The Latin Tradition: Course Description

This course, an elective for seniors, is a study of Latin Christian Europe of the Middle Ages (ca. AD 600-1400). While not primarily a medieval Latin course, students will be expected to read, with appropriate assistance, original and significant Latin documents of the European Middle Ages; these documents will form the core of student research, writing, and presentations on various aspects of that great era of Latin culture which followed the decline of imperial Rome in the West. This course provides students an opportunity to use Latin previously learned to investigate one of the richest and most productive eras of Western European history. If time and opportunity permit, field trips to view medieval books, or to visit a cathedral and monastery may form part of the course.
No application is required.

Two principal areas will be studied:
--Monasticism (mystery cults, Gospel of Mark, Acts of Apostles, Apocalypse, Life of St Anthony, Regula monachorum, the monastic orders, The Name of the Rose, Latin paleography, scriptoria and medieval books, cathedrals, sacred music)
--Feudalism (Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Norman Conquest, Bayeux Tapestry, Islam and Crusades, William Wallace, Lear story)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Latin Tradition students will be able to ...
-- read, with appropriate assistance, key Latin documents of the Middle Ages
-- demonstrate understanding of the importance of European monasticism
-- demonstrate knowledge of papal and ecclesiastical authority in the Middle Ages
-- explain the historical and cultural significance of cathedrals and universities
-- demonstrate knowledge of feudalism in the Middle Ages


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