This course examines the impact of the Black Death (1348-1350) on Italy, with particular attention to the demographic, social, economic, intellectual, legal, and gender consequences of this terrible pandemic. Beginning with an introduction to the medical knowledge and practice of the period, the course examines Italian, and Sienese in particular, society in the years immediately before and after the plague to discover how it changed the lives of the survivors. The class analyzes economic shifts, legal changes in society and how jurists interpreted them, the role of women and their newly-gained wealth, changes in literature and art, improvements (or lack thereof) in agriculture and wages, and political rebellions. This course has two main, interrelated objectives: to give students familiarity with the main political, cultural, religious, and socio-economic features of life in medieval Italy, and to help students acquire a more critical and analytical approach to history in general, through the investigation of primary sources and the different ways in which historians have employed sources to construct historical interpretation.
Attendance policy:
Successful progress of the program depends on the full cooperation of both students and faculty members: regular attendance and active participation in class are essential parts of the learning process. Attendance at and participation in all class meetings and field-studies are required. More than TWO unjustified absences (that are not medically excused with a written certificate of the doctor or caused by serious sudden family and/or personal occurrences, as for example death of a family member) will result in a lowering of your grade.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students are able to:
Acquire a more critical and analytical approach to history in general;
Analyze the historical, political and social context of Italy and Europe in the Middle Ages;
Investigate the primary sources for the study of history;
Recognize the lack of scientific approach to medicine’s studies in the Middle Ages
Method of presentation:
In-class lectures, discussions, field-studies and guided visits to museums, monuments and archives. Lectures include PowerPoint projections and other visual materials.
Required work and form of assessment:
Active class participation and class discussions (15%); final 7-10 page research paper (35%); written midterm exam (25%); written final exam (25%).
The paper will consist of 7-10 double-spaced pages on a topic chosen by the student or suggested by the instructor. The midterm and the final exams are a comprehensive in-class written test with short essay-style answers, of two hours each. The final exam also includes a short essay on a topic to be picked from a given list.
content:
Lesson 1: Introduction and presentation of the course.
Lesson 2: Introduction to the “atmosphere” of Italian Middle Ages (projection of a movie).
Lesson 3: Medical knowledge concerning the plague in the Middle Ages: the Greek treatises.
R. French, Medicine before Science
Lesson 4: The Scuola Salernitana [School of Salerno]; practical cures for the disease.
Garcîa-Ballester, Practical Medicine
Lesson 5: General introduction to medieval Mediterranean trade; the ‘mare nostrum,’ the communities facing the sea; commercial contacts and their development; the arrival of the bacillus Yersinia pestis.
O. Benedictow, The Black Death
O. Constable, Housing the Stranger, pp. 201-233
Lesson 6: The rise of the Communes (XII-XIII centuries): conquest of the contado by the Italian towns; political organization of the communes and the relation between rural nobles and city dwellers.
J. Larner, Italy in the Age, pp. 106-179
Lesson 7: The birth of a new political class; the town as a center of artisan production and exchange of goods.
J. Larner, Italy in the Age, pp. 183-210
Lesson 8: Europe in the first half of the 14th century. The growth of population and famines: social consequences of massive population movements from the countryside to the cities; urban organization and health problems; economic crises before the plague.
Luttrell, The Crusade
W. Bowsky, The Impact
Lesson 9: The spread of the plague in the countryside and in the city: flight from the cities; initial measures to contain disease by health officials, medical remedies.
Carmichael, Plague and the Poor, pp.10-26
R. Gottfried, The Black Death, pp. 104-128
Lesson 10: The ‘description’ of the plague: Boccaccio’s Decameron and the chroniclers.
G. Boccaccio, Decameron
Lesson 11: Field study: guided visit to the State Archives of Siena.
Lesson 12: Midterm exam
Lesson 13: The ‘description’ of the plague in art.
Lesson 14: Field study: guided visit to the dungeons of the ancient Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala.
Lesson 15: Consequences of the plague: social and economic changes; the roles of women.
G. Brucker, Giovanni and Lusanna
C. Lansing, Concubines
Lesson 16: Subsequent plagues and famines: Tuscan political reorganization and the supremacy of Florence; conflicts for regional control and the role of Tuscany in the making of new ‘signorie’ in northern and central Italy.
M. Becker, Florence in Transition
S. Cohn, The Black Death Transformed, pp. 83-95 and 189-219
Lesson 17: Political reorganization in the city, and the opening of government to the lower classes.
A. Carmichael, Plague and Poor, pp. 90-126
G. Brucker, The Florentine popolo minuto
Lesson 18: Economic and social changes: the wool industry and its decline.
M. Becker, Florentine Essays, pp. 160-194
Lesson 19: Social crises in the end of the 14th century: new difficult realities; urban social revolts.
J. Brackett, The Florentine Criminal, pp. 293-314
Lesson 20: Humanism and its new role in literature; the opening of the new century and the role of Italy in European politics.
Brown, The Renaissance
M. Becker, Florentine Essays, pp. 195-228
Lesson 21: What happened after the Black Death? Conclusions.
G. Chittolini, Cities, City-States and…
Lesson 22: Final exam
Required readings:
All the required excerpts (in English) are available in the course packet. The instructor is happy to suggest additional readings (both in English and Italian). Further sources, including archival ones, as well as documents and translations — when needed — are given to students for reading before class.
Becker, Marvin. Florence in Transition. 2: Studies in the Rise of the Territorial State. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1968.
---. Florentine Essays: Selected Writings of Marvin B. Becker Collected by James Banker and Carol Lansing. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Benedictow, Ole J. The Black Death, 1346-1353: The Complete History. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2004.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Decameron translated by G.H. McWilliam. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1955.
Bowsky, William M. The Impact of the Black Death upon Sienese Government and Society. “Speculum” XXXIX (1964), pp. 1-34.
Brackett, John K. “The Florentine Criminal Underworld: The Underside of the Renaissance,” in W. Connell (ed.) Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2002.
Brown, Alison. The Renaissance. London and New York: Longman, 1988.
Brucker, Gene. Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley-Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1986.
---. “The Florentine Popolo Minuto and its Political Role, 1340-1450”, in L. Martines (eds.), Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities 1200-1500. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: 1972.
Carmichael, Ann G. Plague and the Poor in Renaissance Florence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Chittolini, G. Cities, City-States and Regional States in Northern Central Italy.
Cohn, Samuel K. Jr. Death and Property in Siena, 1205-1800: Strategies for the Afterlife. Baltimore-London: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1988.
---. The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe. London, Arnold, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
French, Roger. Medicine Before Science. The Business of Medicine from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
--- et al. Medicine from the Black Death to the French Disease. Aldershot-Brooksfield USA-Singapore- Sydney: Ashgate, 1988.
Garcîa-Ballester, L. et al. (eds.), Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Gottfried, R. The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe. London: Robert Hale, 1983.
Jackson, Ph. and Nevola, F. Beyond the Palio: Urbanism and Ritual in Renaissance Siena in Renaissance Studies
Lansing, Carol. Concubines, Lovers, Prostitutes. Infamy and Female Identity in Medieval Bologna in P. Findlen et al. (eds.), Beyond Florence. The Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
Larner, John. Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch 1216-1380. London and New York: Longman, 1980.
Luttrell, Anthony. The Crusade in the Fourteenth Century in J.R. Hale et al. (eds.), Europe in the Late Middle Ages. London: Faber and Faber, 1965.
Recommended readings:
Balard, M. Genuensis Civitas in extremo Europae: Caffa from the Fourteenth to the Fifteenth Century in D. Abulafia and N. Berend (eds.) Medieval Frontiers: Concept and Practices. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002.
Bowsky, William M. A Medieval Italian Commune. Siena under the Nine, 1287-1355. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 1981.
Dean, Trevor. The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2000.
Green, Monica H., Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval West, Arizona State University: Ashgate Publishing, 2000.
Herlihy, David [ed.] and Cohn, Samuel K. The Black Death and the Transformation of the West. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Hyde, J. K. “Contemporary Views on Faction and Civil Strife in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-century
Italy,” in L. Martines (ed.), Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities 1200-1500. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: 1972.
Meiss, Millard. Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death. The Arts, Religion and Society in the Mid-Fourteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
Nicholas, David. The Later Medieval City 1300-1500. London and New York: Longman, 1997.
Siraisi, Nancy. Medicine and the Italian Universities 1250-1600. Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill, 2001.
For students who can read Italian:
Piccinni, Gabriella. Il Medioevo. Milano: Mondadori B., 2004.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Giovanni Mazzini earned a honours degree in Medieval History, and a doctoral degree in Institutions and Archives at the University of Siena. He is a lecturer and a consultant in several academic conferences, events, seminars, congresses, exhibitions on Medieval and Renaissance History; published articles and essays on the political and military aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Siena, focusing on the Ghibelline period of Tuscany (half of the XIII century). He is also engaged in the historical origins of the Sienese “Contrade” (XV-XVI centuries). His current research focuses on the urban social revolts in Italian cities (second half of the XIV century).
The Black Death & Its Aftermath
This course examines the impact of the Black Death (1348-1350) on Italy, with particular attention to the demographic, social, economic, intellectual, legal, and gender consequences of this terrible pandemic. Beginning with an introduction to the medical knowledge and practice of the period, the course examines Italian, and Sienese in particular, society in the years immediately before and after the plague to discover how it changed the lives of the survivors. The class analyzes economic shifts, legal changes in society and how jurists interpreted them, the role of women and their newly-gained wealth, changes in literature and art, improvements (or lack thereof) in agriculture and wages, and political rebellions. This course has two main, interrelated objectives: to give students familiarity with the main political, cultural, religious, and socio-economic features of life in medieval Italy, and to help students acquire a more critical and analytical approach to history in general, through the investigation of primary sources and the different ways in which historians have employed sources to construct historical interpretation.
Successful progress of the program depends on the full cooperation of both students and faculty members: regular attendance and active participation in class are essential parts of the learning process. Attendance at and participation in all class meetings and field-studies are required. More than TWO unjustified absences (that are not medically excused with a written certificate of the doctor or caused by serious sudden family and/or personal occurrences, as for example death of a family member) will result in a lowering of your grade.
By the end of the course, students are able to:
In-class lectures, discussions, field-studies and guided visits to museums, monuments and archives. Lectures include PowerPoint projections and other visual materials.
Active class participation and class discussions (15%); final 7-10 page research paper (35%); written midterm exam (25%); written final exam (25%).
The paper will consist of 7-10 double-spaced pages on a topic chosen by the student or suggested by the instructor. The midterm and the final exams are a comprehensive in-class written test with short essay-style answers, of two hours each. The final exam also includes a short essay on a topic to be picked from a given list.
Lesson 1: Introduction and presentation of the course.
Lesson 2: Introduction to the “atmosphere” of Italian Middle Ages (projection of a movie).
Lesson 3: Medical knowledge concerning the plague in the Middle Ages: the Greek treatises.
Lesson 4: The Scuola Salernitana [School of Salerno]; practical cures for the disease.
Lesson 5: General introduction to medieval Mediterranean trade; the ‘mare nostrum,’ the communities facing the sea; commercial contacts and their development; the arrival of the bacillus Yersinia pestis.
Lesson 6: The rise of the Communes (XII-XIII centuries): conquest of the contado by the Italian towns; political organization of the communes and the relation between rural nobles and city dwellers.
Lesson 7: The birth of a new political class; the town as a center of artisan production and exchange of goods.
Lesson 8: Europe in the first half of the 14th century. The growth of population and famines: social consequences of massive population movements from the countryside to the cities; urban organization and health problems; economic crises before the plague.
Lesson 9: The spread of the plague in the countryside and in the city: flight from the cities; initial measures to contain disease by health officials, medical remedies.
Lesson 10: The ‘description’ of the plague: Boccaccio’s Decameron and the chroniclers.
Lesson 11: Field study: guided visit to the State Archives of Siena.
Lesson 12: Midterm exam
Lesson 13: The ‘description’ of the plague in art.
Lesson 14: Field study: guided visit to the dungeons of the ancient Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala.
Lesson 15: Consequences of the plague: social and economic changes; the roles of women.
Lesson 16: Subsequent plagues and famines: Tuscan political reorganization and the supremacy of Florence; conflicts for regional control and the role of Tuscany in the making of new ‘signorie’ in northern and central Italy.
Lesson 17: Political reorganization in the city, and the opening of government to the lower classes.
Lesson 18: Economic and social changes: the wool industry and its decline.
Lesson 19: Social crises in the end of the 14th century: new difficult realities; urban social revolts.
Lesson 20: Humanism and its new role in literature; the opening of the new century and the role of Italy in European politics.
Lesson 21: What happened after the Black Death? Conclusions.
Lesson 22: Final exam
All the required excerpts (in English) are available in the course packet. The instructor is happy to suggest additional readings (both in English and Italian). Further sources, including archival ones, as well as documents and translations — when needed — are given to students for reading before class.
Becker, Marvin. Florence in Transition. 2: Studies in the Rise of the Territorial State. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1968.
---. Florentine Essays: Selected Writings of Marvin B. Becker Collected by James Banker and Carol Lansing. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Benedictow, Ole J. The Black Death, 1346-1353: The Complete History. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2004.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Decameron translated by G.H. McWilliam. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1955.
Bowsky, William M. The Impact of the Black Death upon Sienese Government and Society. “Speculum” XXXIX (1964), pp. 1-34.
Brackett, John K. “The Florentine Criminal Underworld: The Underside of the Renaissance,” in W. Connell (ed.) Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2002.
Brown, Alison. The Renaissance. London and New York: Longman, 1988.
Brucker, Gene. Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley-Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1986.
---. “The Florentine Popolo Minuto and its Political Role, 1340-1450”, in L. Martines (eds.), Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities 1200-1500. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: 1972.
Carmichael, Ann G. Plague and the Poor in Renaissance Florence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Chittolini, G. Cities, City-States and Regional States in Northern Central Italy.
Cohn, Samuel K. Jr. Death and Property in Siena, 1205-1800: Strategies for the Afterlife. Baltimore-London: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1988.
---. The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe. London, Arnold, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
French, Roger. Medicine Before Science. The Business of Medicine from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
--- et al. Medicine from the Black Death to the French Disease. Aldershot-Brooksfield USA-Singapore- Sydney: Ashgate, 1988.
Garcîa-Ballester, L. et al. (eds.), Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Gottfried, R. The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe. London: Robert Hale, 1983.
Jackson, Ph. and Nevola, F. Beyond the Palio: Urbanism and Ritual in Renaissance Siena in Renaissance Studies
Lansing, Carol. Concubines, Lovers, Prostitutes. Infamy and Female Identity in Medieval Bologna in P. Findlen et al. (eds.), Beyond Florence. The Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
Larner, John. Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch 1216-1380. London and New York: Longman, 1980.
Luttrell, Anthony. The Crusade in the Fourteenth Century in J.R. Hale et al. (eds.), Europe in the Late Middle Ages. London: Faber and Faber, 1965.
Balard, M. Genuensis Civitas in extremo Europae: Caffa from the Fourteenth to the Fifteenth Century in D. Abulafia and N. Berend (eds.) Medieval Frontiers: Concept and Practices. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002.
Bowsky, William M. A Medieval Italian Commune. Siena under the Nine, 1287-1355. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 1981.
Dean, Trevor. The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2000.
Green, Monica H., Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval West, Arizona State University: Ashgate Publishing, 2000.
Herlihy, David [ed.] and Cohn, Samuel K. The Black Death and the Transformation of the West. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Hyde, J. K. “Contemporary Views on Faction and Civil Strife in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-century
Italy,” in L. Martines (ed.), Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities 1200-1500. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: 1972.
Meiss, Millard. Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death. The Arts, Religion and Society in the Mid-Fourteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
Nicholas, David. The Later Medieval City 1300-1500. London and New York: Longman, 1997.
Siraisi, Nancy. Medicine and the Italian Universities 1250-1600. Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill, 2001.
For students who can read Italian:
Piccinni, Gabriella. Il Medioevo. Milano: Mondadori B., 2004.
Giovanni Mazzini earned a honours degree in Medieval History, and a doctoral degree in Institutions and Archives at the University of Siena. He is a lecturer and a consultant in several academic conferences, events, seminars, congresses, exhibitions on Medieval and Renaissance History; published articles and essays on the political and military aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Siena, focusing on the Ghibelline period of Tuscany (half of the XIII century). He is also engaged in the historical origins of the Sienese “Contrade” (XV-XVI centuries). His current research focuses on the urban social revolts in Italian cities (second half of the XIV century).