Medieval Primary Sources Seminar
Courses PhD in Medieval Studies
The main aim of this seminar is to awaken students to the potential that a single document has for various scientific areas of Medieval Studies and, at the same time, to the complementarity of working on a theme with various sources of a different nature. Doctoral students will be confronted with and work with sources of various types commented on and explored by lecturers from different scientific areas. The aim is for the student to understand how each source can be used in different areas of Medieval Studies (the multifaceted nature of the work), based on sources of a diverse nature (textual, iconographic, archaeological).
Medieval Sources
Interdisciplinary work
Collaborative work
Skills to be developed:
- Accrue the student's awareness about the potential of a multi/interdisciplinary approach to sources, and of the potential of analysing a single source for various themes.
- Ability to use different types of sources to grasp a topic in its many facets and interpret large amounts of information through targeted exploration.
- Ability to understand the importance of applying and practicing a global and critical analysis of all types of sources and understanding their internal construction logics and multiple valences.
0. SOURCES FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES: Potentialities and Limits
A. ONE SOURCE, MANY APPROACHES - one source and its potential
1- The "Livros de Linhagens do Conde D. Pedro"
Intentions; Genealogy; Mental Mechanisms; Kinship Structures; Physical, Symbolical and economic space; Emotions; Violence; Power Relations and Struggles
or
The Chronicles od Fernão Lopes
Intentions; scenographic presentification; Politics and Propaganda; Stile and Rhetorical mechanisms; Material Culture; Daily Life;
2- The portrait of John I
The Portrait; Iconography; aesthetic currents; Authority and Memory; Intentions; visual and written images - cross-referencing with the Chronicles of Fernão Lopes;
B. SEVERAL SOURCES, ONE TOPIC
3 - Medieval Rural and Urban Communities: the perspective of Archaeology
Sources: Excavation reports, artifacts, materialities, space
- ALTHOFF, G.; FRIED, J.; GEARY, P.(eds.) - Medieval concepts of the Past. Ritual, Memory, Historiography, Cambridge: CUP, 2002
- BRUNDAGE, A. - Going to the Sources. A Guide to Historical Research and Writing, 5ª ed., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012
- CASSEN, A. (ed) - Handbook of Medieval Studies, 3 vols, Berlin-New York: De Gruyter, 2010
- Historiography of Medieval Portugal (MATTOSO et al. eds.), Lisboa: IEM, 2011
- KRUS, L. - A concepção nobiliárquica do espaço ibérico, Lisboa: FCG, 1994
- TILLEY, C. - A Phenomenology of landscape. Places, paths and monuments. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1994
E-learning
Continuous assessment of doctoral students by weighting all participation activities in the activities studied during the seminar (20% each) and the final essay (40 %).