The course will provide an integrated introduction to selected themes in the history of education, communication, Latin literacy, book-making and palaeography, mainly in the centuries between the end of the western Roman Empire and the Carolingian Renaissance, but with some consideration of later developments. The course will offer insight into the cultural setting of Latin learning in the post Roman world and will also introduce students to the physical form in which historical and literary evidence survives and the material and institutional settings which ensure its preservation.
Weekly seminars will focus on key primary texts and classic approaches to the problems raised by the texts. Topics covered may range from the roman postal system to runes and ogam, from land charters to medieval textbooks.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Spring Term 2021-22 |
The module aims to:
Develop skills of source analysis and interpretation;
Assess a range of source material and relevant secondary works; and
Develop students’ powers of evidence-based historical argument, both orally and in writing.
After successfully completing this course students should:
Teaching Programme:
Students will attend eight weekly two-hour seminars in weeks 2-9.
Probable seminars may include:
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework Essay |
N/A | 100 |
None
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework Essay |
N/A | 100 |
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
Bowman, A. and Woolf, g. eds. Literacy and Power in the Ancient World. Cambridge: 1989.
Brown, M. Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age. London: 2007
McKitterick, R. ed. The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe. Cambridge: 1990.
Dronke, P. Women Writers of the Middle Ages. Cambridge: 1984.