Medieval Studies (MVST)

MVST 0912. Requirement Preparation. (0 Credits)

For Ph.D. and Master's students, registration necessary to maintain continuous enrollment while preparing for a milestone requirement, such as comprehensive exam, Master's thesis, or dissertation submission.

MVST 0914. Requirement Preparation in Summer. (0 Credits)

For Ph.D. and Master's students, registration necessary to maintain continuous enrollment while preparing for a milestone requirement during the summer. (e.g., to be used by Ph.D. students after the oral examination/defense and prior to receiving the degree).

MVST 0930. PhD Certificate Comprehensive Examination. (0 Credits)

MVST 0936. Master's Comprehensive Examination-Medieval Studies. (0 Credits)

MVST 0937. Master's Research Paper Preparation. (0.5 Credits)

For students preparing their MA thesis in Medieval Studies.

MVST 1210. Literature and Society. (3 Credits)

This course explores different literary genres (such as saga and myth, romance, ballads and poetry, drama and devotional treatises) from different medieval cultural contexts (such as Icelandic society, feudal society, the clergy and urban society). The texts chosen for study, as well as the particular societal contexts, will vary from instructor to instructor.

Attribute: MVLI.

MVST 1250. Traditions of Storytelling. (4 Credits)

Comparative study of traditions of storytelling, placing questions of narrative form within global cultural and historical contexts. Selections from ancient forms of storytelling will be considered alongside modern examples from European and American literature. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, AMST.

MVST 1999. Tutorial. (1 Credit)

Independent research and readings with supervision from a faculty member.

MVST 2360. Illuminated Manuscripts. (4 Credits)

Before the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, every book was a precious, hand-produced object. Often these manuscripts were richly decorated with painting, called illumination. This course examines the development of manuscript illumination over the length of the Middle Ages in Europe (circa 300 to 1500). Issues examined include illuminated manuscripts and the establishment of the church, illumination and royal power, manuscripts and popular devotion, relations between Christians and Jews, and the role of the artist as illuminator. This course includes site visits. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AHAM, MVAM, MVST, OCAH, OCST.

MVST 2370. Art and Science in the Middle Ages. (4 Credits)

This course investigates intersections of art and science from the Carolingian period through the 14th century and the historical role images played in the pursuit of epistemic truths. Science in the Middle Ages included a broad range of intellectual pursuits into both the supernatural and natural worlds, and scholars have classified these pursuits in various ways (e.g., experimental or theoretical science, practical science, magic, and natural philosophy). A particular focus of this course is placed on the assimilation of Greek and Islamic scientific advances in cartography, cosmology, and optical theory into the Latin theological tradition. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: AHAM.

MVST 2999. Tutorial. (2 Credits)

Independent research and readings with supervision from a faculty member.

MVST 3057. Medieval German Literature: Potions, Passions, Players, and Prayers. (4 Credits)

This course will introduce students to the rich literary and cultural heritage of Medieval Germany. The texts will all be read in English translation, but we will go over some passages in their original languages in class to catch some of the flavor of the Medieval German. Topics covered will include pre-Christian charms, the epic of the Nibelungs, love poetry, and urban carneval plays. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ALC, GERM, MVLI, MVST.

Prerequisite: GERM 2001.

MVST 3102. Medieval Women Writers. (4 Credits)

Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVLI, WGSS.

MVST 3210. King, Court, and Crusade: Writing Knightly Life in the High Middle Ages. (4 Credits)

This course will view the medieval world through a lens provided by the life and writings of one man, John of Joinville (d. 1317). John was a knight, a crusader, and a close friend of King Louis IX of France (canonized as Saint Louis). He wrote a Life of Saint Louis that is rich with information about his own life, as well as the saintly king's. We will use the Life to open an examination of key themes in the knightly experience in the high middle ages, including: power, faith, the crusades, noble culture, family and social relations. It will also consider the usefulness of biography/autobiography in understanding the past.

Attributes: AHC, HIMH, HIST.

MVST 3215. Medieval Fashion and Its Meanings. (3 Credits)

In medieval Europe, the importance of dress as a signifier of identity changed drastically over time. Relatively unimportant in the early Middle Ages, by the 14th century dress had become a primary means of expressing individual identity as well as class, gender, status, and other forms of group membership. In this course, we aim to demonstrate the ways in which dress and culture shape and are shaped by one another, illuminating the Middle Ages in a non-traditional way and encountering new tools for historical analysis. Our work will culminate in a research project: students will choose a particular type of medieval garment and trace its evolution, the factors which shaped it, and the effect of that garment or those garments on society.

Attributes: FASH, HIMH, MVAM.

MVST 3225. Hollywood's Holy Grail: Medieval French Literature on the Screen. (4 Credits)

This course examines the foundational texts about King Arthur and the Holy Grail that have made their way into American and French films. Why do these thirteenth-century stories about the fourth century continue to fascinate us today in the twenty-first century? Why do they remain so successful as sources for compelling narratives? We will explore the cultural adaptation of these stories to their times and in particular changes made to the role gender plays in them. Topics covered will include: gender; folklore; high and low art; adaptation of text to screen; translation; the political use of the past. Course in French. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, ALC, AMST, COLI, FFPM, FRME, IPE.

Prerequisite: FREN 2600.

MVST 3500. The Knights of the Round Table. (4 Credits)

In this course, we will look for the traces of King Arthur and his Knights in modern-day London and its environs. Reading the foundational texts of Arthurian literature right where it all happened, we will be able to go to the sites and see the artifacts that remain. We will be reading excerpts from the early annals and chronicles, which laid the foundation for Arthur’s fame in history, and we will follow the exploits of some of the most prominent members of the Round Table as they were depicted in medieval literature: Sir Gawain, the ladies’ man (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Tale), Sir Perceval, the Grail Knight (Chretiende Troyes, Perceval), Sir Tristrem, the knight who fell in love with his uncle’s wife, (Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristen and Isolde) and Merlin the sorcerer (in the modern rendition by Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave). We are planning excursions that will take us to Winchester to have a look at the tangible, wooden, “Round Table,” Stonehenge, the mythical stone circle associated with Merlin and his craft, and Canterbury, the destination of the most important pilgrimage on English soil. In London, we will visit Westminster Cathedral, the British Library, Museums holding Arthurian artifacts, and the Crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields for some brass rubbing and afternoon tea. This immersion into medieval culture will allow us to read Arthurian literature in a way uniquely possible in London. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: MVLI.

MVST 3501. Between Conquest and Convivencia: The Spanish Kingdoms of the Middle Ages. (4 Credits)

Like many Mediterranean regions in the Middle Ages, the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal) had diverse kingdoms composed of Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Historians have often framed Iberia’s medieval past as either a constant religious war (the Reconquista) or a precursor to modern notions of tolerance. As with most dichotomies, the truth lies somewhere in between. This course examines how the diverse polities and peoples of the Iberian Peninsula lived together from approximately 711 to 1492. It illustrates violent moments of conflict alongside irenic instances of cultural production through a variety of primary sources—chronicles, romances, pilgrim’s guides, architecture, notarial documents, military treatises—supplemented by scholarly research in history, literature, anthropology, and other disciplines. Through lectures, discussions, as well as oral and written projects, students will learn how ideas about holy war, kingship, philosophy, economics, and more led to the rise and eventual fall of Iberia’s diverse society. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ANTH, COLI, ENG1, ENGL, ENHD, HIST, HIUL, IPE, JSHI, LALS, LAUH, MEST, MLL, MVLI, MVTH, PJRC, POCP, REST.

MVST 3502. The Clerkenwell Tales: England's Literature. (4 Credits)

Where did Oliver Twist learn to pick pockets? In Clerkenwell. Where did William Shakespeare submit his plays to the Master of the Revels? In Clerkenwell. And where did the Knights of the Order of St. John have their headquarters? Indeed, in Clerkenwell, too. In this course, we will read texts that are quintessentially “British”—because they are linked to people, places, and historical events, and because they address issues of gender, race, and social class in ways that are grounded in their environment and thus have a specifically Londonesque character. The medieval romance of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight will start us off by looking at concepts of gender and nobility that have been formative for the way in which English aristocracy defines itself up to this day—an uninterrupted tradition which we can witness at our trips to Westminster Abbey and the Tower. The Globe Theatre will provide us with the opportunity to experience a Shakespeare play as “groundlings”: standing, eating, drinking, and rubbing elbows with audience and actors alike. By the time Charles Dickens wrote "Oliver Twist," London had expanded into a metropolis with a large population of urban poor. It is only logical that England’s oldest orphanage would be located in London, too, a museum today which we will be able to visit in addition to Dickens’ house, both a stone’s throw from our campus. The concluding text will be "The Clerkenwell Tales," Peter Ackroyd’s modern-day take on Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales," which will bring together the main themes addressed in our discussions—gender, race, and social class—and place them right at our doorstep. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ALC, COLI, ENBE, ENGL, HIST, HIUL, ISEU.

MVST 3535. Building the Ideal City: Ethics and Economics Foundations of Realizable Utopias. (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the investigation of the role that economic concepts such as profit, work, utility, and exchange play in defining the ideal city as a realizable political project. Students will explore ethical and economic concepts and their interrelation in the debate on the best form of State and government that developed from antiquity to modern American utopian communities. This course includes texts from various sources - philosophical, theological, juridical, and literary. Through these readings, students will learn how theoretical and practical ideas on the best form of society developed in time and still influence modern political thought. The course also focuses on the impact of the socioeconomic doctrines of the Catholic Church in shaping the idea of a possible, realizable, ideal city. Among the texts and authors included are Plato, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Boccaccio, Thomas More, Leon Battista Alberti, Tommaso Campanella, Francis Bacon. Taught in English with coursework in Italian for credit in Italian. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, ALC, AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASRP, INST, ISIN, ITAL, ITMA, ITRE, MVPH, MVST, URST.

MVST 3542. Medieval Latin Literature. (4 Credits)

This course offers a broad survey of medieval Latin literature from the Vulgate and St. Augustine to the Carmina Burana and Petrarch. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ALC, CLAS, COLI.

MVST 3552. Medieval Philosophy. (4 Credits)

The origins of medieval philosophy. The Carolingian renaissance. Anselm. Abelard and 12th-century humanism. Philosophical currents of the 13th century; introduction of Aristotle into the University of Paris; the reaction of the Augustinian philosophers to Aristotle; Bonaventure, Aquinas and Siger of Brabant. Duns Scotus. William of Ockham and the rise of nominalism. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, OCHS, OCST, PHIL, PHMD.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

MVST 3590. Medieval Political Philosophy. (4 Credits)

An investigation of the major political theories of the Middle Ages from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West until the eve of the Protestant Reformation. Students will read the classic texts of this era from Augustine's "City of God" to Masilius of Padua's "The Defender of Peace." Special attention will be given to different theories of kingship and of the basis of political authority and the relationship between papacy and empire. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, OCHS, OCST, PHIL, PHMD.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

MVST 3700. Medicine, Magic, and Miracles: Sickness and Health in the Early Middle Ages. (4 Credits)

This course provides an introduction to the systems of learned medicine of western Europe from Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages. Using a wide range of sources, including medical texts, hagiography, liturgy, and modern scientific studies, we will explore the distinctions between medical theory and practice, the relationship of secular and ecclesiastical authorities to the compilation of medical knowledge and the fundamental question of what constitutes medicine and what does not. In addition, we will consider the changing definition of illness and health through an investigation of medieval responses to the cataclysm of the Black Death. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AHC, HIMH, HIST.

MVST 3701. Royal Saints of Medieval Europe: Politics, Liturgy and Gender. (4 Credits)

This course investigates how kings and queens became saints during the European Middle Ages, alongside broader debates about medieval notions of sanctity, gender, and power. Using varied sources including hagiography, liturgy, chronicles, and material culture, we will explore the reasons why royal saints were remembered and the ways they were venerated in the celebrations of the Church. Through a series of case studies, we will also consider the uses of royal saints as propaganda by church and secular authorities to legitimize their rule, promote ongoing Christianizing efforts, and engender zeal for the Crusades.

MVST 3800. Cloisters, Castles, and Kings: Medieval Bavaria. (4 Credits)

This course will explore medieval secular and church history as it manifested itself in the literature and culture of Bavaria. Includes a study abroad component. Spring break visit to Regensburg and Munich. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ALC, COLI, GERM, MLL.

MVST 3999. Tutorial. (3 Credits)

Independent research and readings with supervision from a faculty member.

MVST 4003. War and Peace: Just War Theory. (4 Credits)

This is a Senior values seminar, usually offered in Philosophy. It is a course in applied ethics. It will involve the application of a normative ethical theory to the moral problems associated with war. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: MVPH.

MVST 4005. The Medieval Traveler. (4 Credits)

This course follows the routes of pilgrims, crusaders, merchants, nobles, and peasants as they charted a course for lands of promise and hoped-for prosperity. In The Medieval Traveler, we will read selections from the diaries, chronicles, and historical literature written by and about travelers in the Middle Ages. We will begin and end with travelers who sought miracles, marvels, and new trading routes on the cusp of the known world. We will focus in particular on the practicalities of medieval travel, as and well as the reasons for traveling: the sacred, the profane, and everything in between. This will be an interactive class; be prepared to discuss and debate issues of interest. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ENGL, ENRJ, GLBL, HIMH, HIST, HIUL, ICC, MVLI, OCST, REST.

MVST 4006. Dante's Cosmos: Science, Theology, and Literature. (4 Credits)

This course investigates Dante's cosmos in the Divine Comedy through medieval science, theology, and poetry. Disentangling the context of the Comedy from Dante's encyclopedic culture through reading in the disciplines of his time will lead students to a deeper comprehension of the multidimensionality of Dante's universe than is possible through any singular disciplinary. The course will broaden students perception of the medieval cosmos in contrast with contemporary notions of cosmology. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMCS, COLI, ICC, ITAL, ITMA, MLL, MVTH.

MVST 4007. The Medieval Foundations of Modernity: Petrarch and the Origins of Modern Consciousness. (4 Credits)

This course retraces the foundations of modern consciousness in Petrarch's works through poetry and philosophy. Students will concentrate on Petrarch's library and philosophical works to explore the passage from a medieval to a humanist vision of the self and of the world. The interdisciplinary approach of the course will provide a deeper understanding of Petrarch's ideas on the educative role of the intellectual, the crisis of scholastic thought, and the emergence of a new perception of the self. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, ICC, ITAL, ITMA.

MVST 4008. Medieval Autobiographies. (4 Credits)

Although writing about oneself is often considered classical or modern, and autobiography was not classified as a genre until the eighteenth century, a handful of medieval clerics, monks, mystics, nobles and merchants wrote about their own lives. These autobiographical accounts, and the conventions and societies that shaped them are the topic of the course. By asking both the questions of genre, narrative voice, subjectivity and authorship usually posed by literary analysis, and the historical questions of what such sources about past authors, audiences and the societies that read and copied the lives, the goal is to understand autobiography and the sources themselves from an interdisciplinary perspective. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: HIST, ICC, MVLI.

MVST 4009. Medieval Jerusalem. (4 Credits)

What has made Jerusalem so beloved to - and the object of continual strife for – Jews, Christians, and Muslims? This course will explore the ancient and medieval history of Jerusalem, from its Jebusite inhabitants before the time of King David through Suleiman’s construction of the modern city walls in the 1540s. Students will learn to analyze a variety of literature, through which we will explore the themes of sacred space, conquest, destruction and lament, pilgrimage and religious polemic. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ICC, JSPM, JWST, MEST, OCHS, OCST, REST.

MVST 4010. Medieval Franciscans and the Dream of a Just Economy. (4 Credits)

The medieval Franciscan Order struggled continually to define what poverty meant. This definition impacted them internally, as an order dedicated to renouncing property personally and collectively, but also had implications for the world around them in their capacity as preachers, confessors, and spiritual advisers. In struggling with these questions they became, as Giacomo Todeschini called them, “professionals of poverty,” experts in discerning the true value of things and arbiters of proper economic behavior; some have even gone so far as to claim that they invented capitalism avant la lettre. While this has been strenuously (and rightly) contested, Franciscans provide a useful lens through which to examine the relationship between religion, especially activist religion, and the economy; between economic theory and its sometimes messy practice. By drawing on texts from the medieval Franciscan Order (c. 1220–1517) on a variety of economic problems (especially: trust, contracts, and the just price; theories of interest, condemnations of usury, the ethics of lending, and the obligation to restitution; concerns about consumer society and the proper uses of wealth) supplemented by secondary readings in theology and economics, this course explores the nature of ethically and religiously motivated intervention in the realm of economic activity, and the responsibilities of consumers, producers, and other economic actors to act ethically, which echo down to the present day. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMCS, COLI, HIST, ICC, PJEC, PJST, PPWD, REST, RSHR, RSTE, THEO.

MVST 4040. Exploring Medieval New York. (4 Credits)

All five boroughs of New York City bear traces of the medieval, despite having been built long after the period that corresponds with the European Middle Ages (c. 500 to c. 1500 CE) ended. This course aims to explore the medieval, broadly understood, in New York City, using the sources and methodologies of digital humanities, history, art history, and medievalism studies. In doing so, we will keep in mind several broad categories of what constitutes medieval: Medieval objects and artifacts in New York City. How did they get here? Where and when are they from? This embraces both medieval history and the collecting activities of tycoons and scholars as they decided what was medieval. How do the accumulations of cultural patrimony show the history of the city, and how are they experienced by different populations within the city today? Medieval-inspired objects and architecture. Why do “medieval” structures within the city look the way they look? From apartment buildings to houses of worship to colleges and universities to monuments, the medieval takes a particular form in New York City and has a number of not always obvious meanings. Medieval-inspired people and communities of practice. How do self-professed medieval practitioners (crafting, music, art, combat, etc.) define their relationship to the medieval? How have public literary or artistic figures interpreted the medieval in New York? New York during the Middle Ages. What did New York look like during the period that corresponds with the European Middle Ages? How did the Indigenous people who lived there experience and interact with the land that we stand on now? How can we, standing at such a distance, hope to glimpse what they might have seen? New York City through the lens of the medieval city. What can New York, arguably the archetypical modern megalopolis, tell us about medieval cities, and vice versa? How can we use comparison with a medieval city to shed light on urban life more broadly? Students will participate in the Medieval New York project sponsored by Fordham’s Center for Medieval Studies. This project aims to investigate these issues and to craft walking itineraries around the city, showcasing these sites and ideas through the use of audio guides and multimedia materials for a broad public audience. By the end of this project, in addition to talking through these issues, students will collaboratively craft an itinerary of Fordham’s Rose Hill campus and its surroundings, and lead a walk-through of the itinerary open to members of the community. The itinerary and related materials will be featured on the project’s site at medievalny.ace.fordham.edu.

Attributes: ACUP, AMST, ASHS, HIST, ICC, PPWD, URST.

MVST 4100. Modern Sounds, Early Music. (4 Credits)

Medieval and Renaissance music's fragmentary survival has inspired scholars, performers, composers, and artists to realize what remains according to varying creative urges and ideological preoccupations. This course examines the cultures of early music as well as their living legacies. Studying musical traditions from 1000 to 1600, we build a technical vocabulary for discussing music and seek to understand how historical change affects aesthetics, music-making, and listening from 1000 to the present. We also study the reception of medieval music—how it has been rejected, restored, recreated, and reimagined—to consider how "the medieval" is historically produced. No prior musical experience is required. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: MVAM.

MVST 4301. Jews and Christians in Antiquity. (4 Credits)

In this seminar, we will discuss the emergence of Christianity from its Jewish matrix, as well as the coexistence of Jews and Christians in classical and late antiquity. We will examine change and diversity within these two religions, as well as their interactions and rhetorical depictions of one another. While the seminar has a strong historical and diachronic component, its main focus will lie on the question of religious otherness within a confined geographic and intellectual space, as well as on related issues of racial, ethnic, linguistic, and geo-cultural diversity. Thus, in addition to acquiring knowledge about an important topic in a formative period of religious history, students will gain insight into the processes whereby religious difference is articulated and religious identity is shaped. The first goal of the course is to familiarize students, through the study of key texts and events, with the main landmarks in the history of coexistence between Christians and Jews over the long late antiquity. The second goal of the class is to allow students to acquire or consolidate skills in pursuing independent research. The third goal of the course is to increase students’ ability to examine critically diverging historiographic perspectives and to analyze, explain, and historically contextualize primary sources. This course fulfills the History, Culture, and Society advanced seminar requirement and the Ancient/Medieval period requirement for the theology religious studies major and minor. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: THAM, THHC.

MVST 4654. Medieval London. (0 to 4 Credits)

This course draws on material and documentary sources to explore the townscape of medieval London-its wards, streets, and buildings- and the social life of its people, including their daily routines, work, and rituals. We will examine such documentary sources as chronicles, charters, and wills, along with material evidence from human skeletons, excavated houses and churches, coins pottery and clothing.

Attributes: HIMH, HIST, ICC.

MVST 4997. Medieval Studies Honors Thesis Tutorial. (4 Credits)

The honors thesis can be completed during the fall or spring semester of a student's senior year. To qualify, students must have at least a 3.0 GPA in the medieval studies major at the time of application. Students able to pursue an honors thesis option through their double major must make a compelling case for why they wish to pursue the thesis under medieval studies. If approved to write a thesis, the student registers for MVST 4997, a four-credit Medieval Studies Honors Thesis Tutorial. This course counts for credit toward the medieval studies major as an elective and will not replace a major requirement. Faculty advisors will be provided with a design and grading rubric. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 4998. Study Tour: Medieval Spain. (4 Credits)

One of the great medieval pilgrimage routes, the Camino de Santiago crosses northern Spain from the passes of the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela. This study-tour will consider the legends of the Camino, some of its many surviving monuments, and the modern revival of the pilgrimage by walking for two weeks with the peregrinos/-as from Leon to Santiago de Compostela. This class will meet periodically at Fordham before the walk to discuss reading assignments and prepare. A journal is required at the end of the course. Fees and travel costs not included. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: HIMH, HIST, HIUL, ICC, LALS, LAUH.

MVST 4999. Tutorial. (4 Credits)

Independent research and readings with supervision from a faculty member.

MVST 5031. Byzantium, Islam and the West. (4 Credits)

This course is a seminar specifically designed around an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art opening in March 2012. Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th century). The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to study not only the impact on the visual arts of the interaction of the Byzantine and Islamic cultures at this critical historical period, but also to examine the art of architecture of Carolingian France and Visigothic Spain from this perspective. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5050. World of Late Antiquity: Introduction to History, Art, and Culture. (4 Credits)

This course offers an introduction to the history, art and culture of the Late Antique world from the third to the sixth century. We will explore the older narratives of decline in this period alongside powerful alternatives proposed by scholars more recently, drawing on both primary sources and monuments and critically examining the secondary literature that studies them. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: CLAS.

MVST 5064. The Divine Comedy: Poetry, Theology, and the Medieval Imagination. (4 Credits)

This seminar offers an in-depth study of the poetic and theological imagination of Dante’s Divine Comedy. We will combine close reading of selected cantos with primary and secondary works illuminating key aspects of Dante’s literary and theological invention. Issues will be discussed within the historical and ideological contexts of the relevant theological and poetic debates in Dante's time. We will consider Dante’s theological influences, such as Augustine, Boethius, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Bonaventure, and explore theological topics such as medieval Christian practices of pilgrimage, scholastic debates about atonement and the afterlife, cosmology, and the relationship between erotic love and divine union in Christian mystical theology. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5070. Manuscript Culture. (4 Credits)

Introduction to principles, materials, and study of medieval manuscripts and primary documents as well as to problems of evaluation of the cultural contexts of their production and use. Ancillary topics will include manuscript illumination, the resources of codicology and paleography, the preparation and evaluation of modern editions, the assessment of readership and patronage, material philogy and the materialism of the middle ages, the development of libraries. Students will do hands-on work with primary sources at the Morgan Library, the rare book collection of the New York Public Library, and the rare books and manuscripts collection in Walsh Library. Final projects will be tailored to the students' primary research areas and expertise. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5071. Sources, Archives, and Materials for Medievalists. (4 Credits)

This course will introduce students to many of the most important sources for the study of the medieval world. Drawing on the diversity of expertise among Fordham’s faculty and the rich resources of New York City, the course will introduce students to a variety of handwritten sources (including manuscripts and other documents), as well as coins and seals, and the specialized skills used to understand and interpret these sources. The course will also feature discussions of the processes whereby libraries and archives were developed and maintained, and how scholars use these sources in the digital era. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5076. Digital Humanities for Premodern Scholars. (4 Credits)

This course explores the use of digital tools and platforms in scholarship related to the premodern world. The class will read a variety of approaches and theories concerning the rise of Digital Humanities and its applications for the study of premodernity. Students will receive training in the creation of datasets for digital processing and in several platforms currently in use by Fordham. Many classes will meet in the LITE (Technology and Innovation) Learning Commons in Walsh Library. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5077. Editing Medieval Texts. (4 Credits)

This is a course in the theory and practice of editing, especially as it relates to medieval texts, with most of the examples coming from Middle English. We'll give attention to documentary, historical, and aesthetic approaches, and we will spend som etime exploring digital methods and concerns. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: ENGL.

MVST 5078. Medvl Books & Materials. (4 Credits)

Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5080. Interdisciplinary London: Medieval Manuscripts, Sources, Methods. (4 Credits)

An introduction to methodologies in Medieval studies through a focus on the primary sources and material culture of medieval London. The course will center on how an interdisciplinary approach that draws on a range of sources (textual, visual, and material) and methods (employed in archaeology, digital humanities, history, literary studies, and paleography/codicology) can enrich our understanding of one medieval place and its people. Training in paleography is an important element of the course. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: HIST, MVSG.

MVST 5095. Medieval Pilgrimage. (4 Credits)

Pilgrimage will be conceptualized broadly, entertaining a variety of aims for travel and also considering the pilgrimage form as a purely conceptual exercise as well as a journey with more practical aims. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ENG1, ENME.

MVST 5100. Cultures of Music and Sound in the Medieval World. (4 Credits)

Music and Sound enriched every facet of pre-modern life, liturgy and ritual above all. This interdisciplinary seminar introduces medievalists - especially those without formal musical education- to the cultures of medieval and Renaissance music. It should enable students from any discipline to engage music and the sonic more fully in their research and teaching. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5101. Modern Sounds, Early Music. (3 Credits)

MVST 5102. Theorizing Medieval Sound: Medieval Sonic Worlds. (4 Credits)

In this interdisciplinary seminar, we read widely and listen actively to the texts, musics, and objects of the European Middle Ages to find out just how closely we can come to encountering medieval sonic worlds. Using an electric array of primary, secondary, and theoretical works, we study medieval sound cultures and the production of sonorous meanings for medieval listeners in all their complexity. At the same time, we investigate how open-minded engagement with the sonorous Middle Ages can challenge us to rethink prevailing popular and scholarly attitudes towards the body, the senses, media, and the past.

MVST 5103. Reading Richard Rolle's World. (4 Credits)

Richard Rolle of Hampole was perhaps the most influential and widely read English author of the late Middle Ages. Exceeded in testamentary bequests only by biblical and liturgical books, Rolle’s writings exercised immense influence over the literary, mystical, and devotional cultures of late medieval and early modern England. The hermit penned meditations on Christ’s passion, lyrics that would shape devotional poetry for a generation, popular books of instruction for female religious, an English translation and commentary on the Psalter, and experimental Latin prose works teetering on alliterative chaos. His corpus captures the devotional spirit of 14th-century England. In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will survey Rolle’s writings and explore their literary, theological, affective, hermeneutic, and theoretical innovations. We will also glance backward at the sources from which Rolle draws, and forward to his impact on future authors of spiritual literature. Rollean texts may include Melos amoris, Incendium amoris, English Psalter, Meditations on the Passion, Ego Dormio, and devotional lyrics; readings may also include selections from Bernard’s Sermons on the Song of Songs, the Wooing Group, Cloud of Unknowing, Of Angels' Song, Book of Margery Kempe, Middle English lyrics, biblical plays from York and Chester, and late medieval songs. No prior experience with Middle English or Latin is required. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5201. The Renaissance of the 12Th Ce. (4 Credits)

This graduate seminar explores the religious, intellectual, literary, and cultural contours of the "long" 12th Century with equal weight given to the diversity of medieval sources that survive and to modern historiographic interpreptations. The class will include visits to the Coisters musuem and to the Morgan library. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5202. Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders. (4 Credits)

Taught in conjunction with an exhibition of medical manuscripts ad the Morgan Library & Museum, this course examines the vital role played by monsters in medieval art and culture. The course is taught by the curators will include gallery visits and meetings at the Morgan and will involve original research and work on an online exhibition.

MVST 5205. Court Culture Med Iberia. (4 Credits)

This course will explore the cultural, social, political and religious tensions that helped to form medieval Iberian courtly communities from the 10th to the 15th centuries. The unique situation of Iberia during this period , when the centralization and consolidation of sovereignty occured in different religious and cultural contexts (Islamic and Christian) and political territories (Castile, Aragon) allows for a diverse, rich and contrasted analysis of medieval court culture. Our approach will be multidisciplinary and include literary texts, artistic manifestations, legal codes, religious writings, and chronicles. Among the courts to be studied will be the Omeyan court of the 10th century Cordoba, the Muslim kingdoms of 11th century Granada and Zaragoza, the Christian courts of Alfonso X of Castile and Jaume I of Aragon, and the late medieval court of Isabella Ferdinand. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5300. Occitania: Language and Power. (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the cultural world of a medieval “south”: Occitania. Texts in Old Occitan include documentary writing, historical narrative, and the poetry of the troubadours. Topics include urban/rural communities, gender and power, the Albigensian crusade and its aftermath and the beginning of vernacular book production.

Attributes: ENG1, ENME.

MVST 5305. Writing East: Outremer and Identity in the Middle Ages. (4 Credits)

As the stage for the central events of the Gospel narrative, the lands of the eastern shore of the Mediterranean long occupied a central place in the collective imagination of Latin western Europe. Over the course of the Middle Ages, however, increasingly frequent encounters resulting from trade, pilgrimage, and crusade not only enriched the European image of the East, but vastly enhanced the significance to how medieval Christians approached the eastern Other. This course will trace the rise of a discourse of differences centered in what was called in England and France, "Outremer," the land beyond the sea. Together with medieval literary productions, histories, letters and travel narratives, we will read works from the growing body of scholarship on this important topic. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ENG1, ENME.

MVST 5310. Chivalric Romance. (4 Credits)

This seminar will look at the genre of the chivalric romance at the intersection of different vernacular traditions and genres. What happens to Chretien de Troyes' classics when they are adapted to the language and culture of another country? And how does the romance relate to the chanson de geste, the saint's life, the lai, or the fabliau? What if the protagonist is not a knight but rather a woman? Or a peasant? A Saracen? A pope? Or a combination of some of the above? The goal of this seminar will be to provide an overview of the wide range of romance themes and adaptations in Europe, including their reception to the present day. Students are expected to read and a well-annotated Middle English romance in the original. All other texts can be prepared in translation, while some of the class time will be dedicated to closely reading some crucial passages in the original Latin, Old French, and Middle High German. Open to seniors with a G.P.A. of 3.0 or better. Please consult your advisor.

MVST 5311. Arthurian Literature. (4 Credits)

This seminar will provide an overview of Arthurian romance themes and adaptations in Europe. Chrétien de Troyes may not have written the very first chivalric romance, but he was the pioneer who defined the genre and created the texts which would set the standard for centuries to come. The central role which Chrétien’s œuvre occupied in the French-speaking world is reflected in a wave of adaptations into many other vernacular languages, set off almost instantly and covering all of medieval Europe. In this class, we will focus on three literary traditions: the Yvain, Tristan, and Perceval stories in their early Old French versions as well as their Middle High German, Middle English, and Old Norse adaptations. The degree to which these translations try to recreate their sources’ original content varies greatly and is determined by a nexus of cultural, political, and social factors which we will examine in some detail. Students are expected to read the Middle English versions in well-annotated editions. All other texts can be prepared in English translation while some of the class time will be dedicated to closely reading some crucial passages in the original vernacular languages. Additional texts in other languages (Italian, Latin), in post-medieval renditions (e.g., T.S. Eliot’s "Wasteland" or Richard Wagner’s "Parsifal"), other media (films, opera, musicals), and material culture (frescoes, tapestries, book illuminations, etc) will be determined based on the interest of the seminar participants. In addition, we will make use of the rich resources New York City has to offer and explore some of the spectacular Arthurian artifacts housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters, and the J. P. Morgan Museum and Library—online if necessary, on site if possible. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5350. Holy Grails: Medieval, Modern, and Digital. (4 Credits)

This seminar explores the medieval Grail legend via a disciplinary triangulation of literary criticism, medievalism, and data science. No knowledge of Old French or programming required. Participants will learn several tools of data science to ask new questions of a vast medieval corpus, which has resonated throughout the centuries. Topics will include: metalepsis and narrative structure; manuscript illuminations; text as data; manuscript image classification; and medievalist rewritings. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5400. Courtly Culture. (4 Credits)

Courts, as spaces of political power, intellectual activity, and social influence, have long been a focus of both scholarly inquiry and the popular presentation of the medieval world. Courts across medieval Afro-Eurasia shared literary traditions and cultural forms, exchanging and adapting songs, stories, objects, fashions, and ideas. This course will address some of the central themes of scholarly inquiry into courtly culture including the phenomenon of courtly love, debates about the “civilizing process” of courtly manners, and the evolution and diffusion of courtly themes and literary forms. The course will also evaluate the potential for the study of courtly culture to reshape the field of medieval studies and the wider understanding of the Middle Ages as interconnected, diverse, and truly global. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5570. Medieval Crusades. (4 Credits)

This course adopts an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the medieval crusades in the Levant, southern France, Iberia, and the Baltic, with attention paid to the Islamic and Byzantine perspectives. The sources to be discussed include chronicles, charters, sermons, literary texts, songs, and hagiography, as well as architectural and artistic monuments and objects. Among the themes to be treated are crusader motivations, crusades and memory, European 'colonization', women and family in crusading society, crusading liturgies, the military orders, and diplomacy. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5707. Meditation, Contemplation, and the Spriritual Senses. (4 Credits)

The late Middle Ages saw an astonishing proliferation of texts, practices, and styles of devotion seeking to draw human beings closer to God through the body. New emphasis on Christ's humanity and Aristotelian natural philosophy prompted the rediscovery of the five corporeal senses and their cognitive processes in devotional literature. In this course, we will examine the languages, knowledges, desires, and anxieties surrounding the senses in a diverse corpus of texts, probing them for their theological import as much as for their literary design. Major authors: Aristotle, Augustine, Origen, Hugh of St. Victor, Bonaventure, Richard Rolle, Chaucer, Margery Kempe, Meditationes Vitae Christi. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ENG1, ENME.

MVST 5708. Struggling Toward God: Meditation and Prayer in the 11th- and 12th-Century Monastery. (4 Credits)

This course explores the dimensions of medieval monastic contemplation in the heyday of Benedictine and Cistercian spiritual writing, the 11th and 12th centuries. The course will aim to answer the following questions: What did extra-liturgical prayer and meditation look like for medieval monks and nuns? When, where, and how was it practiced? Was there a set way to engage with monastic meditation, or were there a variety of medieval monastic meditative experiences in the 11th and 12th centuries? What did monks and nuns perceive as the limitations of monastic prayer and meditation? What extra-textual tools did monks and nuns rely upon to stimulate their practices of meditation? And what does monastic meditation reveal about the emotional lives of Benedictine and Cistercian monks and nuns in the high Middle Ages? Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 6209. Themes in Preconquest Lit. (4 Credits)

This course is an advanced-level seminar on the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England. We will read (in Old English) texts including poetry, homilies, saints' lives, and chronicles. Substantial attention will also be given to Anglo-Saxon palaeography and relevant critical literature, with the aim of providing students with the resources needed for the scholarly study of OE. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 6225. Old French in the Medieval World: Language Contact, Conquest, and Difference. (4 Credits)

This interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to the cultural history of French language and literature during the Middle Ages. Before it was the national language of France, French was a language of empires in England, Italy, Cyprus, and Greece; a tongue of invaders and reformers; and an idiom spread by immigrants, scholars, merchants, sailors, artisans, poets, and romancers. We will explore the diversity of old French, its connections to political power and ideologies, its manuscript contexts, and its contact with other medieval languages and works of literature, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, old English, middle Welsh, and old Occitan. In addition to interdisciplinary seminar topics and readings, weekly language instruction and fully supported readings from Chrétien de Troyes's "Story of the Grail" will allow students to gain competence in a primary language for research at the graduate level in several disciplines and perhaps the key to eternal life. Previous experience of old French is not expected; basic reading or speaking of modern French is not required but may be helpful; experience with other older languages is welcome.

Attribute: ENG1.

MVST 6232. Fr of Eng: Doc & Lit Cult. (4 Credits)

This course focuses on law, mercantile, medical and other forms of documentary and civic texts in the French of England, as well as literary texts, both the well-known and the under-researched: texts with Middle English versions will be included wherever possible. For newcomers to the subject, a linguistic practicum, which should be regarded as obligatory, is offered in the hour preceding the class meeting: some knowledge of modern French is a must. Some linguistic work together with seminar student presentations and discussion takes place in each class. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 6700. Medieval Scholasticism. (4 Credits)

This interdisciplinary graduate course will provide an introduction to the history, theology, and philosophy of the Scholastic movement in the High Middle Ages. Topics to be considered include: the economic, social, political, religious, and educational transitions that together constitute the "renaissance of the twelfth century"; the rise of open urban schools and the development of the university; and characteristic modes of thought and discourse in scholastic theology and philosophy. Thinkers to be examined include Anselm of Canterbury, Hugh and Richard of St. Victor, Peter Abelard, the shcool of Laon, Peter Lombard, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 8100. Internship for Medievalists. (1 Credit)

This is the obligatory tutorial to be taken in conjuction with any inernship taken at libraries, museums, or other institutions of professional interst to medievalists. The student will meet with the instructor regularly to reflect on their intership experience and document their work in an appropriate format (journal, blog etc)

MVST 8500. Independent Research. (1 to 4 Credits)

MVST 8501. Independent Research. (1 Credit)

MVST 8999. Tutorial. (0 to 4 Credits)

MVST MTNC. Maintenance-Medieval. (0 Credits)

Maintenance matriculation.