Middle Ages

Magical thought has always attracted human imagination. In this course we will introduce you to the Middle Ages through a wide conception of magic. Students will have an approach to medieval culture, beliefs and practices from the perspective of History and History of Science. Popular magic, as well as [...]

Have you ever heard about medieval mysticism or medieval heresies? Have you ever wondered about the particular role women played in medieval spirituality? Do Hildegard of Bingen, Clare of Assisi, Marguerite Porete, the Cathar ladies or Isabel de Villena ring a bell? Have you ever felt like you wanted [...]

An introduction to some of the most astonishing architectural monuments the world has ever known—Gothic cathedrals. We shall study the art, literature, intellectual life, economics, and new social arrangements that arose in the shadow of the cathedrals and that were such an important part of the revival of [...]

Perhaps no other relic of the European Middle Ages captures our imagination more than illuminated medieval manuscripts, or those documents decorated with images and colored pigments. Serving as windows unto a lost world of kings, ladies, faith, war, and culture, they communicate complex visual and textual narratives of Europe’s [...]

Learn about the origins and development of Western societies and institutions from the ancient world through the Middle Ages in this credit-eligible course. This course will provide a general outline of European history from Ancient times through 1500 AD, covering a variety of European historical periods and cultures, including [...]

L'histoire des sciences, qu'est-ce que c'est et à quoi ça sert ? Comprendre les dynamiques qui ont permis aux sciences de se constituer, explorer ses évolutions, son organisation et ses démarches, telle est l'ambition de ce MOOC qui propose une initiation à une histoire critique des sciences. Se repérer [...]

Understand handwriting’s role in the later Middle Ages as Europe was in the midst of the "paper revolution” and the quantity of documents was exploding.

Scholarship on medieval women writers is a somewhat recent phenomenon, in part because we know relatively little about men of the Middle Ages—and what we know about women from the period is even more limited. In this course, we will engage this new frontier in literary studies by [...]