This course examines a dynamic period in European history, The twelfth century was crucial for the formation of many institutions and attitudes regarded as fundamental to the `modern' world. These include a coinage-based profit economy, literate modes of thought, universities, city life, the persecution of religious dissidents, and systems of formal, written, law. Yet this was also a profoundly different world from our own, whose material and conceptual conditions we will seek to appreciate on their own terms. We will explore this era through some of the most vivid and fascinating sources produced in the Middle Ages, including letters, autobiographies, travel narratives, and histories.

This module introduces students to the study of twelfth-century western Europe. This field has long been the subject of considerable interest to historians. The purpose of the module is to engage students both with the modern historiography, and with many of the primary texts (in translation) on which this is based. It will allow students to deal with questions of religious and intellectual history, and to integrate these with consideration of changing social and economic conditions. The course will draw on a variety of medieval and modern genres, and also archaeological and art historical evidence.