HISTORY 280/ART 280/RELIGIOUS STUDIES 280/ HUMANITIES 280:  CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL BURGUNDY

June 4-20, 2006

Dr. George Dameron (Professor of History)/x2318; 802-324-5841 (cell)

Dr. Terryl Kinder (Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts and member of the Faculty of Formation, Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, USA)/x2683

Pontigny (Photo George Dameron) Copyright 2006

Course Description and Goals

This 200-level three-credit course will offer students an intensive and interdisciplinary exposure to the culture, and society of one of the most important and influential regions of medieval Europe, Burgundy.  The course will offer a topical approach to the study of the history, the religion, the architecture, and the art of medieval Burgundy, with an emphasis on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 

Students will be based at Pontigny, the site of the largest and most important Cistercian abbey in the region and the place where the Society of Saint Edmund was founded in 1843.  Also the burial site of Saint Edmund of Abingdon, Pontigny has deep and lasting connections to Saint Michael’s College.  The course will combine assigned readings, written assignments, tours to specific medieval sites, lectures by Drs. Dameron and Kinder, and presentations by local scholars and guides arranged by Dr. Kinder.  Students will have the option of adding a one-credit Applied Language Component to the normal three credits offered by course.

The goals of the course are the following:  1) to offer the student an in-depth and on-site exposure to the historical, architectural, artistic, and religious development of a specific region of medieval twelfth and thirteenth century Europe (Burgundy); 2) to help student understand the complex interactions between society and culture (in particular, the interplay between religious ideas and the arts and architecture), 3) to expose the student to the deep institutional and cultural ties between the abbey of Pontigny and the mission and foundation of Saint Michael’s College, 4) to offer a rich study abroad experience to students who are hesitant about studying in a non-English speaking environment, 5) to afford the student the opportunity of producing a substantial paper based on research conducted in Europe, 6) to allow the student to fulfill a Liberal Studies Requirement (Religious Studies, Culture and Civilization), a 200-level History course, and a requirement for the Medieval Studies Minor, and 7) to enhance and deepen the ability of the student to think and write critically and analytically in the are of the humanities.

Course Requirements

The requirements for this 3-credit course are the following:

• Three pre-departure meetings (February 28, March 21, April 4):  selected readings, class participation, completion of one 2-3 page response paper on assigned readings due April 4 at third pre-departure meeting (students will respond to a question distributed at second pre-departure meeting); 10% of final grade;
• A daily journal (minimum of ten entries, two typed pages apiece).  First journal entry will include two-page essay on assigned readings listed below that responds to a question distributed at second pre-departure meeting (due at the third departure meeting, April 4). 40% of final grade.
• Class participation during the estimated 43 hours of instruction (attendance of lectures and involvement in discussions and excursions).  10%.
• Research paper, 8-10 pages, to be completed when students return to the United States, due August 28, 2006.  Papers will focus on a topic associated with the culture and society of medieval Burgundy.  Possible topics will be distributed to the student upon arrival in France.  Students are expected to identify their topics and begin conducting their research during the study tour.  40%.

Reading List

Students are required to read selections from two books before departure.  The first two are paperbacks.  Students will bring Bull and The Rule of Saint Benedict with them to Pontigny:

• Marcus Bull, editor.  France in the Central Middle Ages 900-1200 (The Short Oxford History of France).  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2002.

• The Rule of Saint Benedict (Vintage Spiritual Classics) (New York:  Random House, 1998).

Other readings that will be placed on reserve or available in the reference section of the library may include the following:

• Judith Bennett and C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe:  A Short History, tenth edition (Boston:  McGraw Hill, 2006).

• Terryl Kinder, Cistercian Europe (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Wm. Eerdmanns, 2002).

• Medieval France:  An Encyclopedia (edited by Grover Zinn and William Kibler) (New York:  Garland, 1995).

KEY DATES (PRE-DEPARTURE MEETINGS AND DEADLINES)

Tuesdays:  February 28, March  21, April 4, 2006

6pm-6:50pm/JEM 378

February 28 (Tuesday):  Course Logistics and Introduction to Medieval France (Politics, Economy, Society, Culture:  Focus on Religion, Castles, Daily Life)

Reading Assignment:

·        Medieval France:  An Encyclopedia (on library reserve):  “Castles,” “Capetian Dynasty,” “Church”

·        Judith Bennett and C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe:  A Short History (on reserve):  pp. 277-286

March 15:  Saint Michael’s College Non-program Study Abroad Application Due

March 21 (Tuesday):  Course Logistics (continued, including assistance filling out forms) and Introduction to Medieval Burgundy (Politics, Economy, Society, Culture:  Religion, Castles, Daily Life)

Reading Assignment: 

• France in the Central Middle Ages, chapters 1 (“Constructing a Medieval Nation”) and 3 (“Rural Economy and Society”)
• Medieval France:  An Encyclopedia:  “Burgundy”, “Auxerre,” “Dijon,” “Bernard of Clairvaux,” “Flavigny,” and “Tonnerre”

Distribution of question for 2-3 page focus paper (due third pre-departure meeting)

April 4 (Tuesday):  Course Logistics (continued) and Introduction to Medieval Pontigny

(Politics, Economy, Society, Culture:  Religion, Castles, Daily Life)

Reading Assignment:

• France in the Central Middle Ages, chapter 5 (“The Church”)
• Medieval France:  An Encyclopedia:  “Divine Office,” “Monasticism”
• Kinder, Cistercian Europe (on reserve), chapters 1-3 (peruse and skim)
• Kinder, “Pontigny,” Dictionary of Art (edited by Jane Turner), in reference section of library, vol. 25, p. 219.
• Rule of Saint Benedict (peruse for basic understanding)
• Writing assignment: 2-3 page (typed) focus paper on an assigned question associated with readings (distributed at second pre-departure meeting)

April 21 (Friday):  Final Payment ($1800.00) for course due:  Professor Dameron, Library 306, x2318

June 4:  Departure

Reading Assignment (please read by day of departure):

• Rule of Saint Benedict
• Bring with you the following:
  1. The two assigned books
  2. A notebook for note-taking in class and during excursions
  3. A notebook for journal entries
  4. Your passport (make sure it has not expired)

A Tentative Itinerary (subject to change; final itinerary will be distributed to students upon arrival at Pontigny)

June 4-20, 2006

Day 1              Departure from Burlington to Paris (June 4, 2006):

                        Air France 0337 Boston-Paris           5:30 pm departure/6:15 am arrival

                        **meet 1:30 pm at meeting point, Logan Airport**

Part 1:  In Portigny

Day 2              Arrival in Pontigny by mini-bus

Day 3              Pontigny

Day 4              Auxerre

Day 5              Pontigny

Day 6              Noyers, Flavigny, Fontenay (Montbard)

Day 7              Druyes-les-Belles-Fontaines, Guedelon

Day 8              Pontigny

Day 9              Vézelay, Bazoches, Quarré-les-Tombes, La Pierre-qui-Vire

Day 10            Pontigny

Day 11            Beaune, Tournus, Cluny, Citeaux

Day 12            Pontigny

Day 13            Dijon

Day 14            Dijon

Day 15            Departure from Paris (June 20, 2006)

                        Air France 0332         Paris-Boston                          

                        Departure 1:15 pm/Arrival 3:00 pm

A Comprehensive List of Sites that May Be Visited:

Asquins (hamlet below Vézelay, where St Bernard preached the Second Crusade)

Auxerre (city: w/cathedral & bishop’s palace; parish churches; municipal library

             w/medieval manuscripts; medieval houses

Avallon (city on a hill; parish church of St-Lazare famous for its sculpture; city gates)

Bazoches (13^th c. château, remodeled by Vauban; parish church; other regional châteaux)

Beaune (city: late medieval hospice; church of Notre-Dame w/Mary Tapestries)

Chablis (free town; vineyards; parish churches)

Cluny (largest Benedictine abbey in Christendom; now mostly destroyed)

Dijon (city: capital of medieval Burgundy)

Druyes-les-Belles-Fontaines (12^th c. château)

Flavigny (high town; abbeys; Carolingian crypt; magnificent late medieval carved

            choir stalls in parish church; town with Chocolat was filmed)

Fontenay Abbey

Guedelon (château being built using medieval methods & tools)

La Pierre-qui-Vire  (modern Benedictine Abbey)

Noyers-sur-Serein (walled town)

Pontigny Abbey

Quarré-les-Tombes (medieval parish church, collection of Merovingian sarcophagi)

St-Amand-en-Puisaye (fortified tower, recently excavated)

Tonnerre  (city: Fosse Dionne = prehistoric well; medieval hospital; abbey; churches)

Vézelay (Benedictine abbey & town on a hill)