ATS2957 Medieval Italy: Sites of encounter

This unit explores medieval Italy from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries as a site of encounter between a range of religious and cultural traditions: Islam, Judaism and both Latin and Greek Christianity, all sharing a common debt to classical antiquity. Taught in Prato, but involving travel to various locations in Italy. The unit provides an opportunity to understand the complex web of cultural interactions between Islam and Christianity in Sicily and southern Italy, as well as between Christians and Jews in Tuscany and other parts of northern Italy. It thus provides a wider context to understand medieval Italy and the writings of Dante in particular. The unit will involve close analysis of the built environments of medieval Italy and of the cultural artefacts surviving from the period to examine how both religious segregation and interaction shaped its culture.