2:30-3:45P     TR     BH137

We tend to assume that when we say the word history or we refer to
historical writing, everyone knows what we mean.  But when we look at
histories written in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, we find that
they are entirely different from what we expect.  This course will
examine some significant histories written in the Middle Ages, with an
eye to
understanding what medieval historians thought they were doing and
trying to understand how and why their conceptions of history were
different from our own.

We will read (among other things):
Eutropius, Short History of Rome (Breviarium)
Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks
The Lives of the Popes
William of Malmesbury, Chronicle of the Kings of Britain
Jocelyn of Brakelond, The Chronicle of Bury St. Edmund's
The Chronicle of San Juan de la Pena: A Fourteenth-Century Official
History of the Crown of Aragon
Froissart, Chronicles
Villani, Chronicle of Florence

This course carries writing-intensive credit, so students will write
five 4-5 page essays during the course of the semester and a paper,
which each student will present to the class. There are no exams in
this class.