Learning outcomes

Aims:
The course aims to provide the methodological and cultural foundations for a study of the history of Christianity within the wider context of the history of the Western world. It sets out to develop the skills needed to:
- read and interpret sources and use the tools of historical-religious scholarship;
- critique sources in relation to the issues faced by historical-religious scholarship;
- navigate specialised bibliography, in addition to the manual;
- the ability to prepare a paper/presentation on a chosen topic (working on a specialised bibliography or on documents).
Prerequisites are at least a basic grasp of Latin and a general familiarity with the history of Antiquity, late Antiquity and the Middle Ages from the I to the XV centuries.

Program

Outline: the course will look at how the officium of the bishop evolved from Antiquity to the late Middle Ages with particular focus on several personalities who were most representative of the medieval episcopate and on some bishops of Verona (Zeno, Raterio, Bonincontro, Tebaldo, Ermolao Barbaro).

Required reading for students attending the course:
a) Texts and reference sources on the medieval episcopate:
-M. Pellegrini, Vescovo e città. Una relazione nel Medioevo italiano (secoli II-XIV), Milano 2009.
-Il difficile mestiere di vescovo, Verona 2000 («Quaderni di storia religiosa», VII, in particolare i saggi di Elisa Anti, Giuseppe Gardoni, Nicolangelo d’Acunto, Maria Clara Rossi).

b) For the episcopate of Verona one text chosen from the following:
-G.M. Varanini, La Chiesa veronese nella prima età scaligera. Bonincontro arciprete del capitolo (1273-1295) e vescovo (1296-1298), Padova 1988.
-M.C. Rossi, Governare una Chiesa. Vescovi e clero a Verona nella prima metà del Trecento, Verona 2003.
M. Cipriani, La visita del vescovo Ermolao Barbaro (1455-1456) ad alcuni monasteri femminili veronesi, in «Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia», 59 (2005), pp. 475-495.
-D. Cervato, Nasum sempre tenet in libris. Biografia di Raterio di Verona e di Liegi (887-974), Verona 2011.
- M.C. Rossi, Raterio vescovo: biografie, documentazione e suggestioni per una ricerca, in La più antica veduta di Verona. L’iconografia rateriana. L’archetipo e l’immagine tramandata. Atti del seminario di studi (6 maggio 2011, Museo di Castelvecchio), a cura di A. Arzone, E. Napione, Caselle di Sommacampagna (Vr) 2012, pp. 47-58.

Required reading for students not attending the course:
In addition to the recommended reading for attending students there is the following contribution:
-M. Ronzani, Un aspetto della circolazione degli ecclesiastici: i trasferimenti dei vescovi (Italia comunale, secoli XIII-XIV), in Circolazione di uomini e scambi culturali tra città (secoli XII-XIV), Roma 2013, pp. 221-241.

Teaching methods
For students attending the course the main teaching methods will be the traditional lecture, interspersed with seminar type discussions where students will have an opportunity to raise particular questions and issues. In the advanced course there will also be a mid-course evaluation consisting of a paper/presentation to be given by the student on the topics developed in the lectures. During the lectures a collection of sources will be distributed and examined which will constitute part of the programme. Other bibliographic references useful for an exploration of the topic will be provided over the course of the lectures.
Activities supporting the teaching: seminars, meetings and conferences on the topics of Christianity recommended or organized by the teacher.

Examination Methods

Examination methods: oral interviews
The oral exam will be an interview covering the topics that were dealt with during the lectures and expanded on in the study manuals. The interview will aim to determine:
-the students’ knowledge of the topic,
-their ability to use a specialised language,
-their ability to make connections between various arguments and to argue points in an appropriate manner
-their ability to read, contextualize and interpret a source