Political and Institutional History of Europe in the Middle Ages

In this course, intended for students of history and other humanities already experienced and equipped with a basic knowledge of the discipline, texts and documents on the system of European states at the end of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance will be presented and discussed, with a in-depth analysis of the historiographical debate. In particular, we will analyse the themes of state-building, military organization, diplomacy and government apparatus, and the role of women within power structures. The institutional pluralism, namely the role of cities, communities, fiefdoms, "factional" aggregations as interlocutors of the new Italian and European state institutions, will also be a primary theme of study. In the last didactic section time will be left for students to discuss topics and bibliographical scholarship, in combination with the reading of small sets of original or published documents. Slides (texts, images, materials) will be presented in the lessons and then made available to students through publication on the ARIEL platform.

Classes designed for those opting to attend the lesson, as well as readings for non-attending students, aim to:
- provide the timely and critical knowledge of the main topics covered in the lectures or texts indicated;
-axquire the necessary tools which are instrumental for study and analysis of texts;
- construct a bibliography on the proposed topics, distinguishing the various kinds of historical literature;
- utilize texts in major foreign languages;
- introduce the reading and exegesis of original documents and the work of archival research, in view of the master's thesis;
- the ability to neatly exhibit the acquired knowledge in oral form, with appropriate lexicon;
(and in particular, for attendees)
- present to the class of agreed upon arguments and insights;
- actively participate in the collective work of the class with presentations and discussions;
- use in slide set presentations in Power Point or other digital formats.