boccaccio]
[Italian 220. Poesia del ’200]
Italian 230. Petrarca and the Divided Self
[Italian 256. Themes and Dreams of the Italian Renaissance]
Latin 3m. Latin Prose Selections (Medieval)
Linguistics 250. Old Church Slavonic
Literature and Arts A-26. Dante’s Divine Comedy and Its World
[Literature and Arts A-68. Poets and Poetry in the Celtic Literary Tradition]
Literature and Arts B-35. The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent: Art, Architecture, and Ceremonial at the Ottoman Court
Literature and Arts C-20. The Hero of Irish Myth and Saga
Literature and Arts C-22. European Culture in the Latin Middle Ages
[Literature and Arts C-25. The Medieval Stage]
[Literature and Arts C-28. Icon—Ritual—Text: Reading the Culture of Medieval Rus’]
[Literature and Arts C-43. The Medieval Court]
Medieval Greek 115ar. Introduction to Byzantine Greek
[Medieval Latin 115. Medieval Latin Lyric Poetry]
[Medieval Latin 116. Medieval Latin Epic and Romance]
Medieval Latin 117. Fairy Tales and their Tellers in the Middle Ages
[Medieval Latin 120. Wisdom and Learning]
[Medieval Latin 150. Abelard and Heloise]
Music 191r. Topics in Medieval and Renaissance Music: Proseminar
[Music 205. Medieval Notation]
[Music 211r. Topics in Medieval Music: Seminar]
[Music 212r. Chant: Seminar]
Music 213r. Topics in Medieval Polyphony: Seminar
[Scandinavian 103. Scandinavian Mythology and Folklore]
Scandinavian 151. The Viking World
*Scandinavian 200a. Introduction to Old Norse
Scandinavian 200br. Old Norse Literature: Edda and Saga
Slavic 130a. Survey of Czech Literature from the Beginnings to 1774
Slavic 211. History of Muscovite Literature, 1500–1700: Conference Course
[Slavic 212. The History of the Languages of Muscovy: Conference Course]
[Slavic 213. Lessons of “The Igor Tale”: Antecedents, Text, Posterity]
Slavic 291. Problems in the History of Early Ukrainian Literature
Spanish 70a (formerly Spanish 100a). Hispanic Literature: The Middle Ages
[Spanish 120. Medieval Spain in the Poem of the Cid]
Spanish 281r. Spanish Literature: Seminar