History 202: The Age of Cathedrals: European Thought and Culture, 1100-1350

Europe’s Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals are not simply important architectural achievements but the products of a complex nexus of intellectual and social developments during the High Middle Ages. This course explores the intellectual history of the period that produced these buildings, including “high culture” (philosophy, theology, and science), as well as vernacular literature and oral traditions. Broader cultural issues such as the rise of literacy, the development of lay piety and heretical religious movements, and the origins of universities will also be considered. Readings will include the thought of such philosophers as Anselm and Thomas Aquinas, as well as examples of Arthurian romance, Norse sagas and literary monuments like Dante’s Divine Comedy.