History 2220
Medieval and Renaissance Europe
2015-2016
Prof Tom Cohen
tcohen@yorku.ca; 736 5123 x 66977
Course Moodle: https://moodle.yorku.ca/moodle/course/view.php?id=58873
T.A.s: Barry Torch: barrytorch@gmail.com; Ashlee Bligh: ashlee05@yorku.ca
Design of the Course
Like other History courses on the 2xxx-model, History 2220 is a survey. It sweeps a period, a long
and fascinating one, to give you a sense of what happened, where, and why. At the same time, the course
intends to train you in methods of historical analysis. Thus, alongside two solid textbooks that lay out a
story line and offer some classic explanations about how things happened, the course also has two other
kinds of readings: primary and secondary sources. The primary sources, old texts and images, are meat
for argument, and for what I call “hypothesis formation.” The secondary, some fine pieces of historical
argument, show historians at work, using both primary and secondary material to build an argument of
their own. When, in Winter term, we come to these books, your job will be to make sense of their
arguments and to learn how to debate them in an informed, scholarly way.
For your convenience and ease in study, I will post all the lectures on the course Moodle, as well
as some course materials (marked web in the syllabus). I will also use the Moodle email to comment on
where the course is heading and to help you with the assignments. But, when you have remarks or
questions, use not the Moodle but my regular email: tcohen@yorku.ca.
Course ethos
This course builds a world of shared enthusiasm and mutual support. All of us, you students, the
skilled TAs, and the prof, are in it together. joined in an atmosphere of sympathy, respect, and mutual
trust. Our goal is to make the learning magical. It is, we admit, a hard course, with many parts and
complicated tasks, but it is exciting, and very rewarding, especially when, as we know you will, you give
your all.
How to write
History 2220 is not a Foundations course. So it is not equipped to teach writing. But it expects it
of you. Here is what your teachers want. Keep these writer-rules in mind; they bring good grades not
only in 2220, but in all your courses and, in the work-force, they advance your career.
Structure and logic: good argument
Rhetoric: handsome prose (Remember that your reader is a fellow human.)
1. Be brief. [Cut like crazy].
Short words are best.
2. Avoid the passive:
not “Charlemagne was crowned by the pope.” but “The pope crowned Charlemagne.”
3. Write in lively verbs.
“is” and “was” are danger signs, as is “has”. Query all bland verbs such as: “tends” “The
Vandals tended to have a propensity to the sacking of cities.”  “The Vandals often
sacked cities.”
4. Be concrete. “The plague had a negative effect on the human body”  “The plague caused
putrid lumps as big as goose eggs.”
5. Salt with metaphor.
6. Link sentences: “Although...” “Despite...” “In light of...” “Even worse,...”
Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
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7. Put your main point in the sentence's main part, the “independent clause” that could stand
alone.
8. Put the most important words at the sentence's end.
9. Use parallelism: Think Churchill (“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing
grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall never surrender...”)
10. Remember that commas, a reader's helper, almost always come in pairs, bracketing, or appear
singly at the edges of the sentence, for closing off a phrase.
11. Follow the ancient Romans: vary sentence type as if your essay spoke to a living, listening
reader:
a. Use the imperative!
b. Why not ask rhetorical questions?
c. Exclaim: But of course! Why ever not!
d. Let's use the optative! (The urging voice)
e. And subjunctive forms: "would that it were so;" "be it ever so clever;" "were one ever to
try the idea out..."
12. Above all, treat writing as fun. Your reader is not your enemy but your ally.
Hypothesis papers
A hypothesis states an unproven truth; it tries to answer a question. Hypothesis formation is one of the
most fundamental intellectual operations, at university and in the world of work, and any place where
careful (or sloppy) thought goes on.
Any hypothesis has a scope and a claim to probability. Very narrow hypothesis are about particulars:
one king, one village, one martyr in the arena, one purchase, one wedding. Broader hypotheses take on a
class of things: kings, villages, martyrs, and so on. The job of scope is to set the boundaries: all kings,
everywhere, forever? Villages in NW Normandy, in the late tenth century? Purchases between social
unequals, in unregulated Italian markets? It takes skill and experience to set your scope, and, of course, a
sense of the shape and strategy of your inquiry.
Note that scope and probability have an inverse relationship. The greater the scope, the weaker the
probability. "No king, ever, anywhere, has trusted his brothers." is not likely. "Few medieval English
kings trusted their brothers." The claim is weaker, and the probability grows. "Richard the Lion-hearted
mistrusted his brother John." The claim is very narrow, and your chance of being right is excellent.
Note that ONE primary document about mistrustful Richard could back any of these three claims, and
assorted others we could contrive. [Twelfth-century kings with domineering mothers...; monarchs of the
Angevin line... and so on]
NEWS: Historians, and other scholars, and graders of your papers, all love NEWS. So we push you to
find it and write it down. Now, the more the NEWS in a claim you make, the weaker the probability of
its being true. "Italy is a part of Europe." Very true. NEWS? Not at all. "Turkey is a part of Europe."
Now that is NEWS indeed, and needs defending.
In your hypothesis papers, we will ask you to rank the NEWS-worthiness of your hypothesis on the
Richter scale, where 2 is a subtle tremor, 4.5 is a fair rumble, and 7 will topple freeways in LA; 9 will sink
Vancouver in Georgia Strait. No joke: the sinister Cascadia fault has slumbered too long.
Reading against the grain: To use judicial documents to see how judges worked is reading "with the
grain", or as the author intended. To use the same documents to find out if millers had feudal lands, or
how common was the name Marguérite in 13th-century Normandy, is to read first with and then against
the grain. Both kinds of reading are good in history classes. Reading against the grain is contrarian. It is
a valuable skill, as it stretches the mind.
Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
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How to do an hypothesis paper:
due: at the tutorial for which the reading is done.
late assignments are not accepted (unless you were sick or in a jam).
length: 1 page, typed, double-spaced, and w. margins for our comments. Hand-written not
accepted w/o special permission ahead of time.
part 1: WWWWW: What is this document? When was it made? Where was it made? Who made it?
What for? As best as you can tell, from internal and external evidence. Wise guesses are allowed, and
should be labeled as such. These W’s are sometimes ambiguous, and often multiple, as a single document
might target varied readers, or even just one reader, for multiple ends. Even authorship is often multiple,
as with court papers, where the judge, the scribe, the lawyers, and the witness all contributed to its shape.
part 2. Give your hypothesis, as a single sentence. Put the scope and the probability inside the sentence.
E.g., "It is very likely that, in the third century North Africa, many Christian martyrs were women." [You
could use "Certain," "possible," "ever so slightly possible," "hardly likely" and so on..]
part 3. Defend it, using the primary source assigned, in a short paragraph some 4 or 5 lines long.
part 4. Give the News value, on the Richter scale
part 5. Tell us if you are reading with or against the grain.
Rules for prose in these papers: keep it clean, short, and clear. And grammatical.
Spell-check. No puffed up verbiage. And never paste in prose from the web. Both wrong and deeply
pointless.
Sample Hypothesis paper: [This sample aims to do a good job, to show the model, but it is less than
perfect, to show how a grader would think about it in assigning a grade. The words in square brackets
below are comments on the model I give you here. They are not meant as models for any square bracket
remarks in your own papers.]
Hypothesis 2.5, due Oct. 16, 2015.
Part 1
Document: Capitulary De villis, paragraph 45
What is it: the document is a capitulary, a very detailed letter of instruction sent out from the king's court
to his officials all around the Carolingian Empire.
When: at the end of the 8th century.
Where: wherever the emperor resided, as the court wandered, but perhaps Aachen, the imperial capital.
Who: scribes at the imperial court of Charlemagne.
What for: to instruct the administrators of great royal estates on how to run everything in their charge.
Part 2
Hypothesis: In Charlemagne's Europe (8th-9th century) [this is the scope] it is very likely [this is the
probability] that royalty hunted big game that had been hemmed by nets for easier killing. [this is the
hypothesis.]
Justification: In the capitulary "de villis" on royal estates, article 45 (Geary, p. 294), it says "every steward
shall have in his district good workmen -- that is (among others)...net-makers who can make good nets
for hunting or fishing or fowling...". Note that the document puts hunting first, as if it matters a lot. It is
no afterthought. Now perhaps the drafters intended little nets for catching rabbits for dinner. But the
4
Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
same passage seems to care about royal sport: it mentions falconers, and falconry was a game for kings
and nobles. So if these nets were meant for an imperial hunt, big game, and big tough nets are likely, and,
if so, game drives with hidden nets and beaters driving deer and boar and bears to an ambush was
probably a sport of Carolingian emperors.
Richter Scale: 4 [a middling earthquake, if 9 is huge]
Grain: with [the document is about the resources of the villa, and so is the hypothesis here, so we read
with the grain]
xxxxxxxxxx
Grading
1. Careful reading:
2. Careful writing:
3. Plausibility
4. Creativity
Score
2/ 3
2.8 / 3
2.2/ 3
.7 / 1
7.7 / 10 [B+]
The grader reasons: How can you prove this net-hunt was imperial and sporting, and not just for rabbits
for peasant food? Some workmen in the same passage, like soap-makers and shoemakers, seem just for
the local economy. So you overstate the probability on thin, inconsistent evidence.
5
Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
Grades and assignments: Grading system: 9 = A+; 8 = A; 7.5 = B+, 7=B...5=D. And so on.
To be graded:
Term 1:
Term 2:
Final
Participation
40%
35%
20%
5%
Fall Term:
geog. test
class exam
6 hypotheses
mid-term
6
6
18
10
Sum
40 points
Winter term
Davis test
Mattingly paper
Brueghel paper
10
15
10
Final
Participation
20
5
Bonus points: These are earned by the tutorial as a whole, from the points of each, and given to
everybody in equal measure. The tutorial earns a fraction of the following three bonuses:
for showing up
for bringing all books
for doing the reading
1 (necessary absences are not penalized, so tell us. Honor system:
no documents needed, and no details asked.)
1 (print out any web materials too and bring them to class)
1 (we will ask aloud in class and you will give a number)
Academic Honesty: Don’t plagiarize. Now, in fact, it is pretty well impossible to cheat in this course; the
assignments are just too unusual. But, in your Mattingly work, you will be finding arguments and
information gathered by researchers, so do be clear to give credit not only for prose but also for data.
When in doubt, footnote. And write your own prose, confining quotation to passages you want to
discuss. And, if you have any doubts about the boundary lines, ask your TA or the professor. In other
courses, plagiarism might be a more likely problem, so do be careful to learn the rules and to take the
library quiz on how to do things right. In 2220, trust is central to our pedagogy – trust in students’ words
and dealings. Your care in matters of academic honesty will nurture that sense of trust and help us all to
make the course succeed.
Crucial dates for all Arts courses this year
10/9
Thursday
29/10-1/11
7/12
Tuesday
9-23/12
first class
FALL DAYS OFF
last day of fall term
Exams (do not buy airline tickets until sure you are free)
5/1
Our first class (term begins on Sunday)
Tuesday
6
Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
13-19/2
4/4
Monday
6-20/4
WINTER READING WEEK
Last class
Exams (again, no tickets town to leave till sure)
7
Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
Week
Date
Lecture
Readings and assignments
1
10/9
Intro to the course
(Thursday) all tutorials do meet
2
15/9
Antique culture
Rosenwein, 5-21; (note her glossary on
350ff, handy all year): Christianity, art
hypoth 1 due in tutorial. Perpetua (Watch out
for "Who" and "When" and ponder "What" and
"What for"). Only ‘where’ is simple (probably).
17/9
The new religion
Geary, 58-64: St. Perpetua
hypoth 1 due in tutorial, if yours falls here.
22/9
Rome as empire and world
Rosenwein, 21-5, 32-9. Study the map and the
art too, as always
Geary, 1-27: Theodosian code
Clue: look for the idea of authority
24/9
Invaders
Rosenwein, 21-28: the Germans,
ruralization, retrenchment
Geary, 46-57: Augustine, City of God.
question: has the City of Man anything good?
29/9
the new social order
Rosenwein, 58-64, 72-75: Making of W. Europe
Geary, 139-61: Gregory of Tours, Hist. of the
Franks (does revenge have its logic? Clue: look
for honour, Frankish style).
hypoth 2: use p. 128: Salic Law article LVII re
"Chrenecruda" but remember the whole code.
(NB: all the W’s are tricky, again)
1/10
Hybrid law, hybrid states
Geary, 113-21: Tomb of Childeric, and Salic
Law, 122-8
hypoth 2: as above: due in Thurs tutorials
6/10
Germanic culture
Geary, 65-77, Tacitus, Germania; 78-82, Iordanes,
History of the Goths (part); 111-2: Hildebrandslied.
theme: heroism, greatness
8/10
Byzantium, Islam
Rosenwein, 29-34, 39-57, 79-96, 115-127:
Byzantium, Islam
Geary, Life of King Alfred (for Thurs
tutorials). Clue: compare Alfred and Clovis
13/10
Anglo-Saxon England
Geary, 230-39, Life of King Alfred
Rosenwein, pp. 64-72: Anglo-Saxon England
15/10
Geography quiz in lecture
3
4
5
6
8
Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
lecture on the lessons of our maps
study Rosenwein maps: behind title page 22-3,
44, 50-1, 79 and 115, and course handout list of
places and features
also study Rosenwein, 82-3 for discussion in
tutorial and as a wonderful exposition of
argument from archeology and text  many
hypotheses
7
8
9
20/10
Monasticism
Geary, 159-88: The Rule of S. Benedict
Rosenwein, 67-71 (monastic art): (find the “Q” of
“Quoniam” and try to read the fine print at the
top of Luke’s Gospel on 71. Count the birds,
snakes, and cats. I dare you!)
22/10
Carolingian polity
Rosenwein, 96-112: W. Eur: Byz, Islam
Geary, 280-302: Capitularies
hpyoth. 2 comes back to you
27/10
Carolingians: culture
29
No Classes at all at York: time to catch up
3/11
Western feudal institutions
Geary, 377-81: Letter of Fulbert of Chartres;
and Hugh of Lusignan's querimonia. hypoth. 3 as
above for Thursday students.
5/11
Vikings, Russian origins,
Rosenwein, 121-2 again, 127-134: E and West.
feudalisms
tutorial: bring Geary too, just in case.
late invasions
10
11
Geary, 266-279: Einhard, Life of
Charlemagne; Rosenwein, 126-35 (art too)
hypoth. 3 Hugh of Lusignan's querimonia. With
the whole document in mind, use the reported
conversation between the two noblemen, in the
second column on p. 381. (Think hard about
‘who’ and ‘when’ and do not just say what = ‘a
querimonia,’ as that just begs the question.)
10/11
state-building
Rosenwein, 135-149 (kingdoms)
Geary, 382-93: Galbert of Bruges.
hypoth. 4 due, re his ch. 11, "The plot is sealed,":
the oath-swearing narrative. ("When" is v.
tricky! "Where" is too; where is the author?)
hypoth. 3 comes back to you.
12/11
TEST ON DATA
Rosenwein, 1-149
hypoth 4 due in Thurs tutorials
17/11
The Reform Papacy
Rosenwein, 164-170
Geary, 562-86: Investiture Controversy.
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Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
If you were pope/HRE, how would you argue
for supremacy over the world?
hypoth. 4 comes back to you
12
13
19/11
State-building cont.
Rosenwein, 155-164, 197-218
Geary, 649-66: Joinville; 667-76: Enquetes of Louis
IX. The key here is that this zone is newly
annexed from England to France
24/11
Crusades
Rosenwein, 170-187: Crusades, Levant; 24144 (Mongols)
Geary, 406-18: Jewish, Muslim annals; 482-501:
Inquisition records of Fournier. hypoth. 5 due:
pp. 497: “I had said to him…have his child”
NB: think very hard about "Who" is speaking,
and writing, at a trial. Also go way against the
grain this time.
26/11
Heresies, Montaillou
Rosenwein, 228-237, 251-252: Church
Geary, 464-74: Canonization of Dominic
Geary, 456-59: Rule of Francis
1/12
New learning
Rosenwein, 178-193, 220-228, 267-275
Geary, 329-41: Anselm, Proslogion; Hypoth. 5
comes back to you.
for hypoth 6: Geary, 793-807, Dati diary. hypoth
6 due (teams up to 3 OK): give us a
demographic hypoth. by reading the diary.
Hint: try some graph paper and plot out
patterns of vital events fr. the life. Prof will
explain how to graph it.
3/12
Urban growth, demogr. crisis
Rosenwein, 218-220 (guilds, gothic), 244-258
(new economy), 276-729, 283-300
Geary, 781-93, Catasto of 1427
Geary, 793-807, Dati diary. hand in hypoth 6:
>>>>>>>>CHRISTMAS BREAK: you earned it<<<<<<<<
14
5/1
Religion in e. mod. Europe
Rosenwein, 301-324 (relig crisis and change)
Hsia, Trent, 1475 (first half)
for tutorial: prepare to defend Hinderbach in the
lang. of 1475 (hard on the heart, but a stretch for
the head).
7/1
Jews and other others
Hsia, Trent, 1475 (second half)
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Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
15
16
12/1
Social History, microhistory
Davis, Martin Guerre, 1-81
14/1
film in lecture
Winks and Wandel, 32-40 “A world turned
upside down”; 67-81, 88-94: The Renaissance;
94-8 The art of daily living; Rosenwein, 327-45
19/1
film in lecture
Davis, Martin Guerre , 82-125
21/1
issues re the exam
American Hist. Review : published
debate of Finlay and Davis (web)
Robert Finlay, "The Refashioning of Martin
Guerre", The American Historical Review, Vol. 93,
No. 3. (June 1988), pp. 553-571.
Natalie Zemon Davis, "On The Lame", The
American Historical Review, Vol. 93, No. 3. (June
1988), pp. 572-603. (web)
17
26/1
test and debate
task: take one side or the other: open book
28/1
Military history
Mattingly: v- xviii, 1-109
Winks and Wandel, 174-180: Italian Wars
group assignment: plan to conquer England, or
to defend it. Plans made in tutorial
18
19
2/2
Tudor England
Winks and Wandel, 40-54: The emergence
gence of national monarchies; 190-99: Tudor
England and the Dutch Republic.
Mattingly, 110-171 (politics, Cadiz battle)
see also statistics from Armada, the War with
Spain: 1585-1604 (kit)
Geoffrey Parker, “The Spanish Invasion of
England, 1588,” What If? London, 2001, 139-54
(kit)
4/2
Wars of Relig. in France
Mattingly, 172-244 (Sluis, Parisian barricades);
Winks and Wandel, 131-153: the Protestant
Reformation
9/2
Spanish Empire
Mattingly, 245-67 (Armada sails)
Fernandez-Armesto, "Strategy: Evolution and
Confusion," from The Spanish Armada, Oxford,
1988, 72-98 (kit); Winks and Wandel, 180-190:
The Catholic monarchies: Spain and France
11/2
Italy in Europe
Mattingly, 268-313 (battle)
Winks and Wandel, 55-64: Italy
>>>>>>>>READING WEEK<<<<<<<<
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Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
20
23/2
the rest of Europe: Germany,
Hungary, Russia
Mattingly, 314-341
Parker, "Was Parma Ready," from The Grand
Strategy of Philip II, New Haven, 1998, 229-250
(kit)
Winks and Wandel, 21-31, 54-5, 64-5, 122-4:
Russia and Germany
21
22
25/2
The Catholic Reformation
Mattingly, 343-409: epilogues
Winks and Wandel, 154-161: The Catholic
Reformation
paper due. final battle preparations in tutorial
1/3
Wider Worlds
Winks and Wandel, 100-22, 124-30 205-7:
Exploration and expansion, slavery
3/3
“God’s” judgment
("War day" in lecture, outcome in hands
stronger than ours)
8/3
Science
Carlino, Books of the Body, pp. 39-53, on
Vesalius (kit)
Winks and Wandel, 81-8, 207-212: Science and
Religion
10/3
Cartesianism
Descartes, Discourse, number 1,
beginning of 2, 4 (kit) (Penguin, 27-37, 53-60.)
Winks and Wandel, 212-17: rationalism
Task: prove that you exist (I dare you!)
Brueghel paper assigned: 5 good hypoths. from
a single image or a chosen series, WWWWW etc
bring Brueghel to tutorial. Teams to three.
23
24
25
15/3
English Civil War
work on Brueghel
17/3
Brueghel and Art lect.
Brueghel paper due
22/3
30-years' War, E. Eur.
Winks and Wandel, 199-205: 30-yrs’ War
Subtelny, Domination of Eastern Europe, Montreal
and Kingston, 1986, 3-22 (kit)
24/3
Absolutism
Burke, xiii-105
29/3
France under Louis XIV
Burke, 106-203
31/3
No lecture, but tutorials are on
Final exam is largely open book on a 5:3:1 scheme. I give 5 questions ahead of time. Three will be on the
exam. So you must prepare at least three. Two might be dangerous, if both are missing. Group work for
study is encouraged. Notes are fine at the final, but no pre-written drafts are allowed.
Hist 2220.6 2015-2016
12
Books to Purchase
Fall Term
Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, Fourth
edition, 2014 [NB: if you buy an earlier edition, the pagination will be different, so it will be hard to track
the readings from the syllabus.]
Geary, Patrick, Readings in Medieval History, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 4th edition, 2010
Winter Term
Wandel, Lee Palmer, and Robin W. Winks, Early Modern Europe, Oxford, 2003
Hsia, Po Chi, Trent, 1475, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1992
Davis, N. Z., The Return of Martin Guerre, Cambridge: Harvard, 1983
Mattingly, Garrett, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (first edition, 1959 and all editions are identical so
used copies are fine)
Hagen and Hagen, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1525-1569: Peasants, Fools and Demons
(Cologne and NY: Taschen books, new edition, 2000)
Burke, Peter, The Fabrication of Louis XIV, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1992
kit for second term ready later in the fall.