Library Time!

Hi everyone!

This week will be having a library tutorial! No readings! I'm sure many of you will be excited about that!

Libraries though.............the bane of our existence or the lifeline to our work? A question for the ages......

I will be leading the library tutorial next week and the purpose is to help introduce you all to the research techniques and tips I have acquired over the years when it comes to writing essays in medieval history. For those of you who have had library tutorials already this year (perhaps led by a librarian), or those of you for whom library researching is old hat, please do still come along next week as the tutorial will be specifically geared towards helping you write the essay for this course.

Attendance is compulsory and you will be filling in a worksheet during the tutorial that I have prepared.

Here are all the details:

When: Wednesday, April 4th during your normal tutorial time

Where: Training Room One (ground floor), Caulfield library

Please arrive right on time as I will begin the tutorials promptly at the hour. This is because we have a lot of material to cover.

Here are some questions to think about before.....

1) What elements make up a good research essay?

2) How would you approach finding material and formulating your argument in your essay?

3) Can you find the book 'Charlemagne's Courtier' in the library catalogue? What other bibliographic information can you tell me about this book from the catalogue? Can you find another primary or secondary source related to Carolingian history? What methods did you use to find 'Charlemagne's Courtier'?

4) If you are in first year - What elements of the research essay are you feeling nervous or worried about? (ie. finding sources, knowing which material to reference in your essay, etc.)

5) If you are in second year and beyond - What are your tips and pointers that you can share with us on writing good essays and researching in the library? Have you ever received any feedback from previous essay submissions that have helped you improve your researching and writing skills?

Please have a think about these questions and post your thoughts on this week's library tutorial below!


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Essay Requirements


Word Limit: 1750
Due Date: Friday, 5pm the week after you give your presentation. You will find your chosen essay question at the bottom of the unit guide page for the week of your presentation.

You must include in your analysis:


2 primary sources
5 secondary sources - including one journal article
1 of your sources (either primary or secondary) must come from an online source

Any questions at all please just ask me.

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For fun here are a couple of photos of the Bodleian Library (part of the University of Oxford). It is a very old library (founded in the 17th century) and was the centre of my existence for a year (and more) of my life! It's a beautiful set of buildings and rather puts our very practical libraries at Monash to shame!

The gatehouse (porter's lodge)
with reading rooms above
Bodleian Library 

The Radcliffe Camera
Bodleian Library

The interior of the Duke Humphrey Library
Bodleian Library

Abelard and Heloise: Medieval Celebrities Par Excellence

Week 5: New Urban Institutions: The Commune and the Univeristy - Tutorial Discussion Post


Hi everyone!

This week in tutorial we will be concentrating on educational developments during the twelfth century, and in particular the rise of the university and specialized training and education. I am really excited about this week's tutorial as the history of education in the twelfth century is one of the focuses of my own research and it was actually through reading Abelard's Historia Calamitatum and the subsequent letters he exchanged with Heloise that I fell in love with the twelfth century and decided to pursue further study in medieval history.

Peter Abelard, as you may have noticed from his autobiography, the Historia Calamitatum(History of my Calamities), was a very controversial figure in the twelfth century. He continues to be a controversial figure in scholarship today. For some (both in the twelfth century and now) he is a genius - a prince of dialectic (logic) and theology, and a charismatic teacher and mentor. For others he's an arrogant, irritating, over-rated, puffed-up trouble-maker. Whichever way you react to Abelard there is no doubt that he was an impacting and influential personality and both his dramatic personal life, and his talent for intellectual enquiry, have ensured that he continues to intrigue medieval historians to this day. We are fortunate that Professor Constant Mews teaches and works at Monash as he is one of the world-renowned leading experts on the writings of Abelard and Heloise. As famous in the field perhaps as Abelard and Heloise in their day were, but perhaps not so controversial!

For this week I encourage you all to look over the tutorial discussion questions for this week, especially questions one and two, as well as think about the following.....

1) How does Abelard present himself in the Historia Calamitatum? Why does he present himself in such a way?

2) Was he really like the person he presents himself to be in the Historia Calamitatum? Would you like to be his student? His teacher?

3) Why is he so important in the history of education and intellectual thought?

4) What two major sins of his is Abelard keen to highlight in the Historia Calamitatum? How has he been punished for them? Why is he keen to tell us about them?

A depiction of Abelard and Heloise
from a medieval manuscript

A later artistic impression of Abelard
and Heloise

As always please post your comments, reflections, and questions below!

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What about Heloise I hear some of you say? It is true that we are only introduced to her briefly in this week's readings. She was a very remarkable woman and a talented intellectual in her own right. Scholars now see her as far more than Abelard's pupil. They are now beginning to realize that she actually was more of his intellectual partner and potentially influenced his own thought and philosophy a great deal. I've attached a link here to the first letter Heloise wrote to Abelard after she read the Historia Calamitatum. It is fascinating to understand her perspective on their lives together. This translation also includes a brief introduction to the scholarly controversy that has raged for decades over whether or not in fact she wrote her letters. Most scholars agree now that she did but there are still a few deniers out there!

What elements of the Historia Calamitatum does she disagree with? Why?

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/heloise1.asp

This translation is really old fashioned but it hopefully gives you a taste of Heloise's writing! For anyone interested in reading their entire correspondence I recommend the following translations:

Radice, Betty (trans). The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, Penguin Books: London, 1974.

McLauglin, Mary and Bonnie Wheeler (ed. and trans.). The Letters of Heloise and Abelard: A Translation of their Collected Correspondence and Related Writings, Palgrave Macmillon: New York, 2009.

And for a more controversial take on their correspondence.....

Mews, Constant J. The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France, Palgrave: New York, 2001.

Heloise is my personal hero so I do hope some of you are able to glance over her letter for this week!

Another absolutely over the top imagining of
Heloise and Abelard courtesy of the 19th century!

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And, as always, just for fun......

For anyone really really interested in understanding more about Heloise, her thought and writing do check this little article out:

http://blue-stocking.org.uk/2008/04/01/wholly-guilty-and-wholly-innocent/

It's an absolute shameless little bit of self-promotion as I wrote it for a postgraduate journal when I was a student at Oxford....but despite me being the author I think it still has something interesting to say!

And, finally, Abelard and Heloise are today buried (or thought to be buried) at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Their tomb (created in the 19th century) is absolutely beautiful. If you ever get a chance to go to Paris I highly recommend stopping by! People still leave flowers for them!

Tomb of Abelard and Heloise

Heloise's effigy on her tomb

Abelard's likeness

*** Important Information Regarding the First Assignment ***

Hi everyone!

So the deadline for our first assignment is coming up pretty soon. Here are some more details regarding this assignment that will help you complete it and submit it on time.

Your assignment is to summarize the argument(s) made by Davis in the chapter from his book,A History of Medieval Europe, that forms our reading assignment for Week Four. Here is what Clare has said about the assignment in our unit reader:

'Students are asked to summarize the argument of the article read in Week 4. The object of this summary will be to encourage students to engage critically with the argument presented by the author. Students ought not to quote the article, but rather attempt to precis key ideas and evidence in their own words. The purpose of the exercise is to train students in reading and note-taking, so they will be able to synthesize various historical sources. There is no need for referencing and footnotes in this exercise.'

In our tutorials from yesterday I tried to encourage each group (some had more time for this exercise than others) to think about how to summarize Davis' argument and especially to think about how the two sections of the article are related to each other. From there I encouraged, and still encourage, everyone to, once they have put Davis' argument into their own words, to think then about the key points Davis uses to support and discuss his argument.

As I say, some groups had more time to work on this aspect than others. For that I do apologize and would like to encourage anyone who is worried or unsure about how to approach summarizing Davis' argument to email me and I will provide all the support I can.

Submission Due Date: Friday, 30 March, 5pm (5th Week)

Submission Process: An online copy must be submitted to Blackboard by 5pm on March 30th. A hard copy must then be given to me in tutorial in Week 6. The online submission is your official submission so please ensure you are familiar with Blackboard before attempting to submit. Instructions on how to submit via Blackboard will be given out at our next tutorial. If you are having trouble submitting via Blackboard send me an email with your assignment before the 5pm deadline.

Word Limit: 800 words

Remember to: double space your assignment, include page numbers and your name (and preferably a title as well), and attach the cover sheet. Remember that footnotes and a bibliography are not required for this assignment.

Any questions: please email me.

If you find that you are struggling a bit with this assignment another good resource to consult is the Language and Learning Centre which has a variety of tools and aids designed to help students with their writing.

http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/index.xml

Good luck everyone!

*** Important Info about the Test and Unit Readers ***

Hi everyone!

I have checked with Clare regarding the presence of a map question on the test and there will be a map where you will be asked to identify the location (roughly) of places like Aachen and Rome. Please remember to review your maps in time for the test!

To help us with this I've pasted another map below to help remind everyone of the geography of early medieval Europe.

For those of you who have yet to purchase a unit reader and found that the Caulfield bookstore had recently run out we will be ordering more in. I'm not sure how quickly they will arrive but my suggestion would be to check occasionally next week when you are on campus. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any left available at the Clayton bookstore. To access the weekly readings without the reader you can check the Unit Guide which is available on Blackboard to get all the unit information details. The link on this blog under the 'Weekly Readings' tab will also direct you to a library site that lists all of the readings for this course and where they can be accessed. If anyone has any difficulty accessing the readings please let me know.

Good luck studying everyone!

*** The blog post for Week 4 follows this post ***

Europe in the Age of Charlemagne

Two sides of the Medieval Economic Coin!

Week 4 - Economic Life: Agriculture, Trade and the Emergence of Towns -Tutorial Discussion Post


Hi everyone!


**** Remember that the test will take place during this week's lecture time (March 21). The test will take place during the second hour of lecture (11am). It will be multiple choice. All material from the lectures and tutorial readings is the focus of the test. There will be some questions related to a map, however, there will be no other images. You are expected to attend the first hour of lecture as normal and then once you have completed the test you will be free to go. You may take as much time to complete the test as you need. ****

This week we will be focusing on the chapter from A History of Medieval Europe by R.H.C. Davis on the economic situation of the early Middle Ages (with a focus on trade and the agrarian economy). For your first assignment you will be asked to summarize the arguments Davis makes in this chapter so it is very important you look over this reading in detail.

The goal of the assignment is to help students develop their reading and note-taking skills, as well as their ability to synthesize material and summarize arguments.

With that in mind I thought I would ask a few different types of questions here to help get you started.

.....

What is Davis' argument in this chapter? Can you summarize it in one or two sentences?

In your opinion, what are the key points to Davis' argument?

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To help you zero in on some of the key points in the article have a look over the tutorial discussion questions for this week. They will help you examine the first part of the article (focusing on trade in the Mediterranean). For help examining the second part of the article (on the agrarian economy) have a think about the following questions.

1) What is a polyptych? Why are they useful historical sources?
2) What is the demesne? What is tributary land?
3) Why might a peasant proprietor surrender his land to his lord?
4) What is a serf? Are they different in the early medieval period from a colonus?
5) What is a manse?
6) How and why was ninth-century agrarian society in a state of transition?
7) What is meant by the term 'manorial system'?
8) What is the difference between the 'open-field' and 'enclosure' field systems?

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Finally, what aspects of this assignment do you feel confident about? What aspects are you a little worried or nervous about?

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Remember, your comments can address the points above or be the result of any of your thoughts, reflections or questions about the reading for this week. Happy posting everyone!


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Here are some images to help spark our imaginations!

Serfs reaping the harvest overseen by a reeve

The three-field system

An impression of a medieval plow team

An early Byzantine besant

And just for fun.......I think we could all do with a laugh at this point in term! The first link here is to the video we watched in lecture on the 'Codex IT' sketch, and the second is a fun clip from Monty Python's 'The Holy Grail'. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4_9kDO3q0w&feature=fvwrel