I’m all done grading the final exams, and your grades are all posted on the dropbox.
Thanks to all of you for a fantastic quarter! I had a great time teaching this class, largely thanks to your interest and enthusiasm. I was particularly impressed with our last class: you have grappled with some really major issues this quarter, in addition to learning about the Middle Ages, and I was totally blown away by what a sophisticated discussion we had last Friday.
I will send out an email when the wiki moves to a new URL, which will happen some time before the end of the summer.
Best wishes to all of you as you continue your studies and move on to bigger and better things. If there is ever anything I can do to help you, don’t hesitate to contact me.
I’m grading your final exams. As I grade them, I’m posting your grade for the exam and for the entire course on the dropbox.
Document A was the earlier document, written around 1300. Document B was written around 1400. (If you just got a horrible sinking feeling in your stomach from hearing that you got the documents in the wrong order, don’t worry - if your essay provides convincing evidence that B was the earlier document, you’ll still get a good grade.)
Document B was a letter written from employees of the Datini merchant company to the company’s owner, Francesco di Marco Datini. Merchants wrote literally tens of thousands of letters in the course of their business, and Datini kept copies of the letters he sent and all the letters he received. These letters are a really fascinating window into every aspect of Datini’s life. If you’re interested in some light reading about Italian merchants, see Iris Origo, The Merchant of Prato (first published in 1957, but reprinted many times after that). This is basically a biography of Datini, based on his letters, but includes all sorts of information about the daily lives of Italian merchants. It’s geared toward a general audience, and it’s a delightful read.
I’m all done grading the term papers, and your grades are all posted on the dropbox. See you Tuesday!
Since this is the first time I have ever used a wiki as a part of a course, I would like to know what you thought of the experience. I have created a survey to get your thoughts about how the wiki worked. You will need to log on with your NetID to access the survey, but I will not be able to see who submitted what response, so your submissions will be anonymous. I really appreciate your feedback!
Take the wiki survey.
If you want to look at your own contributions to the wiki, to make sure that you have fulfilled the requirements, there are a few different ways you can do it. The easiest way is to log in to the wiki, and in the top right corner of the page in tiny text you will see a list of links. One of these links is “my contributions.” If you click on that, it will give you a list of everything you have done on the wiki.
We are going to spend our last two classes reviewing. On Wednesday, we will have a review day much like we did at the end of each chapter of the book, except that we will be reviewing the entire quarter. We will also do course evaluations on Wednesday. On Friday, we will try to draw together some of the major themes of the class and make sense of them.
On Monday, June 2, we get an exciting treat. Class will meet in Special Collections in the library, where we will get to take a close look at medieval manuscripts and early printed books. This is a really exciting opportunity to see medieval artifacts first hand.
How to get there: Go to the north lobby of the Allen Library [the one with the crows hanging above your head]. Take the elevator in that lobby to the basement. As you get of the elevator, turn to your right and walk a short way to the hallway going off to the right. Part way down this hallway is the classroom door, the first door on your right. It is labelled “Special Collections Classroom.” It should be open at the time the class is expected. No food and drink in the room. Just to the right of the door as you enter the room, there are two closets. Those attending are asked to leave coats, purses, bags, packs, etc. in those closets. If you plan to take notes, please use pencil.
What to expect: When you first come in, please walk past all the lovely manuscripts and take a seat. Sandra Kroupa, the Special Collections librarian, will give us some guidelines for how to handle the manuscripts. Once she has talked to us, you will get about a half hour to wander around and look at the manuscripts and books. At 3:00, I will ask you to take your seats again so we can discuss what you’ve seen. I’m hoping that won’t take very long, and you will have some more time to wander among the books. The classroom is reserved for us until 5:00, so feel free to stay late.
I’ve been busy reading rough drafts today, and I have noticed a few common errors in the rough drafts. My guess is these are common errors in everyone’s papers, so I’ll point them out here for the benefit of all.
- Put the footnote number after the punctuation. The number goes after the period, comma, quotation marks, or whatever punctuation you happen to be using at the moment. This is correct.1 This is not2.
- Don’t quote from secondary sources unless there is something really special about the way the source is phrased. In English classes, it is considered a good thing to quote from secondary sources. In historical writing, it isn’t. Quoting from primary sources is really good, but in historical writing, there is rarely anything to be gained from quoting from a secondary source, unless the way it is written is particularly important.
- Avoid using the word “interesting.” This is a really tricky one that plagues even professional historians. We often start sentences with “It is interesting that…” Well, yes, hopefully your whole paper is interesting. Hopefully you have a reason other than just interest for making a point. You can often just take out “It is interesting” and just state the thing that is interesting. You might want to say, “It is significant that…” and then go on to explain why it is significant, and why it pertains to your argument.
- Finally, and probably most importantly, be sure that your paper answers the assigned question. Make sure that by the end of the paper, it is really obvious to your reader that understanding the context in which the source was made changes our understanding of the object, and/or what this object tells us about the Middle Ages. A lot of the drafts I have read imply answers to these questions, but don’t explicitly state them. This is one of the big criteria I will be looking for when I grade your papers, so make sure you answer the question!
I have made a slight change to how I will grade the wiki. As you know, your participation on the wiki is 10% of your grade for the class. You get a total of 10 points for wiki participation: 4 points of that are for the class as a whole’s successful completion of the myth of the week every week; the remaining 6 points are based on your personal participation. I have made one small change: if you do not post at all, you get a 0, and none of the 4 points for the class’s completion of the myth of the week.
I have put some of my own feedback on the wiki - several of the myths on the “Resolved Myths” page still need some fine-tuning. So if you haven’t posted to the wiki yet, and are looking for some more ways to participate, you can take a look at those.
I said in class that Muslims could not enslave other Muslims. Upon further research, I see that if a slave converted to Islam after being enslaved, they would not automatically be set free, but would remain a slave. However, in general, Islamic law recommends freeing slaves, and even considers it a means of atoning for sins. For more information, see: Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
A lot of people used the first person in their midterm essay. I didn’t take off points for this, but I will on the term paper. In general, it is best to avoid using the first person (”I”) in academic writing. I’m sure that in your reading, you will run across scholars who do use “I” in their academic writing, but this is one of those rules that you need to learn how to obey before you can learn how to break it.
The main reason to avoid “I” in academic writing is that you usually undermine your own argument when you use it. If you start a sentence with “I think…” or “It seems to me…”, you are implying that whatever you are discussing is your own opinion, or that your reader just has to take your word for it. Usually, if you take out the “I think…”, your argument will become much more forceful and believable. In academic writing, you are generally trying to prove a point, and your arguments should always be based on evidence, not on your own opinion.
Here are some examples drawn from some of the midterm essays of sentences in which people used “I,” rewritten to show how much more convincing an argument is when you don’t use the first person. (If I used a sentence from your paper, don’t feel like I’m picking on you - I hadn’t told you to avoid using “I,” so you didn’t do anything wrong on the midterm.)
- With “I”: “When I examined each piece thoroughly in addition to having learned about the plague I came to the conclusion that document two, A History of the Ayyubids and Mamluks, by Ahmad Ibn ‘Alī al-Maqrīzī, is a more reliable piece of writing about the social and economic effects of the plague.”
Without “I”: “A thorough examination of the two documents, comparing them to what current scholars know about the fourteenth century, shows that document two, A History of the Ayyubids and Mamluks, by Ahmad Ibn ‘Alī al-Maqrīzī, is a more reliable piece of writing about the social and economic effects of the plague.” Or, even better: “Document two, A History of the Ayyubids and Mamluks, by Ahmad Ibn ‘Alī al-Maqrīzī, is a more reliable piece of writing about the social and economic effects of the plague.”
- With “I”: “Document one, the introduction to The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, doesn’t seem to be a reliable source. The first thing that I noticed was that there were no dates used in the text. This made me question whether or not this author was using actual evidence.”
Without “I”: “Document one, the introduction to The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, is not a reliable source. No dates are used in the text, which raises doubts about whether this author was using actual evidence.”
- With “I”: “In terms of the economic realities, I favor al-Marqizi’s description of the lack of labor to tend farmlands, the shortage of tax collections, and the rising costs of goods and services.”
Without “I”: “In terms of the economic realities, the evidence favors al-Marqizi’s description of the lack of labor to tend farmlands, the shortage of tax collections, and the rising costs of goods and services.”
I have finished grading your annotated bibliographies, and posted my comments on the dropbox. If you want to talk to me about your topic or your paper, I have office hours next week on Monday from 4-5, Wednesday 4-5, and Friday 1-2.
Our map of Europe in 1400 had a big area labelled “Dominion of the White Sheep,” which naturally around curiosity. Apparently, the White Sheep were a conferation of Turkish tribes (not to be confused with the Black Sheep Turks!). They are more commonly known by their Turkish name, Ak Koyunlu. They ruled an independent state (with changing boundaries) from 1378-1508, and for a while even controlled parts of Iraq and Iran. For more information, see C.E. Bosworth and R. Bulliet, The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
I’ve finished grading the midterms. All in all, I’m really happy with your work! Your grade should be posted on the dropbox.
I’m in the midst of grading midterm essays, and I’ve noticed that a lot of you found al-Maqrīzī to be the more reliable source. In many ways, he is, and in general, you have argued well for his reliability. However, a lot of you say that the reason al-Maqrīzī is more reliable is that he uses numbers. Several have said, “al-Maqrīzī uses dates, and Boccaccio doesn’t, therefore al-Maqrīzī is more reliable.” Even more have said, “al-Maqrīzī uses statistics and figures, so he must be more accurate.”
I find it interesting how much value our society places on numbers… We see dates, statistics, and figures, and automatically assume that indicates the presences of research and accuracy. I don’t mean this as a criticism of students who found al-Maqrīzī more accurate, or even of students who argued that his numbers imply he is more accurate. It’s more of an observation on modern society - we are enchanted by the exact sciences, and even in the humanities we are comforted by the presence of numbers, and assume that numbers must be the result of calculations, and must be correct. To us, “1,000″ is always more accurate than “many,” even if the number 1,000 is totally made up. Historians of the Middle Ages have often been fooled by medieval authors’ use of numbers: medieval authors tended to like symbolic numbers, or to use exaggerated numbers. Of course, medieval writers use numbers because they know that having exact numbers will give them credibility. For that matter, modern writers do the same thing.
But do numbers always make a text more accurate? Just some food for thought….
Due to a variety of circumstances, I am going to have to cancel Late Medieval
Europe on Friday, May 9.
The reading that was assigned for Friday will now be due on Monday. Your
term paper bibliographies are still due on Monday, but if you are having trouble
finding a term paper topic and need to talk to me, I am willing to offer
extensions. If you are not going to turn in your bibliography on Monday, you
must email me no later than Friday afternoon to tell me so: otherwise, I will
expect to see your bibliography on Monday.
Enjoy a long weekend, and don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions!
A new exhibit opened at the Getty Museum today called “Imagining Christ.” Obviously I don’t expect anyone to go down to Los Angeles to see the exhibit, but they have a few of the items from the exhibit online, and it’s directly related to our discussion of Christ’s humanity in class on Monday. According to the Getty’s website, “This exhibition features images of Christ in illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The images show the multiple ways in which Christ was understood: as the son of God and as God, as human and divine, as the sacrifice made for mankind, and as the divine judge who would save or condemn humanity at the end of time.” The website for the exhibit has manuscript images and further information about how Christ was imagined in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Yesterday some questions came up about widows and inheritance. As I said in class, widowhood was often the most independent and wealthy time of a woman’s life. Here is some more reading on the topic:
- Cavallo, Sandra and Lyndan Warner, eds. Widowhood in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Singapore: Longman, 1999.
- Hanawalt, Barbara. “The Widow’s Mite: Recovery of Dower in Medieval London.” In Upon My Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature and History of Medieval Europe, edited by Louise Mirrer, 21-45. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991. Hanawalt discusses widows’ inheritance rights, and the legal battles they endured to get their inheritance. The article is available on eres.
- Howell, Martha. “The Social Logic of the Marital Household in Cities of the Late Medieval Low Countries.” In The Household in Late Medieval Cities, Italy and Northwestern Europe Compared, edited by M. Carlier and T. Soen, 185-202. Leuven: Garant, 2000. Howell argues that inheritance practices shifted from a household model to a patrilineal model in order to keep family property more intact. In other words, women were less likely to inherit. The article is available on eres.
- Kowaleski, Maryanne and Judith Bennett. “Crafts, Gilds, and Women in the Middle Ages.” In Sisters and Workers in the Middle Ages, edited by Judith Bennett, et al., 11-25. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. A good overview of women’s role in medieval guilds. Available on eres.
Benedict XIII (his name before he was pope was Pedro de Luna; he was born in 1328 and lived until 1423) was the second Avignon pope during the Great Schism. He was elected pope in 1394, even though he was only a deacon and had to be ordained a priest before he could be consecrated as pope. One of the major reasons he was chosen was that he agreed that he would resign his position if that would end the Schism, but once in power, he refused, over and over again, to resign. Finally, he was deposed at the Council of Constance, but he still refused to step down, despite the fact that he was nearly 90 years old. He retired to his family castle at Peñiscola (near Valencia, in Spain [parts of the 1960 film, El Cid, starring Charleton Heston, were filmed in this castle]), and continued to consider himself the only pope. Alfonso V, the king of Aragon, remained faithful to Benedict XIII, and gave him protection.
For more information, see the Catholic Encyclopedia.