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Fall 2025 Medieval Studies Courses
Latin paleography from the fourth century CE to ca. 1500. Topics include the history and development of national hands; the introduction and evolution of Caroline minuscule, pre-gothic, gothic, and humanist scripts (both cursive and book hands); the production, circulation, and transmission of texts (primarily Latin, with reference to Greek and Middle English); advances in the technical analysis and digital manipulation of manuscripts. Seminars are based on the examination of codices and fragments in the Beinecke Library; students select a manuscript for class presentation and final paper.
This is an introductory reading course in Medieval Latin that is intended to help students improve their reading ability by working directly with a medieval text. We read Peter Abelard’s Historia calamitatum, “A History of My Calamities,” in which the foremost scholar and theologian of the twelfth century gives a candid account of his life. Abelard was a celebrity professor at the dawn of the university, only to spectacularly fall into disgrace for a secret love affair with Heloise that resulted in his castration at the hands of his father-in-law. As we read Abelard’s fascinating account of his life, we focus on reinforcing our knowledge of Latin grammar and syntax and pay special attention to the features of Abelard’s language that are typical of Medieval Latin.
Prerequisite: basic knowledge of Latin grammar and syntax, equivalent to LATN 110 and LATN 120.
An introduction to the Old French language, medieval book culture, and the prose romance via study of manuscript Yale Beinecke 229, The Death of King Arthur, along with a book of grammar and an Old French dictionary. Primary and secondary materials are available on DVD. Work consists of a weekly in-class translation and a final exam comprised of a sight translation passage, a familiar passage from Yale 229, and a take-home essay.
No previous study of Old French necessary, although a knowledge of French is essential. Conducted in English.
The essentials of the language, some prose readings, and close study of several celebrated Old English poems.
This course explores the intersections and points of friction between postcolonial studies and medieval studies. We discuss key debates in postcolonialism and medievalists’ contributions to those debates. We also consider postcolonial scholarship that has remained outside the purview of medieval studies. The overall aim is for students, in their written and oral contributions, to expand the parameters of medieval postcolonialism. Works by critics including Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Leela Gandhi, Lisa Lowe, Robert Young, and Priyamvada Gopal are read alongside medieval romances, crusade and jihād poetry, travel literature, and chronicles.
The course is a comprehensive introduction for GS students as well as YC students. It serves as a window course to pre-modern Jewish history. For YC students this can lead to taking seminars on more limited topics. For graduate students it is a good preparation for comprehensive exams and provides a model survey course to be offered later on as an instructor.
This is the second installment of a series of graduate seminars on law and humanities. The first one dealt with the question of fiction, and this one interrogates the ways in which legal thinking and legislations are in dialogue with emotions in general, and in particular with the creation of affective spaces through specific forms of legislation and jurisprudence. During our seminar we save some time to write together and share our insights on each of the texts we read.
This course examines the historical practice of marriage formation in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Beginning with ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman perspectives, it explores how different communities in the Mediterranean conceptualized and enacted nuptial kinship through a ritual process from betrothal through consummation and probes the anthropological and religious underpinnings of these practices. It then considers early Christian debates on the roles of marriage, sex, and family, and analyzes the early evidence for the Christianization of marriage ritual. Through original texts (available in translation), as well as visual and material sources, the course traces the development of these rites across medieval Christian traditions of the West (Italy, Gaul, Spain, etc.) and East (Byzantine, Coptic, Syriac, Slavic, etc.), and explores the diversity of theological visions and socio-cultural values they express. While focused on pre-modern Christianity, this course encourages frequent comparison to Jewish and Islamic traditions (including legal and ritual frameworks, as well as the calendrical regulation of sexual relations), invites comparison to other kinship rituals (such as medieval rites of “brother-making” or filial adoption), and also provides opportunities for students to engage with ritual developments of the Reformation and explore the legacy of historic marriage practices within contemporary religious, legal, and cultural traditions and debates.
The adage attributed to the French theologian Henri de Lubac that “the Church makes the Eucharist and the Eucharist makes the Church” summarizes much of the twentieth-century historical and theological reflection that led numerous Christian denominations to enact a period of liturgical renewal and reform, which in some respects is still ongoing. The goal of this seminar is to academically participate in the process of critically reflecting about the nature of the Eucharist through an examination of the shape, form and texts employed across Christian history, from antiquity to today. We examine studies and original texts (in translation) to provide perspective on the origins and historical development of the eucharistic liturgy, survey the structure and content of different medieval rites both eastern and western, examine artistic, musical and architectural developments, and undertake a systematic reflection on various theological issues across Christian history (e.g. commensality, real presence, transubstantiation, the role of ministers, excommunication, the dynamics of liturgical reform, and other concerns). Illumined by historical and theological reflection, students also engage in critically examining contemporary pastoral concerns as instantiated in different denominations.
Liturgy was never just at the altar. In the Christian East, religious ritual unfolded in homes, caves, streets, and imperial courts, sometimes under the direction of women. This seminar explores the liturgical history of Eastern Christianity, especially the Byzantine and Slavic traditions, through the lenses of gender, ritual, and embodiment. Focusing on late antiquity and the Middle Ages, we ask how women participated in ritual life. Topics include female monasticism, purity and pollution, access to sacred space, ordained female clerics, and the visibility of women in manuscripts, visual culture, and sacred architecture. Contemporary debates such as the revival of the female diaconate in Orthodox Africa and Armenia or the backlash to a performance by the feminist performance art collective “Pussy Riot” in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior highlight the continuing stakes of these histories. Students engage primary sources, theoretical readings, and visual material. Final projects are developed with the goal of producing work suitable for scholarly publication.
This course examines the origins and development of Christian art in the visual culture of Roman late antiquity, ca. 200–ca. 500 CE. Its aim is to introduce students to key developments in the history of Christian art through the close study of images preserved on a range of objects in different media (including frescoes, glassware, sculpture, coins, textiles, mosaic) made for a variety of purposes. The course involves visits to the Yale Art Gallery and focuses on the importance of situating objects within their larger social and cultural context through the analysis of primary source evidence, which may include archaeological, iconographic, epigraphic, and textual sources (Jewish, early Christian, and other contemporary Roman texts). Topics include the literary and archaeological evidence for early Christian attitudes to visual representation; contexts of manufacture; the social and economic basis of patronage; Roman political influence on Christian iconography; development of new genres of imagery; and the role of imperial patronage in the transformation of civic spaces.
This course is intended for doctoral students (particularly studying topics in the premodern humanities) in their penultimate and final years. Over the course of the semester, students work with peers as well as faculty convener to build the skills they need to present their research to others in a clear, compelling way. Topics covered include preparing application materials, interviewing, negotiating job offers, alt-ac careers, publishing, CV building, and how to succeed in postdoctoral and junior faculty positions. Weekly sessions generally include workshop time as well as presentations by the convener and visitors. This proseminar is particularly directed toward students affiliated with Archaia and medieval studies but welcomes all those with research interests in the premodern world; if space allows, students working on modern topics can also join. The broad range of primary specialties represented provides students with experience engaging with scholars outside their field, which is increasingly essential for premodernists in the modern academic world.