MDVL 502b / CPLT 582b / ENGL 6545b / FREN 802b, Chaucer and Translation  Ardis Butterfield

An exploration of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1340–1400), brilliant writer and translator. Using modern postcolonial as well as medieval theories of translation, memory, and bilingualism, we investigate how texts in French, Latin, and Italian are transformed, cited, and reinvented in his writings. Some key questions include: What happens to language under the pressure of crosslingual reading practices? What happens to the notion of translation in a multilingual culture? How are ideas of literary history affected by understanding Chaucer’s English in relation to the other more prestigious language worlds in which his poetry was enmeshed? Texts include material in French, Middle English, Latin, and Italian. Proficiency in any one or more of these languages is welcome, but every effort is made to use texts available in modern English translation, so as to include as wide a participation as possible in the course. Formerly ENGL 545.
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

MDVL 526a / MUSI 526a, Theorizing Musical Time in the Medieval Islamicate World  Giulia Accornero

This class is an introduction to medieval Islamicate music theory, with a particular focus on the theorization of musical time, motion, and rhythmic patterns as proposed by polymath Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī. After a deep dive in al-Fārābī's music theory, we survey rhythmic theories and diagrams by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and al-Urmawī. While focusing on music theory, we also learn about music performance in the Abbasid caliphate, the “translation movement” and the integration of Greek music theory (with a focus on Aristoxenus) and philosophy, and discuss historiographical issues. Prerequisite: Basic music theoretical knowledge and/or knowledge of medieval Islamicate culture/philosophy is expected.
Th 9:25am-11:15am

MDVL 537a / HIST 534a, Medieval Political History  Paul Freedman

A reading and discussion course that concerns the nature of political power in Europe between approximately 1000 and 1500. Particular attention is paid to the development of state institutions, dynastic and territorial rivalries, the European balance of power, and the interaction of church and state.
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

MDVL 571a / CLSS 601a, Introduction to Latin Paleography  Agnieszka Rec

Latin paleography from the fourth century CE to ca. 1500. Topics include the history and development of national hands; the introduction and evolution of Caroline minuscule, pre-gothic, gothic, and humanist scripts (both cursive and book hands); the production, circulation, and transmission of texts (primarily Latin, with reference to Greek and Middle English); advances in the technical analysis and digital manipulation of manuscripts. Seminars are based on the examination of codices and fragments in the Beinecke Library; students select a manuscript for class presentation and final paper.
T 3:30pm-5:20pm

MDVL 593b / HSAR 593b, The Body in Medieval Art  Jacqueline Jung

This seminar explores the manifold approaches to the human body in the art and culture of medieval Europe (from ca. 500–ca. 1500 CE, though with an emphasis on the later end of the period). Through close consideration of works in various media—mediated to us through readings, digital images/renderings, and at least one excursion to a museum—we consider both the role represented bodies played in the social life and religious imagination of medieval communities and the implications such representations had for beholders’ sense of their own embodied status. Reading knowledge of French and German is highly recommended but not required.
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

MDVL 596a / HIST 596a / JDST 761a / RLST 773a, Jews and the World: From the Bible through Early Modern Times  Ivan Marcus

A broad introduction to the history of the Jews from biblical beginnings until the European Reformation and the Ottoman Empire. Focus on the formative period of classical rabbinic Judaism and on the symbiotic relationships among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Jewish society and culture in its biblical, rabbinic, and medieval settings.
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

MDVL 613b, Medieval Latin: Medieval Mystics from Bernard of Clairvaux to Thomas à Kempis  John Dillon

This reading course in Medieval Latin is intended to help students improve their command of Latin through working directly with medieval texts. We read selections from major mystics of the Middle Ages, including works by Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias (ca. 1151/1152), the thirteenth-century Latin translation of Mechthild of Magdeburg’s Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (Lux divinitatis fluens, ca. 1250–80), and Thomas à Kempis’s Imitatio Christi (Imitation of Christ, ca. 1418–27). Prerequisite: one year of formal study of Latin, equivalent to LATN 110 and LATN 120 or LATN 125.
TTh 10am-11:20am

MDVL 619a / CPLT 552a / NELC 619a, The Medieval Court  Shawkat Toorawa

What are the features of the medieval court? To answer this, we look at courts in Western Europe, Byzantium, the Islamic world, and East Asia to learn about courtly culture, court poetry, and court society. Readings include van Berkel et al., Crisis and Continuity in the Caliphate of al-Muqtadir; Castiglione, Book of the Courtier; Duinden, Vienna and Versailles; Elias, The Court Society; Maguire, Byzantine Court Culture; Miner, Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry; al-Washshā, al-Muwashshā. Knowledge of French desirable.
HTBA

MDVL 663a, From House Churches to Medieval Cathedrals: Christian Art and Architecture to the End of Gothic  Orgu Dalgic

This course examines the art associated with, or related to, Christianity from its origins to the end of Gothic. It analyzes major artistic monuments and movements in a variety of regions, paying particular attention to how art shapes and is shaped by the social and historical circumstances of the period and culture. The class considers art in diverse media, focusing on painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts. Trips to the Yale Art Gallery and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library are included. The course aims to familiarize students with key monuments of Christian architecture, sculpture, painting, and related arts, analyzing each within its particular sociocultural and theological perspective. The course stresses the importance of looking at works of art closely and in context and encourages students to develop skills of close observation and critical visual analysis. Additionally, students are encouraged to examine the ways parallel developments in Christian theology, dogma, and liturgy are influenced by art. Prerequisites: basic knowledge of Christian history and familiarity with the Bible.
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

MDVL 665a / ENGL 500a / LING 500a, Old English I  Emily Thornbury

The essentials of the language, some prose readings, and close study of several celebrated Old English poems.
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

MDVL 666b / ENGL 6501b, Old English II  Emily Thornbury

Readings in a variety of pre-Conquest vernacular genres, varying regularly, with supplementary reading in current scholarship. Current topic: Old English devotional literature, especially poetry; our readings explore early medieval strategies for cultivating emotion and understanding. Formerly ENGL 502.
M 9:25am-11:15am

MDVL 668a, The Gawain Poet  Jessica Brantley

The course offers a contextual study of four of the greatest (and most enigmatic) Middle English poems—Pearl, Patience, Cleanness, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. At its center is British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x, the single medieval book that contains them all. In addition to reading the poems closely in their manuscript context, we examine associated artworks, from the twelve illustrations in the Cotton MS that constitute a medieval reading of the poems, to St. Erkenwald, a poem preserved elsewhere that some argue was written by the same author. Finally, we think about the modern reception of the poems through a serious engagement with scholarly debate surrounding them, and also through comparative work with translations.
T 9:25am-11:15am

MDVL 756a, The Cult of Mary: Early Christian and Byzantine Art  Felicity Harley and Vasileios Marinis

This course examines the origins and development of the veneration of Mary as the Mother of God, focusing specifically on the treatment of Mary in the visual and material culture of early Christianity and Byzantium. Its aim is to introduce students to key points in the history of the cult through the close study of images preserved on a range of objects in different media (including frescoes, glassware, sculpture, coins, textiles, mosaic), made for a variety of purposes. This visual material is analyzed in conjunction with relevant literary, theological, and liturgical evidence for the development of the cult. It is designed as a seminar for students who have interest or background in the material, textual, and religious culture of early Christianity.
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

MDVL 802a / NELC 632a, The Islamic Near East from Muhammad to the Mongol Invasion  Kevin van Bladel

The shaping of society and polity from the rise of Islam to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258. The origins of Islamic society; conquests and social and political assimilation under the Umayyads and Abbasids; the changing nature of political legitimacy and sovereignty under the caliphate; provincial decentralization and new sources of social and religious power.
MW 1pm-2:15pm

MDVL 992a, Art and Ritual at Mount Sinai—Travel Seminar  Vasileios Marinis and Robert Nelson

This course looks at art and ecclesiastical and pilgrimage rituals at the monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai. Founded by Emperor Justinian on a site already venerated by Christians as the place where, supposedly, Moses encountered the Burning Bush, the monastery is one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian communities in the world. Its holdings of icons have no parallel and offer the opportunity to study Christian imagery in the context of both devotional use and corporate rituals, if not place of origin. This course introduces various aspects of Orthodox liturgy and religious pilgrimage relevant to the explication of the surviving church arts at the monastery and the surrounding area.
T 1:30pm-3:20pm